It's official: Canadian Permanent Residents!

Well, our application for our Canadian permanent residency was finally approved (after about 14 months and mountains of paperwork, background checks, FBI fingerprints, histories of everywhere we've lived since the age of 18, full health exams for all of us, including blood work, chest X-rays, etc!)  Once we got all of that approved, we had to make an appointment for all of us to go to "Citizenship & Immigration Canada," to finalize it, show them the paperwork, passports, etc, and then they will mail us our Permanent Residency cards in the mail within a couple of months.  Neil called the local immigration office & they said they would have to put us on a waiting list & call us in about 4-6 weeks just to schedule an appointment to come in & finalize everything.  OR, we could drive to the border & do it the same day (maybe have to wait a while, but get it done right then).  So we decided to do that.  

We took the kids out of school last Friday & made it to the border by about 9:30, and were in & out by 10:45! No lines & fast process. (That's a first) Hooray! Afterwards, we went to Niagara Falls, had some lunch at Outback Steakhouse, and then headed back to try to update our health cards and drivers licenses with our permanent resident status & new address, but we have to wait until after we actually move, so we'll go back for that in a couple of weeks. Getting closer to being all done!  We've been SO busy with getting ready to move, getting the kids paperwork transferred to the new school for next year, switching over utilities, mail, packing, cleaning, and then all the usual yard work, errands, final school projects, final exams, music recitals, etc., etc.  Busy, Busy, Busy... Now we just need to get moved & settled in our new place (again), and then hopefully we can relax a little this summer!  The kids finish the school year on June 27th, then we move on July 5th, then hopefully it will be time to kick back & relax a little!   

So, it's official, we are now Canadian Permanent Residents.  People keep asking us if that means we'll be staying here for a long time now.  Hahahahaha!  What does that even mean?!   Who knows!  :)  But at least now that we have that done, we won't have to keep worrying about renewing a work permit every couple of years (and health cards, etc.).  The requirements are just that you need to live in Canada at least 2 years out of every 5.  No problem.  If, after another 18 months or so, it looks like we will be staying a lot longer, we might consider getting dual citizenship, but we will see...  Some days we really hope we'll be able to move back to the U.S., and be closer to family again.  And then other days, we wonder if we will stay here until we retire.  I guess time will tell.  There are plenty of pros & cons about both countries, so I guess if we get dual citizenship & stay here, then we can benefit from the best of both worlds!  :)