Plan B

So obviously, the waiting is starting to get a little old. I was on move2nz.com the other day, and glancing at people's signatures gave me a rather awful sinking feeling. Many of the people posting about still being in the immigration quagmire had been in it for a year or more! I know for a fact that if this drags on for more then 9 months, I'm going to lose it (both interest, patience and likely my sanity)

So here's the new plan:
We sell the house and the car.
I resign late August.
We go to New Zealand with return tickets and visitors visas.
We look for jobs there, hopefully one of us will land one (it only takes one from what I've read).
Armed with our new found job offer(s), we update our immigration paperwork.
That should be enough to fast track the process, getting us our residency before the job starts
We get established, live happily ever after etc.

And now, because this blog is sorely lacking in photos, a photo from our Honeymoon in New Zealand. I'll start adding random NZ photos to the entries here to lighten up the mood, until we can get over there and take some fresh ones :)

ARGH.

Rereading the London Branch's information on the amount of time we're likely to end up waiting... Some very disconcerting information popped up:

Your Expression of Interest (EOI) will be assessed within three months of being selected from the pool. We will then contact you, either inviting you to apply for residence or requesting further information. [...]

Once the pre-populated application form is returned to the London branch it should be allocated to a visa officer within four months. [...]

After your application has been allocated to an officer they will generally take between one and three months to make a final decision on your application.[...]

If you find yourself in this situation please be patient – we aim to finalise your application within nine months of receiving it.

I'm really hoping we don't fall into those categories...

Letter perfect.

Sometimes you get an email or correspondence from a friend that hits so many nails on the head that there's not much to say. I hope he won't mind, but this email really put things into perspective more then the hours of racking my brain about this move have of late. He moved from Ottawa to Spain on 6 days notice and has been there 4 years. I've anonymized and edited the content slightly, hope he doesn't mind:

[...]The first six months were non-stop party. Now, I'm a bit older and a bit less motivated to chase tail than I was (what with being perpetually engaged) but I don't think the initial period will be any different the next time I (we) move. I would say that for at least half a year, you're not going to need or want your WarHammer figures, your comics or whatever else you do to occupy your time these days. But that's my personal experience and not necessarily going to match yours. [...]

Life now, almost four years later? It's a lot like life. Sometimes I want to strangle these [...] bastards. Then my mom calls me while I'm walking through a city park, taking in the sun in a t-shirt and light pants in the middle of March and she's fallen on the ice [...] and Spain feels pretty good. Or I go have a picnic on the beach, 30 minutes' bike ride from my apartment (which is pretty high up on the mountain now) at the beginning of April. Or I waste an entire afternoon in a cafe in a plaza wearing the biggest, faggiest sunglasses that I own (in fact, I only own one pair) talking to whatever collection of friends also don't feel like doing anything.

My point? I dunno. Places suck and they rule. Try to make them rule more than suck.

Singularly helpful in fact. Thanks dude. There's a reply coming about a few of the other things in the email :)

A question of Perspective.

While waiting for the Immigration to get back to us and working on the house, I've been doing a lot of thinking. The fact is, Canada is a pretty incredible place to live and Ottawa is right at the top of that list in my opinion (I think my personal list goes Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto) so a question that's been bouncing around in my head a lot is: Why?

The fact is, we're giving up a LOT to go to New Zealand. We've gone through pro/cons, looked at all the costs etc. and really it comes down to one simple fact: We aren't going because we're unhappy, because there's facts of Canada we can't live with out. We're going because we want a change and New Zealand seems as good a place as any to make that change.

Sure there's the fact that Carly will likely not have an easy time finding a job here, there's the winters being hard on us, there's an uncertain job situation for me; but really, those are (surprisingly) rather minor things to us right now. We have a great life here, with some good friends, a nice house etc.

What we're jonesing for is the adventure of setting up in a new and foreign land, seeing if we can do it, what it'll be like. Going to explore a new country and in the process fundamentally changing our lifestyle.

Having come to that realization, I now wonder what kind of permanence will come of this... I mean, if all we're looking for is the adventure, what happens when that wears off? When we're left in a country with its own shares of downsides?

It's kinda scary.