Funny money!

We got our first lot of american and canadian money for christmas - it looks so strange!

Flights are booked

Well, what would my life be without a little bit of drama to keep things lively! 

Went to speak to the boss at work about a suitable "quitting" day.  He was not a happy chappy and insisted I at least work until the end of the roster.  Hmm...dilemma....I'm happy to work until we go, BUT I technically need to quit to get my annual leave paid out, so I can use that money to book the flights.  Payroll were less helpful, saying even if I quit then and there, they couldn't process it all in time anyway, so I would still have to be waiting until the next pay day in January before I get paid.  Bugger!  So decided to set my quit date at the end of the roster (Jan 9th) and manager has agreed to offer me casual shifts from then until we go.

Add to that, when I emailed the manager for the job waiting for me in Truro about a start date, she replied that we'd sort all that out after Christmas when the HR guy was back.  <sigh>  So I can't even pin down a definite start date in Canada either!

After having my own private little hissy fit - why does it all have to be so difficult - I decided to think things through logically.  I KNOW I need to be there before the end of January to get E enrolled in school in time for Semester 2 (stupid rules the high school has that you can only start at the beginning of a semester).  Logic tells me that the new job will want to start me at the earliest - mid January, and the latest, February.  So worse case scenario would mean that I'm not working for a 2 or 3 weeks.

With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and look at booking tickets around mid-January.  I would have liked to gone sooner, but I decided it was just stupid to pay the extra $1000 or so for the flights when the following week it was much cheaper.

Thanks for a VERY understanding mother who kindly offered to lend me the money for the tickets (or was it a gift??  you know, being christmas and all??  i'm sure she doesn't really expect me to pay it back does she????  LOL  Just kidding mother!!!)  Anyway, thanks to my lovely mother, I have now booked the flights from Brisbane to LA!  WOOHOOO!!!!!!!

Gosh - its official!  We're really going!!!!!!  I have found some really good prices on flights from LA to Las Vegas, and from Vegas to Halifax, so will go ahead and book them on payday.  Then its just the matter of sorting out accommodation, and we're done!

Now all thats left to do is sort out the house.  So many things to sell, so little time to do it in.  Am still tossing up between doing a garage sale, or seeing if a second hand store will come in and make an offer on the lot.  Or just give it all to charity and be done with it.  It's not like its actually worth much....  hahahaha

So thats the latest update.  It's all starting to come together nicely  :)  It's going to be a *great* Christmas and an even more fantastic New Year!

It's APPROVED!!!!

I figured that EIGHT WEEKS is plenty long enough to be patient.  So I sent an email to the immigration office asking what was happening with my application.  Funnily enough - I got an auto email reply saying my request had been forwarded to the appropriate department, and someone will be in touch within the next 28 days!  HAHAHAHAHAHA  Yeah, that would certainly be my luck!

Thankfully, it was only 2 days!  I got an email this afternoon saying the work permit had been approved, plus the two student visas, and the paperwork should arrive in the letterbox in the next day or two!  YES!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure we all looked a bit strange doing our happy dance in the middle of the mall!  But hey - who cares!  WE'RE OFF TO CANADA!!!!  AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!

So now I'm back in that lovely position of having too much to do and not knowing where to start, or what to do first!
I guess emailing my new employer would be a good start - it might be prudent to let them know the work permit is approved and we're set to come.  I'm not sure it would be a good first impression to just show up! So first step is to arrange a start date I guess, and then we can sort out flights and details from there.

Oh my gosh - its just so exciting!  This is the BEST Christmas present I could have hoped for!

Will the waiting ever end?

Nothing much to report - we're still waiting, waiting, waiting.  I don't think we've checked the letterbox so much as what we're doing now!

On a positive note, everything else is coming together nicely.  I *finally* received my police check from New Zealand - all clear!  Phew!  Was getting worried why it was taking so long to get it. Started having visions of their printer burning out with the screeds of pages it was having to print of my criminal record, or that I would have someone show up at the door with a warrant for my arrest!  I know, I know - I have no idea where there stupid fears come from. Geez, I'm so goodie goodie its sickening!  I KNEW my police checks would be fine....but still.....   Thankfully its all good, so I'm clear now to get my nursing registration completed.

Oh, and another small miracle.  After a MONTH (I kid you not!) of badgering, E's sperm donor *finally* sent her passport application all signed.  Hopefully the stupid post office accepts a scanned and printed signature/consent, and I can at long last renew her passport!  Will head down tomorrow to get that all sorted, so fingers crossed!

And now that everything else seems to be in order - surely its a good sign that the work permit is soon to follow!  Here's hoping!

The Medical

Ugh - now I know why I hate doctors!  They can be so creepy!!

I got the train into the city - figured it would be much easier than taking the car in.  Thankfully, the doctor's office turned out to be in the same building as the train station, so very easy to find  :)

Now, all the forms I've been sent, the information on the Government website etc, all tells how these medicals are conducted under top notch security - passports, photos on everything etc etc etc.

I go in to register with reception - they tell me I'd need to provide a urine sample (I was expecting that) - hand me a pottle and direct me to the "nearest" toilets, which are in the hotel lobby 3 stories above the surgery! LMAO  So much for 'security' - I could have come back with any randomly obtained urine sample!!  But, alas, I'm a goodie goodie, and gave them my own.

Next, the doctor.  He reminded me of a skinny father christmas - all bushy beard, tiny wire rimmed glasses etc.  Just no pot belly.  So after all of two minutes of small talk, I'm instructed to strip down to bra and knickers and pop up on the table.  Ummm....are you serious??  What, no gown?  Or at least a sheet?  Geez!

So I'm lying there awkwardly - lets test the good old blood pressure first.  Oh GREAT idea - thats sure to be nice and low with me lying here part naked in front of a stranger!  So no surprise there that its just a tad high. Thankfully the rest of the exam went ok - and my blood pressure was "passable" by the end of it!

The best bit of the medical - I measured and whole ONE CENTIMETRE taller!!  WOOHOOO!!!!  I guess I finally had that final growth spurt (albiet a teeny tiny one!)  And I LOVED his scales - apparently I'm now 5kg lighter too!  hahaha

Next was a quick walk a few blocks to the pathology and radiology lab.  A quick blood test, my chest xray, and I was on my way home again!

Now apparently, according to the doctor - all the results get sent off to the head office in Singapore, and they take between 2 - 6 weeks to make a formal report which gets sent to the immigration office in Sydney. And from there, hopefully only another 2 - 4 weeks for them to make their final decision whether to grant me the work permit.  God, this is totally dragging now!  I knew there would be a bit of a delay because of getting the medical, but I thought the delay was getting the actual appointment! (there was a 2 week waiting list) Not in getting the report!! I'm getting too impatient!  I want to go NOW!!!   :)

Yeah yeah, I know - all good things come to those who wait, and all that stuff.....

So, here we are - back to the waiting.....

The endless waiting...

Well I posted most of the documents I've been asked for to support my work permit application today.  Hopefully they'll accept what I have. 

I'm still waiting for a letter from work detailing my employment there.  What a hassle *that* is.  I called HR - they said that Payroll have to do it.  Called Payroll, they told me to email my request to the 'generic' payroll email.  I replied that I needed the letter urgently, and it seems that noone ever gets to the emails using the generic email address (have had problems with that in the past), to which the *helpful* payroll employee replied, yes, they do seem to have a bit of a backlog with the emails.  UGH!! 

Why could they not just either (a) accept my request over the phone, or (b) give me the direct email address for the person who needs to complete my request!  So anyway - have been waiting over a week for that letter now...

On a positive note - I received my criminal record from the Australian Federal Police today.  Thankfully they (the police) agree I'm not a criminal!  <phew>  Now hopefully the New Zealand one isn't too far away so I am all set for my nursing registration!

The medical is less than a week away now - hopefully nervousness is still not a viable medical condition and I should be fine!

Labour Market Opinion report

Ok, so the biggest hurdle with getting the work permit has been gaining approval from the Canadian government 'allowing' the hospital to hire a foreign nurse.  Without this, I'm not eligible to get a work permit.  The hospital has been very slow in getting this report (called an LMO) sorted out.  Personally, if it was up to me - I would have organised the LMO before offering the job!  What's the point in making a job offer if you can't back it up with the appropriate documents??

Anyway, I have been waiting for a while for this report, and it has been one delay after another.  My 'glass half empty' persona keeps popping up her ugly head making me think that maybe the hospital already knows I'm not going to get the LMO and they're just stringing me along because they feel sorry for me.  I know - totally unreasonable and unfounded fear, but hey, I'm just odd like that!

So I get home from work this morning, quickly check my emails before heading off to bed.  Have an email from the HR department informing me that they have received verbal confirmation that the LMO has been approved, just waiting for the actual letter to be sent through!  BRILLIANT NEWS!!!!  And even better - they have given approval for 3 years, rather than the standard 2, so that should mean I'll be given a 3-year work permit.  This is a HUGE relief to know it is all finally falling into place nicely.

So now, its just that little matter of a Medical Clearance, and we should be clear to start our new lives in Canada!

Medical Exam

Just checked the mail - a letter from the Canadian Consulate!!!  WOOHOOO!!!!

Then I checked the medical form - they've stuck E's photo on in place of mine!  Are you kidding me????

Have emailed them for advice - hopefully this won't delay things even further.  Although I'm tempted to make E do the medical for me  :)

Have booked in - 2 week waiting list.  But I was expecting that.  So all booked for Wednesday 17th November.  Which is handy - because that is pay day, and I'll need a nice big pay packet up my sleeve for the $419 bill!!

How did this all start - part 2

So I get home, check my emails, and *finally* there is an email from the nursing manager - I GOT THE JOB!!!! 

Isn't that just the way - Murphy's Law I guess.  Purchase a large priced item and get a job in another country...  <sigh>

Now came the next stage - obtaining the work permit.  If I thought getting the job was hard - I had NO idea what was now ahead of me!

The HR guy recommended that I apply for Permanent Residency (PR). This would give us a bit more security, allow us to stay in the country indefinitely, and offer the perks of being a resident.  However, this would take at the very least, another 6 months for approval before we could even consider hopping on a plane to come over.

Now I know it appears that I'm a tad impatient about all this - but I honestly feel caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  Yes, there are the advantages of having PR, however the cost of applying for PR is huge - around $1000 compared to only $150 for a work permit.  Plus with the PR application I would have the cost of a Medical Clearance for all of us, which would be over $1000 total - there is only ONE doctor in all of Queensland authorised to do the Medicals, so I guess he can charge whatever he likes! 

My other deciding factor was the girls, particularly my eldest. She is due to graduate high school this year, despite being only 16.  She isn't ready to go to Uni yet, and would prefer to re-do her senior year of high school in Canada. However, the powers that be state she can not graduate from high school twice.  So she has a choice.  Graduate here in Australia, and then she can go to high school in Canada as an 'extra' year.  Or leave Australia *now* so she doesn't graduate, and then finish high school in Canada meeting all their requirements for graduation.  She chose the latter option - she wants out now!

So after weighing up all the pros and cons of either option - I decided the work permit was the better option for us.  If we like it in Canada, I can then apply for PR and go from there.

So, after informing the HR guy that I wanted the work permit option, I was then told the hospital needs to obtain a Labour Market Opinion - this is basically the government giving them 'permission' to hire an international nurse because noone local wants the job!  And apparently this takes approx 2 weeks to come back.  Oh, and I need the LMO to apply for the work permit.  More delays!  Also, a work permit can only be authorised for the amount of time in your current passport.  A quick check - bugger.  I only had 6 months left on my passport!  Thats fine - I had the time to wait for the LMO, so was the perfect time to renew my passport.

So I waited, and I waited.....this is nuts.  Why can't anything happen quickly!  I still can't understand why the hospital didn't obtain the LMO *before* offering me the job! I knew the work permit can be approved relatively quickly - some people get it in only 2 weeks.  However I knew mine would be delayed because I would need to get my Medical Clearance first.  This gave me a flashing light bulb moment!

I quickly sent off an email to the immigration department - explained I had the job offer, was waiting for the LMO, however as I would be working in the health industry, I *knew* I would be needing the Medical Clearance - would it be ok to have this completed before putting in the application for the work permit, in an effort to save a little bit of time. 

I got a reply the next day - I could apply for the work permit now, and then forward the LMO on when I received it!  Excellent news - this would save a couple of weeks hopefully.  The only hiccup was I was still waiting for my new passport to arrive!  And I needed it to complete the forms!

My new passport finally arrived, I quickly printed off the completed forms and checked I had all the necessary documents.  I was quickly checking for the third and final time when I noticed I needed passport photos on the application for ALL of us, not just me.  I have no idea how I missed that tiny little detail! So it was a mad dash down to the post office for a quick photo session, paying over my $400 for the work permit and student visas for the girls - popped it all into a registered envelope and placed into the mail box literally 5 minutes before the deadline for next day delivery!

Last week I quickly sent an email to the HR guy, wondering why the LMO was still not through.  Was this bad news?  Should I be worried?  He emailed back saying they had only *just* put the paperwork in!  UGH UGH UGH!  Apparently, he decided to obtain a letter from the nurses union to support the LMO application, so that was the hold up there.  So thank goodness I applied for the work permit already or I would be even further behind schedule!

So where we stand now - back to waiting waiting waiting.......

The time taken so far?

Applied for job - 25 June 2010
Contacted for interview - 5 July 2010
Interview conducted - 18 August 2010
Letter of offer - 4 October 2010
Renewal of my passport - 5 October 2010
My passport arrived - 19 October 2010
Applied for work permit - 20 October 2010
Renewal of C's passport - 27 October 2010

How did this all start?

I never realised how difficult it was to move from one country to another. I guess I've been lucky so far - to move between Australia and New Zealand takes little effort.  You can literallly wake up one morning and think "you know what? I might hop on a plane and go live in Australia!"

So that explains how I ended up living in Australia  :)

However, I am now learning fast that to move anywhere else in the world is a lengthy, well thought out process, mixed with numerous government departments and all their confusing paperwork.

How did this all begin?  Well - as most people know, I originally wanted to go to USA.  I worked hard to get enough experience as a nurse to be able to apply with an agency to move there.  Then life got in the way and that got put on hold for a bit. Then almost 3 years ago I was ready to go ahead again.  I worked hard to get my nursing licence, pass my NCLEX exam - I was all set!  Only to find that something called 'retrogression' was now in my way. I get to live in America was going to take another 9 years!

UGH!

So, after a lot of thought, a lot of discussions, and a very nice recruiting consultant, I began to consider Canada instead. And as they say - I haven't looked back. 

But then the real hard work began.  I had to start all over again with gaining my nursing licence in Canada. Then the loooooong process of getting a job.  What I have found most frustrating is that there are so many steps that need to be taken to get where you're going. But you can only take one step at a time - there is no multi-tasking allowed!

I gained approval to sit the Canadian Registered Nurse Exam in April, 2010.  Woohoo!  I was also entitled to a temporary nursing licence. So now it was time to get my CV out there.  So I applied for several jobs, then several more, then a few dozen more, and a few more after that.  What I had thought would be the easiest part of all this was turning into a nightmare! I found that it wasn't *me* that was the problem, or my nursing abilities, just that noone wanted the hassle of hiring an international nurse!

I finally received an email in July 2010 from a hospital in a smaller town.  They wanted to set up an interview!!  At last!  Due to the 13-hour time difference, and their managers being on summer vacation, the interview was set for mid-August.  More frustration!  We were hoping to be living there by September so the girls could start school at the beginning of their school year!  I was beginning to think it was no longer going to happen....

The interview went well and sounded very promising.  Naive little me honestly expected to wake up the next morning to see the job offer in my inbox.  Thus began many sleepless nights checking my emails obsessively  :)

Finally after 3 weeks, I sent an email to the manager asking how my application was going.  There was a hiccup.  They were *still* waiting for one of my references!  So began a frantic email session trying to chase down my reference and get that all sorted.  Another week passed....

This was nuts - it wasn't meant to be this hard!  So I gave up.  It wasn't meant to be.  Oh well  :(  Instead, we began planning a family vacation on an epic scale - 6 weeks driving around USA. 

The planning for the vacation was going well.  Then one night, we were out shopping. I had been having problems with my cell phone for a while, but had been putting off purchasing a new one on the assumption we would soon be moving to Canada.  But now I was realising it just wasn't going to happen.  So on impulse, I purchased a flash (and not so cheap) new phone.

Then I got home and checked my emails....