Ladies & Gentlemen! In the Center Ring...

Welcome to my life, as I like to refer to it, Cirque de Delicia!

I am moving to the U.S. from Toronto in exactly 5 days. Because Phoenix is not known for their public transportation system, I am forced to drive since no buses or trains go anywhere near my new office. I am giving myself 3 days to make the trip, and I will go solo so staying awake on the passes through places like Oklahoma may be my biggest concern. Our original plan was for me to fly there and then purchase a low-rent car, one good enough to keep running for about 6-9 months, then fly back to Toronto and pick up The Kid either after the end of his first semester this year or at the end of the school year, but me having a car in Phoenix seems like a bigger priority than we originally calculated.


So, the real circus started yesterday. We were in flux about if the husband and The Kid and the two dogs, would stay living in our rental town home or move to someplace smaller or any other viable alternative. Yesterday, it was planned that the husband, The Kid, and the 2 dogs will move in with the in-laws. The Kid will come to live with me either at the end of the semester or the end of the school year, whichever he chooses at a later date and the husband will come as soon as USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service) will allow. We are planning on about 1 year for that process, but as CIC has shown us, anything can happen and we have to stay prepared for that.

With my remaining 5 days here in Canada, I not only have to pack myself up and get my ducks in order, I have to move an entire house, much of which has to go into a rented storage facility for the time being. By the time my husband gets to Phoenix, I will pretty much have a furnished place, so not much of that 'stuff' will have to make the trip to the U.S. but we don't have time to sort it all out now. We save that joy for another day.

I will be making another solo drive back to Toronto for Christmas (employer vacation approval permitting) and picking up dog #1 for transport back to the U.S. The return trip, at least my husband will accompany me and keep me company and help with the driving and then he can visit in Phoenix for a bit before returning back to his dreary life in Toronto. Dog #2 will have to wait and move with husband, simply because most apartments in the U.S. allow 1 dog, which leaves me with having to purchase a house the day after my husband gets the nod from USCIS. yeah. right.

I feel like I just did this big relocation to another country... oh wait... I did!

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again

I accepted a position in the U.S. and I am ecstatic. I am also frantically trying to find a way to get there prior to my start date and have those other little luxuries lined up, such as a place to live, transportation to and from work, school for The Kid, and all those other fun things. I restarted my life completely over 2 years ago. I gained absolutely no ground in those 2 years, in fact, I think I went backwards. Now, I get to do it again.

I have a huge list of to-do's to get done over the next week. I have to close bank accounts, get school records, figure out what to pack and what to leave behind, find an apartment in the U.S., finish my background check with the new employer (the final piece, the drug screen, is scheduled for Monday), and the list goes on.

I will not miss Canada nor anyone or anything in it or associated with it. It is my goal in life to avoid purchasing Canadian products or products made by Canadian companies. I will also never return and never drop one of my tourists dimes in this UCSR (Union of Canadian Socialist Republic). This is one time I will burn all my bridges and not only set them alite, but take an axe to them and chop them into tiny little pieces which I will run through a wood chipper, then set alite. No, I am not angry about these last 2 years at all.

Job Search Canadian Style

Knowing that CIC must be nearing the end of their first stage approval process (AIP), at least according to their processing times as posted on their website, I decide now is the time to dip my feet into the job market pool and start shopping around. CIC's process is to first, go through your file, and if everything is satisfactory by their standards, they wave their magic wand and grant AIP, or Approval In Principle. This AIP allows you to get a work permit and a temporary SIN (Social Insurance Number).

I use tools like Monster.com and the local newspaper, which inevitably leads me to recruiters. In the past, my success with finding employment has been split evenly between using recruiters and direct applications to employers, so I decide to stick with proven success, at least in the U.S. Canada proves to work the same and after just two days, I have a three interviews lined up. I am excited about this. Perhaps this will work out anyway.

I attend my interviews and some are just 'HR' interviews. The HR manager decides if you are presentable enough to actually interview with the hiring managers, department heads, etc. Some of the interviews are with the recruiters themselves who decide if you are presentable to their clients. It's all good either way. The interviews keep coming. Some are at first round stage, others I am at my second or third round. I just keep booking interviews and hoping my immigration process keeps up with me. Some employers have gone so far as to verify my education by requesting transcripts from the university itself and get references from previous employers. But, no formal offers are ever made.

I had been honest with the recruiters and prospective employers about my current status in Canada. With the recruiters, I told them upfront that I had not received authorization to work yet, but I expect it any day now. I suppose it is obvious since beyond providing them a resume, they ask that you fill out an employment application and I don't have anything to write in the SIN block. At the end of it all, I got many "Give us a call when you have your work authorization" type responses from both the recruiters and the employers.

I quizzed one of the recruiters about getting a Temporary Work Permit. This involves the employer proving to the paper worshiping Canadian government employees that they have exhausted the Canadian labor pool and can find no one else on the planet, other than me, to fill the position. Once that is done, I would send in a form, with a $150 fee and would be granted a temporary work permit. Once the permit application is processed, the employer can hire me. The recruiter, very eloquently, said, the chances of me getting an employer to sponsor me this way had the odds of slim to none, in their experience.

Not knowing how much longer CIC will take with their processing, I elect to wait it out and I stop pursuing employment until I get that elusive SIN. With my heart a little heavier, I return to taking up space and waiting.