Many dalgonas and banana breads later...

After my eventful IELTS journey, if you think my life miraculously shifted gears and decided to move on a smooth road, wait till you finish reading this story. Make yourself some tea and grab a snack - long read ahead!

I collected my results from the British Council office with joy that knew no bounds. This time I walked into the Cheesecake Factory with all smiles and even treated myself to my all-time favorite fried macaroni balls. With an undergrad and a master’s in my bag, I’ve never experienced elation of this kind in my life after clearing a test.

A little backstory for you:

Moving to Canada was not a do-or-die decision for my family. I speak from a position of privilege here. Fortunately, our lives were more than comfortable in our little world that we created in Dubai. I loved the hot, screeching summers, the beaches, the shawarmas and how people from all over the World coexisted peacefully. But what is life without some risk? I don’t know how many of you realize that moving countries and leaving behind a life that is comfortable in every way requires courage. Did we have it? NO! WE DID NOT! We freaked out every minute. We worried if we would regret the decisions we made along the way; we worried if we would ever get back to a stable life; we worried if we would find ourselves stranded. The list can go on and on. At this moment, I was grateful that my anxiety was not having a ROFL moment seeing me juggle all those emotions. Things were good.

The journey we started off on as a couple was not the same anymore. We were now parents (can I add in a LOL?) (Would it be too early?). Parents to the sweetest baby boy ever (I promised myself not to be cheesy, but hey, I’m a mommy and I can now). As much as we were excited about this new role, the idea of migrating with a child was scary. At this point, we knew no one who had moved countries with a child. Nevertheless, the journey continued.

My IELTS scores, along with my husband’s, were uploaded to our half-done Express Entry profile, and the wait began for the next draw. What was supposed to happen in a month’s time kept us hanging for close to a year. Yes, you read that right. Close to a year, and to make things worse, we were in a pandemic. Who in the world would have thought we would go through a pandemic, forced to stay at home, hopelessly whipping up dalgona coffees and making endless batches of banana bread? We stayed home, trying to be as productive as possible and keeping up our spirits. Months passed by and there were no hopes of a favourable draw. Come August of ‘THE’ 2020, coincidentally, my sister moves to Canada, and I in turn get my extra points for having a blood relative in the country. Phew! We finally found ourselves in the pool and managed to bag ourselves an invitation to apply for permanent residence under the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW). With three months in hand and a bunch of documents to put together, we rushed to my bestie’s place, who lived few miles away. No, it was not to share the good news (of course she knew it); it was to hand over the baby for a few hours. We needed some child-free hours to complete all the requirements. We went through our passports, noting down every travel we had made during the last 10 years (the only time I regretted all the exits and entries made at various airports), collated details of both our parents and siblings, entered our education, and in a matter of two days, our application was ready to be submitted. On October 12th, 2020, at 11:30 pm we submitted our application for permanent residence in Canada. The usual turnover for express entry applications, pre-pandemic, was 6 months. Our friends who’d applied before us had received their PR status on or before the 6-month deadline. Since it was 2020, and we were going through a pandemic, and our homes were also our offices now, we were ready to expect the worst. We were ready to give ourselves time, and we did exactly that. We did not panic, we did not lose patience, nor did we crib and cry - until October 2021.

Our little boy turned 3. Our baby was now a toddler. The panic starts to kick in. Do we stick to our plan? Do we drop the idea? Should we try migrating to another country? Would Australia be a good option? Why doesn’t the UK have migration options? Should we put our child in school already? Should we wait until we hear something from the IRCC? What do we do? The months that followed were difficult, difficult to stay positive and hopeful. But thanks to Expo 2020, it took away a lot of our focus. We made the most of those six months when Dubai turned into a huge carnival ground.

The UAE was gearing up for Eid al-Fitr. The government declared holidays, and unfortunately, they were shorter than we expected them to be. By now, we had already booked our tickets for a mini vacation to take our minds off of all the chaos that was going on there. We dropped the plans as we did not have enough days but forgot to cancel our flight reservations. If you’ve read my previous story, you know by now that I love browsing through my phone with no purpose. The baby was bathed and fed, the husband and I were sulking over a failed vacation, and my phone brightened up with an email notification: Ready for Visa. Our application for permanent residence in Canada was complete. 18 months later, there it was in all its glory. And can you guess the cherry on top? The UAE government renounced the Eid al-Fitr holidays, and how glad we were that we still had our reservations. Our mini-vacation was on, and we were leaving the UAE in a matter of few months. A bittersweet moment indeed. Here are some tips to get you started with your application: 1. If you have plans to migrate and have already managed to successfully clear the IELTS hurdle, plan out your journey. Planning ahead helps. 2. Get your Educational Credential Assessment in advance from one of the approved IRCC third parties. 3. Get your documents sorted in advance. Some police clearance certificates can take more than two months, and you don’t want to let go of your invitation because of lack of documentation. 4. Mandatory documents are proof of funds, police clearance certificates, and medical exam documents. 5. Don’t hesitate to reach out to IRCC if you need to know the status of your application. They are quite welcoming and helpful. Get a Canadian virtual phone number, they do not cater to calls from outside the country. 6. Don’t hesitate to apply for your GCMS notes if you think there is an unexplained delay. You deserve to know the status. Here’s where you can apply for one: https://getgcms.com/en Now that we are over the pandemic era, I hope none of you go through such times that test your patience and determination. But if you do, please know that there is always hope!