A long 14 days...

Flashback to December 20, 2012.  Brandon and I had been married for almost 4 weeks and life was grand as ever.  Just a few more weeks and we'd be off to Brisbane to start our new life.  Our flights were booked for January 7th, but Brandon didn't start school until the 21st, so we had plenty of time to find an apartment and a car, then go on an Australian vacation for some beach time before school was in full swing for another year.  There was just one small thing we were waiting on before this wonderful adventure could start: my visa.

I'll admit, we could have applied earlier than we did, but only by a few days.  Because my visa is connected to Brandon's student visa, we had to wait until we had our marriage certificate to apply.  We were married November 24, so factor in a honeymoon and waiting for the marriage certificate to come and we weren't too far behind.  We made some calls to the Australian High Commission in Ottawa, who informed us that the average wait time was 14 calendar days to have a visa approved.  My application arrived at their office December 21, which gave us 17 calendar days before our scheduled flights.  We wrote a little pity letter and attached it to my application, hoping that it might help in some way to speed up the process.  It was going to be tight, but if worse came to worse, I could delay my flight by a few days and meet up with Brandon in Australia.

Well January 7th rolled around and still no sign of a visa.  The only information I could get was that things were "in processing" and that I had been misinformed - average wait times were 15 business days, not calendar days like I had been previously told.  Subtract the extra 5 business days of vacation time over Christmas (I'm not complaining...I think they deserve Christmas holidays too!) and things were looking like I'd get to Australia just a couple days before Brandon started school.  So much for our little vacation, but at least he'd have someone to take care of him once school had started.  And I figured since Australia Day was only a couple weeks away we could go somewhere for the long weekend.

One thing about the Australian visas: they come electronically.  Once it is approved, you receive an email and the visa is automatically linked to your passport number.  Let me tell you, I have never checked my email so many times a day as I have waiting for this visa.  And on January 17th (business day 15),  I woke up, checked my email only to find an empty inbox, and promptly called the Australian High Commission.  I had noticed they had charged my credit card on December 28th and wondered if things had been a little delayed over Christmas.  Which was the case.  Payment is the first step before anything else happens, and although I had previously been told that it should be 3 weeks from the time my application arrived at their office, I was now told that it would be 3 weeks from when they started looking at the application.  So another week or so...

Then FINALLY on January 21st, I heard from the Ottawa office.  They thanked me for my application, and informed me that because I wanted to work as a nurse in Australia that I had to complete some medical forms...should have known that was coming I guess.  There are 2 doctors in Alberta that can complete the forms - one in Calgary and the other in Edmonton.  Calgary's next appointment was February 20th, and Edmonton's was January 22nd.  So my mom and I hopped in the car and made a day trip to Edmonton.  They figured a week for my bloodwork to come back, and a couple days to mail everything to Ottawa.  I now had the direct phone number for the officer taking care of my file, so I called and explained everything to her and she assured me that as soon as she received my medical papers she would put all of her work into my case until she made a decision.  So that was reassuring. 

Knowing things were going to be a couple weeks made the time pass a little quicker.  I stopped checking my email 100 times a day and picked up a few shifts at the clinic to kill some time.  After a couple weeks, I hadn't heard if my medical papers had been sent off, so I called the doctors office in Edmonton, who informed me that the forms had been delivered in Ottawa on January 29th, almost a week earlier.  So naturally, I called the Ottawa office AGAIN (I'm surprised they haven't started screening my calls...)  It took a few tries calling at different times of the day, but I finally got a hold of the immigration officer.  Initially she was quite short with me, telling me that she hadn't returned my calls because she had nothing to tell me.  But she did agree to look up in the computer what exactly it was that we were waiting on.

Back when I got my physical done, the doctor had asked me if I had ever come in contact with someone with tuberculosis.  Naturally, being a nurse, I had taken care of a patient a couple years back with TB.  I informed the doctor of this, but also assured him that I had used all the proper isolation precautions when taking care of the patient.  So of course, when the immigration officer (who has no medical background) saw this, she had to forward it on to Australia Health to review. (For the record...my chest x-ray was normal, meaning I don't have TB).

And another week.  Or maybe more?

So 14 days has turned into 7 weeks and we're still counting.

I'm not blaming anyone for our circumstances, and I don't write this to complain.  To be honest it's kind of therapeutic.  I'm trying to stay positive.  And it's amazing me what small, simple things seem to help keep me sane.  Yesterday I drove to the border and sang along with Elton John at the top of my lungs (he kills it on the Lion King soundtrack!)  Today my parents and I had a wonderful afternoon cross country skiing.  And thanks to technology I get a Facetime date every night with this guy:



Can't wait until I get a real live one!