Falke Log Star-Date 0917007

Submitted by Jeff

Here is the first entry of a type of travel log . . . or blog. My family and I are moving to Westbank, British Columbia from Jamestown, New York. We are Americans applying for visas to live and work in Canada. We want to remember our trip in years to come. But we thought it would be great to have you join us in the journey.

Those of you who know us have known of our struggles waiting for Canadian visas. The short version of the story is that they have been delayed many times. It looks like, however, we maybe able to travel to Canada this week under a work permit while we wait for the more permanent resident visas.

Why the delay? We were told that the country as been deluged with requests for visas. The process should only take 6 weeks. It has been 3 months . . . and we are still waiting.

At the moment we are waiting for a phone call from the immigration lawyer to get our paperwork together. The plan is that she will call today or tomorrow. Once our ducks are in a row we will travel up to Buffalo on Wednesday and try and cross the boarder there. We have been told that we have a 80-90% chance of getting approved. Once we get approved we can go at anytime.

The good news is we can go I and can work. It looks like the kids will be able to go to school. We can get settled and start our life there as we wait for the ever illusive visa.

The down side . . . we can't move our stuff until the visas are approved. Amy can't work to help with the income which will be important as we haven't sold our house in Jamestown yet. It will all come together. Patience is the biggest lesson we are learning through all of this. We are where we are suppose to be. Patience comes . . . but it takes a long time. I guess that is why they call it patience.

Well, watch for updates. We are hoping to keep up to date at different hotels and other wifi hotspots along the way.

Thanks for coming with us
Jeff