 Hey everybody! Today we are making a video on my husband Fokke here with me. We're on a road and I was thinking to, I always think about what kind of videos I should make for our YouTube channel and often it's about spousal sponsorship because we do a lot of those and I was thinking, well, me and Fokke submitted our application last year and it was quite the journey and I figured we could have a conversation here live to discuss kind of what we did, what were the positive things about it, what were the negative things about it. Baby is waking up in the back so we'll see how long we can do this for. So, Fokke, if I start with you, what would you say was the biggest challenge in preparing the application knowing that I am an immigration lawyer and I've been doing this for a very long time and I'm very knowledgeable but yet we still have some difficulties. Yes, the whole application can be very daunting. There's a lot of steps, there's a lot of paperwork that you have to fill out, there's a lot of proof, there's a lot of pictures, documents. I think that's the hardest part of this gathering all the information and compiling it and make sure it makes sense for immigration for the officer make sure that it's something that they can use to make a decision, right? Yeah, I mean, I would say for me, for example, the difficult part was I wanted to put excerpts of our WhatsApp conversations. First of all, it's on my phone and I think you helped me with that. I was like, how are we going to print this? How is it going to come out? And I think we have to redo it twice because there was an issue. You had to choose what is actually going to be beneficial for you. Yes, and we were together for like a year at that point a bit more so we had like, I don't know how many hundreds of pages of WhatsApp conversations and... I think it was 110. That we included or that was... No, in total. So, it sounds kind of simple, like, okay, provide the chat conversations but then it takes... I don't know, it probably took like two days of like a total of an hour on each day to like print, organize, made a mistake, reprinted. All were out of paper, go get paper and it's these small administrative tasks that could end up taking a long time. One other thing that I remember was trying to get your Cuban police certificate. That was the whole thing going south. So, we weren't able to submit with the file because... Well, the embassy was very helpful. We went to the Cuban embassy. We went to the Cuban embassy together. The girls were sure they felt like they... that I should contact somebody to get it done over there. I mean, that's what the embassy was for, right? To help the citizens but not this one. So, we end up having to ask a friend of a friend but I was actually able to get it but I had to pay them and it was no deal, but I think that year we got it done. Yeah, we got it. We don't have the original yet. We submitted the copy and the translation and hoping they don't ask for the original. Is the original coming? It's coming by mail. By snail mail. From Cuba? Yes. Snail mail? Snail mail. For real? Yeah. That's a problem, but okay. It's slow. Yeah, very slow. It might never come here. Yeah, and that was like a lot of... many months of, you know, back and discussing it. Oh, what about the clearance? Oh, let me email the embassy. Yeah, they even offered to crack an email saying that they were taking too long and what immigration needs to do was that they need it. Yeah, and it could really delay things because I wasn't thinking, I know what's going to happen. They're going to send the letter saying, okay, we need your police clearance now. You have 30 days and we're going to have to go as an extension of time. That's not so much the problem. I'm asking for an extension of time. It's just, you know, you want to become a permanent resident already, right? Yeah, absolutely. So why get delayed? You don't have a criminal record and on top of it, you needed the clearance because you were in Cuba. It's past 18. You were in Cuba from until like... 18, 19. Until 19. Yeah. I left Cuba when I was 18 years old. Yeah. So even though it's been a long time, they still needed it because I lived there as an adult. Yes. So that, yeah. Yeah. And I remember the embassy told you, oh, your request is going by diplomatic... case or diplomatic plane to Cuba? Yeah, briefcase or something like that. And it's coming back with it. It never made it. And I remember it blew up the process. I was like, why can't they just email someone there who's just going to send an email back that says you don't have a record? That's not how a cure works. It's like one second. That's not how it works. That's not how a lot of places work. Yeah. So that was something. Then what else? We had to... I mean, utility bills, internet, hydro. It was just like a printing. We had friends. Yeah. Reference letters. We got... We're very lucky. We're very good friends. They wrote letters for us. We got in the photos. That took a while because we had so many photos. What the hell are photos? And we had so many big moments since we met each other. Traveling. We got engaged. I got pregnant. We had a baby. After we filed the initial application so we had to send an update. Organizing the pictures, printing them in color, going to staples, writing, date and description. That took a while too. I remember we did that for a few hours. Then of course there's the forms. They can be tricky. They can be tricky. They can be tricky. And I know forms. I see forms all day, every day. I can review forms very quickly. My eyes know exactly what it has to be. And probably this was one of the most challenging forms for me because it's my file. But also I was questioning myself a lot because there are some questions that just did not make any sense. And I was like, how come I've never seen this issue before because you've been divorced twice before. Yes. And there was a form, there was something about a question about a date of separation and a date of divorce. And then there was a question about how long is the relationship. And it was confusing because does the relationship end when you break up or does the relationship end when you divorce? And the question was not clear to me. Maybe with other clients I never really... I think some clients put date of separation and some clients put date of divorce and no officer has ever said anything. But because it's our file I wanted I really asked myself the question and I think I talked to a few lawyer colleagues of mine and I answered intuitively which is when you break up because that's when the relationship ends. That makes sense still. The actual divorce is just more of a legal standpoint. Yeah. About the relationship. Yeah, exactly. So the forms, there was a lot of times we put little post-its and we were waiting to get information. What else was there? Joint purchases. We had... What else did we have? Joint purchases. So the travel... Oh yeah, we had to remember the travel dates. Google is really good with that. He got me into all the Google stuff so Google maps, tracks. Yeah, he kind of tells you where you've been and timelines so this type of situation is very handy to know where you went years ago. And tribal itineraries, we printed out our flight confirmations. I mean, those are in your emails but you have to retrieve them, print them out. Yeah, that's something challenging for a lot of my clients. Like dates, especially if you travel a lot. Yeah. You're supposed to remember some of the forms, you know, asking five years before, ten years before. Oh yeah, you have to contact your parents a few times because you had to know when you first went to Cuba. You had to... When we left. Yes. When we went from Cuba to the States. And there was a... I mean, obviously there was your parents' address in the US. There was their complete names. And they would say, I remember there was a lot of little details you had to call your parents and be like, what is this information? So... I mean, we're both professionals and it was challenging. It was challenging and it was during the pandemic on top of it. And I was pregnant. So, you know, this video is basically to say kind of make you feel better if you're going through the process that if you're doing it yourself, give yourself time and be patient and take it step by step and... Yeah, a lot of patience, I would say. And if you have... Yeah, just be patient and double check stuff and make sure... Take your time. I miss... Yeah. And I think what we did a few times is I would prepare it, we would prepare it and then I would say, okay, let me review it one more time for like the next day. And I had... With a clear mind. With a clear mind because then that's when you see things and have someone else review it. Like, if you don't have a lawyer, you don't necessarily have to have a lawyer. Give it to a friend or give it to a family member and like, still check and be like, hey, if you don't read this, do you see anything often? Do you think I'm missing something? I had a few of my lawyer colleagues review and surprisingly, they found a lot of little things just to make it that perfect, you know. And I learned actually a lot through the process myself because, you know, different lawyers have different visions. With you, with you. Yeah. And... And you have been through this process before. You integration paperwork and stuff. So you're kind of used to it. But again, I mean, would you say that it was kind of stressful? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah, immigration is always stressful. Yeah. Because you deal with your future and work permit. Were you going to establish yourself? Yeah. Yeah, it was very stressful. Yeah. Because we did... We were initially going to file an overseas application. I'm going to travel back and forth for this American but with the pandemic, we just had to do an inland because you had a closed work permit. Yes, I originally had a closed work permit. You got a job offer and you got a closed work permit. Yes, I was lucky enough to get a job offer as soon as I moved. Those opportunities and the inland process offers that option. But it took some time. The problem was that before the pandemic it was taking four to five months. But we applied within the pandemic and it took eight months, which is not so bad. But... But it's the annoying, right? Yeah. It's not annoying when it's actually going to be happening. Yeah. And I remember when we got the email... Shows the one that was closest. It was very simple. We asked questions like, oh, my throat hurts. It's not really about that. It's more of a there's such a demand but you sit and you do things and then out. Right. You felt people in the room or other people coming to do that. Right. How much was it? I think it also depends on where you do it. Okay. But most of them are around that price. Okay. And then you did your biometrics. It's pictures and fingerprints. Yeah. That was really easy to... I was lucky enough that there was more place. I was like two minutes away from the house. Yes. And sketch on a point with your hands and all that stuff. Eighty-five. Eighty-five dollars. Yes. And that was very simple. It took me about no more than ten minutes, you know. And that was it. We are... Because we're in Quebec. We were raised in Quebec. We had to file a CSQ which we did last week. Yeah. That's... The CSQ is simple but it's really not simple. And simple for me because with my staff we've reviewed those forms so many times so we can... we know what to answer. We have examples but it's just... I just find it's not user-friendly. It's not user-friendly at all. The questions are... Yes. Or have you been living together? Yes or no. But then in the column on the left it says... There's an explanation. Like if you have lived together but you... It's like whole granular on this side. That's an actual question. Yeah. Skip to question and then you're like, what? But I answered so I don't know why did people like that. It's the same questions come back multiple times. You have to send the same form twice. Yeah. I mean the whole thing could actually just be if you just put it on the website answer like four questions. Yeah, they should both order and I said, yeah. It's like... It would take like three minutes, you know? But, yeah. So now the next step for our file I think it's for you to be approved. I think so. And... Biometric to develop. Yeah, everything's done. Unless there's something I don't know about you that you haven't told me. It'll take some. It'll take some. Usually when you get approved you have to go to what's confirmation if your case is straightforward and basically congratulations to your permanent resident and they give you to sign your confirmation of permanent resident and then a few months later you get your permanent resident card. And I was just doing an email which is... It's kind of like why haven't they let this all the time you get an email that says congratulations. You are now a permanent resident of Canada. Your PR card will follow in the mail. Or I think you have to apply for it actually. Exactly another step with photos and stuff like that. But that's so easy. You let go of all these bureaucratic steps of, you know like you don't have to take off of your employment go there find parking, you know. But, I mean it's a big event. It's nice. Yeah, of course. You know, but there's a lot of people becoming permanent residents all the time. But one of the good things about the pandemic is bringing all this stuff to light modernizing making it more accessible and speeding things up in that way which I think is great. And you work in IT so I'm sure when you saw all of these processes you were kind of like this is so... Yeah, it could be done in a different way Yes. Governments bureaucratic Yes. Well, we are getting off of here off here to do like a pit stop. So yeah, I hope this was helpful sharing a little bit of our process in filing our applications and if you have any questions you can always ask us in the comments. Thank you. Bye bye.