Guess who’s coming to Christmas dinner?

Hint: It’s not Sidney Poitier.

We made our third and final visa trip to Shanghai yesterday. After about 45 minutes of watching a muted DVD of Canada’s more scenic side, Maggie got called in for her interview.

Neither of us knew really what to expect, but to calm her nerves about the whole thing we had role-played a bit on the way into the city. The guy to enter the closet-sized interview room before Maggie was in there 20+ minutes, so I was a bit surprised, and a bit apprehensive when she came out after only five.

visaWe had previously been told that yesterday’s visit was only for the interview, and we would again have to trek to Shanghai to find out the results later this week. The interviewer, however, said we only had to wait around another 20 or 30 minutes and they’d let us know.

And let us know they did. We got the visa! (as if the title didn’t give it away eh?)

So, now we’ve the somewhat equally arduous task of coming up with the cash for two of us to fly to Toronto at the busiest time of year. Fun!

But it’ll all be worth it. There are a thousand reasons I’m thrilled that Maggie will finally be able to see where I come from, but the top three are:

  1. My mom has yet to meet my wife – that’s weird.
  2. My grandmother is 91 years old – that’s old.
  3. I can’t wait to see the expression on Maggie’s face when she realizes you can walk down a street in a country and not see another soul – ok, that’s a stretch at Christmas time, but well…

15 Responses

  1. Congratulations. The trip to New Zealand is something my wife and I have yet to do- although my parents will come to Beijing at the end of November, so they’ll meet my wife soon- anyway, it’s a big, important step, I think. Best of luck with this trip.

  2. Cheers guys.

    Re: Eggnog. I make it every year here, sans nutmeg, so she might be surprised what “real” (mass-produced) eggnog tastes like, but she’s no big stranger to it.

    A full-size Christmas tree on the other hand…

  3. I can’t wait to take her to Sobys/Zehrs etc. and watch her expression when she realizes there are only 20 people in the whole store shopping!!

  4. Haha, her surprise will only be eclipsed by her amazement at how much everything costs. The price for shopping in civility, something it’s taken me 3 years to really appreciate.

  5. Congratulations mate looking forward to hearing about “Canada through her eyes”. Athough it really is a disgrace that they make you jump through so many hoops to bring your own wife to see your family. Well, I know, there are lots of fake marriages etc but ….

  6. Congratulations. Time to break out the champagne…er… Great Wall? Eh, go celebrate. I should know about my wife’s visa situation in two weeks, so I’ll be nervous til then.

  7. Ryan, Congratulations. Regarding shopping, my mrs. was horrified at the prices in the UK and couldn’t find anything to fit. Even the petitie ranges were too big.

    matt, good luck and fingers crossed.

  8. Hey grats m8. The non-busy streets is difficult for Chinese. My wife says that Denmark is very lonely in this regard. I find it calming though.

  9. Maaaate,

    Congratulations ! Like my Aussie mate (Matt) with his Anhui bride, there was a distinct linear process of forms to supply to get any type of visa. She got a Temporary Resident visa and they migrated to Oz.

    Just need lots of Statutory Declarations to certify that my relationship with Yuki is Kosher.

    God, the amount of Government forms simply staggers me. And I need to have about 300,000 kuai in cold hard. That means we will not be bugging out until October 2011. F.

    I guess I will be eating rice porridge and avoiding the Stolichnya. I will get back to you about (hopefully) getting a notarized letter from y’all at some point in the future (please)confirming our relationship.

    In the meantime, enjoy the snow on Christmas Day !

    You DO realise that even a cigarette lighter costs at least 15 kuai ? I had to raid our life savings of 50 grand just for me to be in Oz (single) for 2 months ?

    Gawd, everything is SO expensive compared to here.

    I stayed with friends & Mum, gratis, no Hilton. You know this !

    Take care mate and well done on getting her a visa to a civilised country. She will be a frozen Chinese lady in December, a bit resentful, maybe.

    Have a great time back in Canada, and post some pictures hey ?

    Jamieson.

  10. Congrats… I remember when I took my wife (then girlfriend) to Canada for Christmas 3 years ago.

    Saskatoon. In December.

    She recovered eventually.

    Actually her experiencing opening presents and stockings on Christmas morning, tobogganing, and -30C nights were all worth the enema…err, visa process. We went again last July to get married and took her parents too – so 3x the headache with the Consulate… no interviews though, just the pain of going there during the ridiculous hours they work.

    Once again, congrats!

  11. Well, my wife got her visa too. She had luck of the draw in consular officers–didn’t get asked as many questions as others and didn’t take as long.

  12. Thanks everyone, and congratz Matt! I think we were much the same in getting ours. It makes me shake thinking the next time it’ll likely be for permanent resident status…

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