Medical requests already!

More news - our medical requests arrived in the post today, talk about quick. At least it gives us more time to prepare our case once they find out our daughter has Asperger's Syndrome. Now the fun begins.....

Status update :-)

Just when the New Year blues and snow had well and truly set in a piece of good news to lift the mood. Today I did the ritualistic daily check of our 'Client Application Status' only to find the following:



We've still got the fingers crossed, ready for the medicals.

An AOR from London

Saturday was one day shy of 6-months since we submitted our initial application; it was also the day that the AOR from London arrived through the letterbox. It's taken about 7-weeks for them to respond but I'm not complaining, at least we've got something now. The letter states that my file's now been transferred from Sydney, NS to London and I've been issued a new File Reference Number to log-in with. Fingers crossed things will progress smoothly and we get the call forward for medicals in the not too distant future.

The application is on its way (part 2)

Just a quick update as I'm snowed under at the moment doing probate stuff etc. Well, it's been a little over 4-months odd since we sent our initial application to NS and today we sent everything off to London for full processing. Fingers crossed I haven't made any mistakes and we get the call forward for medicals within a couple of months. That's when things will get real interesting given Amber's recent diagnosis.

Asperger's Syndrome.........and the hits just keep on coming

I'm beginning to think that I must have tortured cats or something as a child? We're still reeling from the shock of losing Dad when today life dropped another shovelful of excrement from on high. It's fair to say that we all but knew it was coming, however, Amber's diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome today makes the uphill climb through immigration just that little bit steeper and slippery. I don't like wishing my life away but I've just about had a bellyful of this year - roll on 2010 is all I can say.

It's a cruel world at times.......

Isn't it funny how life twists and turns - just when things seem to be going well, the jaws of unpredictability jump up and bite you in the ass. It was 4.15pm on Friday 25th Sep when my Dad lost his short battle against the scourge of modern society - Cancer. The time and date will forever be emblazoned in my mind; all we had was a mere 5 weeks and 2 days after diagnosis, and then he was gone.

It's amazing how times like this focus your mind on the vulnerability of life; one minute you can be here and the next your gone. Life's not been the same since; we all miss him terribly and there seems to be a big hole in our lives which can never be filled.

Rest in peace Dad; you're better out of this cruel world......

Completing the paperwork (part 2)

It’s about time for an update as it’s been a while. To be honest my mind has been elsewhere as my Dad has been diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 63. It’s been a big shock for all of us and has meant things have been up in the air recently.

Anyway, not wanting to pre-empt fate I hadn’t obtained police checks etc prior to hearing back from Sydney, NS. So, to that end, I have been rushing round trying to get things done since receiving my 120-day email.

The UK police checks seem a pretty straightforward process. I work with civil servants so it was no problem getting one of my long standing colleagues to sign off the identity confirmation. I sent them off last week with cheques to the tune of £105 (me, my wife and eldest son); hopefully they will be back next week sometime. The German police checks weren’t quite so straightforward but nonetheless required as we were posted and living in Germany from ’89 to ‘96. First off having to pay the fee in Euro caused minor problems - In the end I went with the BACS bank transfer option, however, the bank stung me with a £9 fee which seemed a bit excessive on a €26 transfer. I also had to get the forms signed off by a solicitor which I got done at the same time as I had all my other documents certified.

Having read the ongoing debate about the need to have everything certified/notarised I was in two minds as to whether to bother or not. In the end the decision was made for me due to the aforementioned German police check requirement. I sent out a generic BCC email to all the local solicitors in my area asking about certifying/notarising approximately 20 - 25 documents. Talk about varying responses; it seems notarising and certifying are two very different beasts – when it comes to notaries I had quotes back which varied from £76 for the first document followed by £35 for each subsequent, however, for basic certification it averaged at £5 for the first document followed by £3 each thereafter. In the end I went to a nice chap called Stephen Gisby & Co in Bristol and he did the lot for £35 all in – the stamp he used had ‘Public Notary’ on it too which was an unexpected bonus.

I thought I would hedge my bets a little for a change so I took another trip to the bank and ordered a Bankers Draft for C$980 to cover the cost of the PR fees. I know it doesn’t need to be sent through yet but I thought I would get it out of the way whilst the money was available. The cheque only took 4-days to arrive in the post which was good; however, the rate has dropped again recently and was a lot worse than when I submitted the initial application a few months ago.

All in all I think everything is pretty much done now; all that’s left is the record of employment which shouldn’t be a problem as I’ve been in the Army since before I was 18. Once that’s sorted it will be a case of waiting for the police checks to come back and then we can fire everything off to London.