Taters to Washington

Ive got a lie-in this morning so its a nice slow start although i guess it will be a late one tonight as i want to push as far west as i can. I phoned Monica my dispatcher yesterday to find out what they had for me and i was told i had a (multiple) load for Moses Lakes and the last skid (pallet) going on to Vancouver.

My first question was pretty intelligent when i asked if i was crossing back into Canada at Surrey for the Vancouver skid. She informed me that it was going to the other Vancouver, the one in Washington which if i remember correctly is still in America, "oh, okay" i replied.

My next question wasnt so clever................

"What are the meat inspection timings for Eastport?" i asked.

"The clue is in the name of the load, potato load?" she replied.

After i unravelled this cryptic answer, i assumed that the potatos werent very meaty so we had a little chuckle at my expense and she told me the city drivers wouldnt have the load available till lunch time which will do for me as we have "Stuff" to do this morning anyway.

Our first port of call this morning is to the RCMP barracks in Raymond to see if we can get fingerprinted there as its a requirement for the immigration then we have to go and see Cathy Thacker at H&R so sort out some more immigration forms and i have to sign another employment contract as my work permit expires in July and H&R like to start getting the ball rolling nice and early so the renewal should be pretty much seamless.

Well thats is on the way to Permanent Residency, for those of you who are unfamliar with the process and what we are doing.........................

We immigrated over here last July and i came over here on a Temporary Work Permit which means i can only work over here for a maximum of 2 years after which we would have to leave the country for 4 months then we could come back for another 2 years.

What's happening now is that H&R Transport are sponsoring us on a Provincial Nominee Programme which is a scheme put in place by the Government of Alberta to get particular trades peole into the province to fill certain labour shortages. Once this has been approved at Provincial level it is passed up to CIC which is the Federal Level and finalised there. At the moment the process is taking between 8 and 12 months, we have just put the paperwork in to VRV so they can put together our application pack, the next process is to get police clearances for both UK and Germany and do our medicals, then its a waiting game.

Once the pack has been checked at Provincial level and we have been placed on the PNP system, which should take 4 to 8 weeks, we are given a status reference number which is also quite important as we are then able to track the progress on the internet and also Jan can then get an open work permit of her own which means she can work.

The idea of Jan working is something we have only discussed breifly as we dont really need the money so its really up to Jan what she does, she as thinking of just doing a bit of part-time just to get out and about, more of an interest than anything else.

So thats where we are at the moment with regards to immigration......................

With regards to buying a house over here, we were out this weekend looking at properties and were pleasantly surprised, it looks like we can easily afford exactly what we want and will be paying less than we planned. An average 4 bedroomed detatched house with large garden is going for between $188,000 and $250,000 which if you convert that to ££££££££ is £90,000 to £125,000. Its obviously more expensive upin Lethbridge but we want to stay out here in Raymond anyway.