From: wales@cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales)
Subject: The visas arrived today! (Rich Wales)
Organization: UCLA CS Department, Los Angeles
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 01:25:32 GMT

For those of you have have been following my Canadian immigration quest,
I am pleased to announce that our visas arrived today (Tue. 28th).

Interestingly, the envelope (BIG, 12x15 inch size) appears to have been
sent via ordinary first class mail -- not certified or registered.  It
was delivered with the rest of our mail for the day, and got a bit crum-
pled from being jammed into our apartment mailbox.  In one corner was an
ink-stamped "CERTIFIED MAIL #" and a handwritten number (I assume this
was put on at the consulate), but there was no US Postal Service "certi-
fied mail" sticker, and the letter carrier did not bring it to our door
for a signature.  I guess it's possible someone in the L.A. consulate's
mail room goofed.  In any case, it arrived, so I'm not too worried.

Each visa (one for myself, my wife, and our baby girl) is a four-part,
legal-size (8.5x14 inch) form with interleaved carbons.  They are all
labelled "IMMIGRANT VISA AND RECORD OF LANDING", except for the second
part, which is simply labelled "RECORD OF LANDING".  The second part is
engraved and printed in multicolored ink, in a manner similar to paper
currency, and presumably for the same reason (i.e., to discourage coun-
terfeiting or alterations).  I gather that, once we arrive, we will keep
the colored copies as proof of our status in the country; one person has
told me he was advised to keep it in a safe place and take a photocopy
of the form with him when he travelled abroad.

In addition to various identifying info, the form includes a question
regarding whether one has ever been convicted of a crime, refused admis-
sion to Canada, or required to leave Canada, with space for initials.  I
assume we'll be asked to confirm that the answer to this question is
still "no" when we show up at the border.

There is a space for "conditions of landing imposed".  For an immigrant
who has something like a pre-approved job offer, I assume this space is
used to indicate that he/she must move to such-and-so place, take such-
and-so job, etc.  In our case, this space is blank on all our visas; I
applied as an independent applicant without a pre-approved job offer.
This also presumably means I can tell a prospective employer that he
does not need to obtain permission from a Canada Employment Centre (form
EMP-2151) in order to hire me -- since I have already managed to obtain
permanent resident status on my own.

The visas are also marked with expiry dates for "medical validity" and
"visa validity".  These correspond to the one-year anniversary of the
date we had our medical exams (2 June 1992).  We have to show up for
immigration by 2 June 1993.

Along with the visas were several pamphlets and flyers, including:

==> A letter from the consulate describing the visa, and advising us of
    immunization requirements for school children in Ontario and New
    Brunswick;

==> "Settling in Canada" (general importation/customs info);

==> A sheet about "returning resident permits" to document our intent to
    remain resident in Canada should we decide to travel abroad after
    immigrating;

==> Information about importation of motor vehicles from the US to Can-
    ada (I've been in touch with Transport Canada in Ottawa on this sub-
    ject already, and the stuff the consulate sent us with the visas is
    slightly out of date, though not seriously so);

==> A form to fill out and present at the border to permit importation
    of our car.

As I indicated before, we were provisionally told we would be accepted
when we had our interview at the consulate last January -- but it's a
relief to actually have the visas in hand.

Now all I need to do is get a job. :-}

--
Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (310) 825-5683