The application

We stayed in negotiation with Gary who was looking for a partner for his theme park, as we concluded by September that we wanted to make an application to emigrate. This decision was not taken lightly after all, but was a result of calculations and emotions over a long period of time, that left us thinking that it was the best move for all the family. (We have not put too many details here, don’t want to bore anyone, nor ourselves in 50 years time!).
However, we felt that Gary wanted too much money for a half share in his business, especially since he was having masses of problems with the village authorities over the way his park had been built. Hence, I needed to go for another trip to sort this out, not to mention further probing for schools, business information, housing, etc.
I left on Friday 13th on a KLM flight from Toulouse via Amsterdam for YVR. After a day of frustration as my wifi didn’t work, I met up with Gary and we spent a day where he caved in on what I asked and we looked at other possibilities. I also looked at houses, spoke to the small firms’ advisory service (who were pretty hopeless), and another possibility at Abbotsford.
Upon my return we then moved into overdrive on the various stages of our application. This was as follows:
1. Send in a preliminary application over a few pages to see if our project was valid.
2. After a couple of weeks they would then ask us to send in a business plan for what we wanted to do there. This was to be comprehensive and detailed all our worldly possessions and capital. The delay would then be 8-12 weeks before we would hear anything. Fine at first, then it all became a bit tense as we calculated the dates by which we needed a reply so as to organise ourselves
After all, we had to move, we had to sell our house, had to sort out the Alpine business, quit schools in France, find schools in Vancouver and a place to live, transfer money, sell an apartment in the Alps to help finance the move. And we had calculated that to move end April would be good, as this would give me time to get ready for the summer season, but also for the children to have a couple of months to get used to school before the summer break of 10 weeks. I felt that simply going to school on 4 September could be too much upheaval, whereas in May and June it was likely to be a nice time and a chance for them to get to know maybe some other kids to have fun with.

The delay dragged on and Antonietta went to Holland on 11 January for a long weekend. I arose half asleep on Saturday morning and gazed at the computer screen to see a message from the immigration service with 2 Febuary in the message. Sure enough, invitation for an interview. Plus a number of questions, but none particularly complicated. Logically, this would be a rubber stamp, however, it meant that I should prepare accordingly.

Tony