Last Tuesday around 8pm I officially became a permanent resident of Canada. Self proclaimed immigration experts (who don’t work for immigration) told me it would take 6 to 8 months. In the end it took 20 months. Lesson learned: don’t believe experts. Go on the government website, take the processing period according to your case and consider it will be like it, because it will. You are not so special, they won’t go faster just for you.
The bright side : it gave me some time to think about what I wanted to do next. I have several projects (the big one being creating my own company) that were put on hold. It can be frustrating but in the end, I’m glad I was able to think twice (and more) and make the choices that are right. Now everything is ready, there is no barrier. It feels liberating and I’m actually still not really comfortable with this new step. It still feels new and unreal. I’ll get used to it.
Seriously, put yourself in a situation where you can’t build or work on your projects for 20 months and you learn about what is a sacrifice. Sometime I blamed the whole complexity of the process, but the truth is it was my choice to live here. I just had to deal with it. Perhaps the government makes the immigration process long on purpose. Just to be sure people are really serious about staying here. Perhaps it’s all about sacrifices. The more I think about it, the more it feels right, don’t you think?
Anyway, thank you Quebec and Canada. I’m really honored…
