March 23, 2008
>компютри втора употребаof my friend’s tenuous grip on atheism is being further eroded by my previous post. He says he is going to pray for me. Well, I just could not live with being the instrument of spiritual obfuscation for anyone. So, an update…
The agent in Taipei has agreed to proceed with switching the category from spouse to common law partner. Hurray! It appears that both categories are equal, in so far as her rights and privileges are concerned. Â I have to forfeit ever sponsoring my ex-wife, though. Boy, can I live with that.
My mother comes to the rescue once again. I am too relieved to complain about it this time. Seriously, I am grateful t is all going to work out. Now I can actually concentrate on  much better things to get anxious about like: what the hell am I going to do in Canada??
I feel pretty good actually. It’s all going to work out. Time passess and I will end up skeletal dust no matter what wonderful or terrible things fate has in store for me. To imagine oneself in the grave, decomposing is such a wonderful, liberating exercise. And we need more freedom; freedom from our own conditioning, freedom to love, freedom to end the illusions that our society imposes on us and that now we impose on ourlseves, freedom to live without fear.
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February 17, 2008
The following is an email I sent to my wife’s case worker concerning some information I was given by my mother. In the past, he’s answered my queries within 12 hours, at the most. He’s even replied to me on a weekend. It’s now been 9 days since I sent this one. My mom, forever the optimist, thinks he is checking to see if the information is true. My wife and I think he is annoyed and is choosing to ignore it. Perhaps he is on vacation? I did my best not to make it pedantic or aggressive. What do you think? In any case, if anyone has any information that would be helpful, please fire away.
Dear xxxxxx,
Happy New Year! Hope you had a nice holiday with your family.
I just received a phone call from my mom. Of course she knows our situation, and in her usual eagerness to help us, took it upon herself to look into the matter. Because she has helped Columbian refugees with their transition to Canada and for their family left behind, she has had contact with a variety of immigration professionals. She also had a similar experience to mine in that she came back to Canada in 1982 with her common law husband, an American man who had not yet finalized his divorce from his first wife in the US. He came under the category of common law partner. This is what prompted my mother to investigating my case. She wanted to find out if the laws had changed since then.
She eventually spoke to a CIC agent at the beginning of this week and here is the information she passed on to me: “The visa case worker has the ability and discretion to change the original category from married to common-law without having to reapply. To her question of a time frame, here is what he told her: “Since your son has already been approved as the sponsor, it should be a quick formality.” Could you please confirm if this information from CIC is indeed accurate? Are there any fees for this procedure? Would you consider exercising this discretionary power in our case? This would certainly be the quickest and most cost effective method of solving our dilemma.
Three factors concern me about our relying on my ex-wife to come through with the divorce. First, she has lied to me about proceeding with obtaining the divorce on 3 occasions.
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I’d really like our son to start grade 1 in Canada on August 24. He has already been registered at The Calgary Arts Academy. After having been accepted as the sponsor, I resigned from my post effective end of June. I don’t know if I could regain my position. Life is already capricious and fickle enough as it is; your understanding and help would bring us much peace of mind and ease the transition to our new life in Canada.
Tags: personal, immigration, Canada, Taiwan
Posted in family, personal, taiwan 1 Comment »
January 30, 2008
I received a letter yesterday from CTOT, the Canadian embassy equivalent in Taipei. I was pretty happy, because the last time I got a letter from the Government, it was the one that said i was approved to sponsor my wife.
this was not the same kind of letter.
This one said that according to the information I had written in the application concerning my previous marriage, I was still considered married to my previous wife, until proven otherwise. I have 3 months to produce a divorce certificate. Furthermore, the letter claimed that my current marriage was illegal in Taiwan and Canada. For 10 years, I’ve believed that my former marriage, because it was a religious (Moslem) ceremony, that it was not honored in Canada or Taiwan, because this kind of marriage allows for polygamy.
My former spouse is Indonesian and is incommunicado. She no longer wishes to have anything to do with me. She has in the past 3 times asked me for a letter (and money) authorizing her for divorce, but 3 times she eventually fessed up to not having done it, citing major inconvenience. So, it’s not like she still wants to be married.
If I follow the letter of the law, it may even be the case I have to divorce Amy, then seek the divorce in Indonesia, then remarry Amy, then apply for residency again. WTF?? All our plans, money spent, boxes packed. Even my boss expects me to leave, and I’ve started training my replacement.
To make matters worse, I have none of the documents the lawyers require to go on with the proceedings. Furthermore, they are quoting me outrageous prices–lowest one was 4,000 US. Things not looking good right now. But I am staying positive, and staying raw. I could murder a steak right now. Pao mien would be nice, too. I’ll just eat my cubic foot of salad, as usual…
Tags: rant, immigration, family, Indonesia, personal, “raw food
Posted in family, personal, rant 3 Comments »
January 26, 2008
I just got out of the hospital yesterday from a hernia operation. It was a small umbilical hernia, just above my navel. I decided to have the procedure done at The Tzu Chi General Hospital, near Tan Tzu. I chose the hospital because it is near my home and very new, thus clean. I am very glad that I did. The service was exceptional and my internist’s bedside manner (and English) was the best I’ve encountered. I stayed in a shared room with 3 other patients. They snored and made all kinds of noise at night, but nothing the high quality morphine couldn’t take care of. Though sectioned off from the other beds by curtains–as is standard–, the amount of space was bigger than what you get in a similar room in other hospitals. Outside my window were the hills to contemplate, not another wall or city clutter. There was also a couch, which was ample and comfortable enough for my wife and daughter to take a nap on. I always felt well taken care of and I noticed the other patients were equally well treated, so being a laowai had nothing to do with it. A major contributing factor in the overall positive experience at this hospital is the sheer number of volunteers who work there. They are extremely polite and very helpful. You would find it hard not to be within a loud whisper’s distance from a volunteer. While sitting waiting for my turn to pay my bill in the main lobby, I was served tea. Nice.
Tags: BuddhistTzu Chi General Hospital, personal, Taiwan
Posted in personal, review, taiwan No Comments »
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