To be exact, it’s been 783 days since we filed for my Canadian Permanent Residence and I am happy to announce that it is official done. We have just walked out of the Immigration Centre in Windsor, Ontario, Social Insurance Number in hand.

Two years and two days ago, I started a journey from Santa Monica, California by foot, bus, train, and plane. Many hours later, I reached Detroit and was met by my friend Katni, who drove me through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel where, six months after being kicked out, I re-entered Canada and was reunited with Andrea.

I’ve been following the news regarding Canadian Immigration pretty closely — not surprising considering my immigrant status. Last week this article in the Globe and Mail talks about the percentage of immigrants who settle in Ontario vs. other provinces, which kind of bored me. What was interesting, though, were two issues in the continued fight against immigration fraud. When Andrea and I filled out our application, most of our time was spent collecting evidence to prove our relationship —…

The inches-thick stack of paper greeting us on Tuesday only needed one thing: signatures. With today’s batch of packages to Fedex, my application for immigration to Canada is on its way north, where it will sit in processing for the next nine or ten months. Around April or May next year, I will start frantically refreshing the status page to see if it changes from ‘in process’ to ‘approved’ and we wait for the final paperwork to come in the mail.

The package of mail from the states that I’ve been anxiously waiting for arrived today. I now have the last of the paperwork I need to continue with my permanent residence application, my Square reader, so I can accept credit card payments, and the sealed letter from the Illinois DMV so I can get my Ontario drivers license.