VanAussie Daily

Highly technical methods of spelling mistake correction

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

I went down to the border on Thursday to check on a couple of things – whether they could reprint my misspelt work permit, and if they couldn’t, whether it’d be okay for reentry into Canada.

Well, I went back to the Point Roberts border crossing as that was where they screwed it up in the first place, and a slightly embarrassed looking border guard (not the same one) took my passport to see if she could do anything.

At one point they had three border guards crowded around the computer, all pointing and gesturing… Back seat WHP correction? Anyhoo, when she came back after about 20 minutes I had my hopes up.

“You fixed it?” I asked.

“Sort of. It’s right in the computer, so we just corrected your permit.”

So apparently it’s all good now for crossing borders n stuff, however when I went into get my new SIN yesterday the dude there couldn’t find my name on the database, and said it probably wasn’t corrected on the computer… Wait, what?

So no new SIN for me, and the saga continues…

(pic manipulated in an app I just downloaded – TiltShiftGen, double manipulation.)

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Posted in Working Holiday Permit (WHP) | No Comments »

Wrong immigration information…

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

I got a call the other day from the lovely folks over at Immigration Canada. Apparently when I was told over the phone that they would send a corrected Working Holiday Permit to me in the mail, they were wrong. I had to then fill out a few forms then go hang out in their Hornby St office for an hour before it took 30 seconds to hand those forms over, plus I had to pay them $30 for the pleasure of fixing their border guards mistake.

Moral of the story? Check your permit to make sure they spell your name right!

Upshot of this is that if you do need to make any changes to your permit, or you lose it, then you follow the procedure. Say you get married in Canada and want to change your name on both the passport and permit, then you can do it using these forms.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/certcopy.asp

Basically you fill in the Verification of Entry form, the Supplementary form, and the Payment form, then get photocopies of your passport picture page, the page that has the stamp and signature from when you entered the country, and a photocopy of the permit itself. For better instructions, follow what the Instruction Guide says

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Posted in Downtown Vancouver, Working Holiday Permit (WHP) | No Comments »

What the?!

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

This morning I was checking what documents I needed in order to get my new SIN at the Service Canada near my work (which is nothing other than the work permit stapled inside my passport) and on a whim I had a look at my actual new work permit.

There, sticking out like dogs danglies, was a spelling mistake. My last name, which usually begins with an M, had officially been changed do Cendham. What the hell?!

So I decided that I’d probably have to go back to the border to get a new one, but ended up giving their office a call when I got into work. Turns out that my name is in their system in the correct way, and they’re sending me out a new permit with the correct details in the next 10 days.

I then got to wondering, can I get a SIN number if my working holiday permit is spelt incorrectly? I headed down to Service Canada to find out and they said that I couldn’t, but I was still allowed to work while I waited for my new permit as I had a work permit, “but just don’t do anything silly.” Uhhh, what?

So, I can work, but I’m going to have to wait a while before I can get a new SIN, which means my MSP insurance may run out… Be interesting to find out what happens then.

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Posted in Different things in Canada, Musings, Working Holiday Permit (WHP) | No Comments »

Renewed!

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

I’m all good for another two years, and that’s a great feeling!

After various back and forth going on as I mentioned in my last post, my new letter of introduction came through last night. That’s only cutting it a little fine, had plenty of time as my current permit didn’t run out till Thursday. That’s at least 48 hours.

Went down to see our friends at the Point Roberts border crossing after work to do the paperwork, and while I was down there they also confirmed that you have to actually leave the country (“sight the flag” I think they said, in reference to the US flag on the other side of the US building) then come back in before you can do this sort of paperwork. That means no just driving up to the border post and entering in the back way, and no cutting to the front of the line.

The guy processing my application was quite funny – it was his first WHP, so he did it by the book. Or at least reading the book aloud to himself several times and trying to work out exactly what the hell he was supposed to do.

Because he did it by the book, he asked me for every piece of paperwork he should, which was only proof of funds ($4k, I had a print out of my Internet banking) and proof of insurance, for which I pulled out my BC MSP card, which actually runs out this month as it’s tied to my current Social Insurance Number, which expires as well.

So my next job is to get a SIN, and to do that I can rock up to any Service Canada and get one there and then. Then I gotta call MSP to tell them about my new digits…

So, renewing a WHP while living in Canada? Easy!

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Posted in Different things in Canada, Musings, Working Holiday Permit (WHP) | 7 Comments »

WHP customer service

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

As I mentioned in my previous Point Roberts post, we’re coming up to our two year anniversary in Canada for this trip, so it’s work permit renewal time.

We did the online interview a couple of weeks ago and got all the required information together, and I mailed it to them using DHL through my work so I could track it. I thought I had read somewhere that applications needed to be in separate packages, so the person who looks after that stuff at work suggested sticking two 8.5×11 (A4 equivalent) envelopes together to save on postage and obey the letter of the law.

The package was delivered after 5 days, and Nat’s permit was approved only about 5 days after that, so really quite quick.

Three weeks went by, and I was getting nervous as I still hadn’t heard about my permit…

I decided that due to daftly sticking the two envelopes together, mine must have been lost, so I assembled another package over the weekend, and the last thing I had to get was a bank cheque as the banks were closed all weekend. At the prompting of friends, I was going to give the Consulate a call in the evening to check if they might be able to find my previous app, but when I checked the website, it said their phone lines are only open 9.30am to 12pm or something like that! Damn! So I shot them an email and resolved to send my new app overnight the next day.

Well, in the morning there were two emails waiting for me. First one came through at 10.30 or so, my time, and said that they would look for my previous app, and not to send another one in. Second one said that they had found it and that they would process it asap. What a relief! They’d overlooked it because of the silly packaging decision.

No word on whether I’ve been approved or not yet, but props to the WHP folks for being on the ball with checking their email. And the moral of the story? Don’t be daft with your postage when sending in your application!

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Point Roberts

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Over the weekend we had to renew Nat’s working holiday permit as we’re coming up to having been here for two years. The line ups at the main border crossing, Peace Arch, south of Vancouver, are usually hideous on long weekends, so this being the Easter weekend we decided to visit the geographical oddity that is Point Roberts.

South of Tsawassen, which is south of Vancouver, Point Roberts is a peninsula under USA rule that is not actually attached to the US mainland. If a resident of Point Bob wanted to get to Seattle by car, they would have to drive over the Canadian border, along to the Peace Arch crossing, then south from there.

PB was created in the 1846 treaty between the then British government of the Canadian region and the Yank government when they decided to cut north America up along the 49th paralell. You can read up on it on wikipedia, but basically after the fact they realized that there was a little bit seperated from the mainland in the west coast. Oops.

Here’s some pics from our trip down there:

Actually, I lied. I didn’t take any pics as it was boring as hell. We drove around for about 20 minutes before realising it was almost a ghost town and we probably weren’t going to find somewhere interesting for dinner. Their main industries seem to be gas (petrol) and post boxes, catering for Canadians coming down for cheap gas and to avoid costly cross borders shipping prices.

It’s supposed to be quite pretty during the summer, and I can see that, but on a spring afternoon, you could see the tumbleweeds rolling across the road.

Where is the benefit for traveling Aussies on a WHP? The Canadian border post there is a full service crossing, and the very short border wait times make it a great place to renew your work permit if you have a car to get down there and don’t want to frig around with the real border.

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Posted in Greater Vancouver Area, In and around BC, travel, Working Holiday Permit (WHP) | No Comments »