The Wait Continues...

UK Application

We are expecting to hear from UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) any day now. Their procedure is to send an email stating that a decision has been made and your documents are on their way back to you. Occasionally, they will tell you that your visa has been approved, but usually they don't. And, I believe, they include a shipping tracking number.

On the expatforum.com, members post their timelines including the dates they submitted their online application, their biometrics appointment, when their package arrives in Sheffield, and when they receive an official email saying it's there. And finally they share when they hear a decision has been made and when they get their documents and passports back with the visa in it. I've been following the posts from members whose dates and visa situations are similar to ours. So far, no one who has done a priority application from North America after us has received their decision email. However, several people about a week ahead of us heard last week.

I'm counting from the date Sheffield emails to say the application has arrived, and (at their current rate) it seems the earliest to expect to hear is 14 or 15 business days. Today is day 17 for us. We're really hoping to hear tomorrow. It seems many people hear on Tuesdays and Thursdays for whatever reason. C'mon Sheffield!!

Physical Move

Not much to report on this front except for throwing some stuff out, giving some garden stuff to friends and one of the TVs being picked up. I'm making another donation of clothes and small household goods to Big Brother this week, and organized more books to do another bookstore run.

The shipping company I wanted to use got back to me with a quote of $5000 to move 300 cubic feet of goods. Yikes!! This is helping me accept I'll have to get rid of a lot more stuff and hopefully get that down to 100 - 150cf. I'm waiting for a follow up quote on that amount.

The big decision I've made though is to keep the apartment over here for another month, fly to England for a few weeks to house hunt, then come back to close this place up. This relieves some pressure, makes more sense since we have to move a cat from one home to another (and I don't want to board her), and if the worst case happens and the visa doesn't come through or is severely delayed, we've still got a very affordable apartment over here.

Steve will follow me to England once his visa comes through and can stay with a work colleague, but I hope to have a place rented or close to being rented during my visit. I'm going to stay in inexpensive single rooms and zip to Mum's for the weekends and to do laundry.

Finding a New Home

It's not easy to find a property when you're in a different city. Of course. I've been using the property search engines rightmove, primelocation and zoopla. The latter two are essentially the same search engine, and its almost total overlap with all three, but the search formats vary slightly.

The major problem I'm finding is that most landlords don't want pets. It's even worse that in Vancouver, which is tricky but can be done. I think it's an owner's market and they can afford to be picky. What damage a cat can cause though, I don't know. Especially if the property is properly cleaned as it should be at the end of a tenancy anyways. I've gotten a reference letter from my current landlord stating my cat has been no problem whatsoever. We're willing to pay an extra deposit too, but I feel this could be a huge hurdle to overcome. Dammit, I thought the English loved animals.

I've also discovered that there are several fees for renting, and they add up quick: credit checks, reference checks, agent fees, 1 1/2 months deposit, etc. All the companies I've contacted want an employer reference letter, previous landlord references, banking information, and will do a credit check. We've been working to arrange all this but it's getting down to the wire now. It's taking forever to get our HSBC banking accounts set up, even though we're new Canadian HSBC customers and this is an expat service they tout, and why we went with them.