"Thank you for your CT scan report, however,............."

"THANK YOU FOR THE CT SCAN REPORT. HOWEVER, REPEAT CXR AND SPUTUM SAMPLES ARE STILL REQUIRED AS PER CANADIAN IMMIGRATION PROTOCOL."

Well there it is in black and white. Having gone through the all the hassle of finding the Consultant who did my follow up scan, and persuading him to send me through a copy, another fabulous letter arrived today from CHC basically saying I'd wasted my time (3-weeks) in providing them with the extra info.

Fortunately, as a contingency plan, I went and did the sputum tests anyway on the 13 April so at least I've avoided another 2-weeks of delay, if nothing else.

I still need to get the follow up x-ray done, but that's a walk in clinic and only takes a couple of days to process and send through to the DMP. The sputum results should be ready to collect around the 8th June and then it will be another week or so before the DMP sends everything off to London.

Fingers crossed by the middle of June we'll be back on track, in the system again, and one step closer to getting that sacred PPR (passport request) letter. Of course, that all depends on what CHC decide about our daughter Amber, for all we know they may not have even started looking at her requirements yet. There could be more letters on the way for all we know; I guess we're a long way from being home and dry yet.