He landed, he landed

So the passport arrived. It was definitely a day to celebrate. Having waited 5 months from the time we filed our application, Akis is excited that he can now settle in and stop feeling like a 'visitor'.

We decided that we would go and land on Saturday afternoon, after I went to Greek class. It was a nice afternoon, on Valentine's day, you couldn't ask for a better gift. We did need to exit Canada and given that Akis is not a holder of a US visa, he was a bit anxious about actually leaving the country. I had called the border to find out what the process was, and it sounded pretty simple. Go to the US border, present ourselves and tell them we want to flagpole. Armed with this info, some immigration papers, we were off for a drive.

While driving out of the city, we had a 5okm drive to get to the Peach Arch crossing. Here is Akis close to home.

Akis annoyed to discover that the wait at the border crossing is 90 minutes. Yes, that means we park the car and wait.

And we finally made it.

Just before we reached the Border Guards, there was an off ramp which said 'Return to Canada'. We were about 8 cars from the front and we looked at each other and wondered, can we just turn around here. Not being sure what is suppose to be done, we carried on towards the border. It's a good thing we did ~ once we arrived we were informed that we actually needed a piece of paper from the US guards saying we presented ourselves, thereby formally exiting Canada and were turned around to Canada. And go figure, the border guard started to chat to Akis about life in Patra and the souvlaki he used to have while in the US Air Force.

Between both of the guards, in no mans land, there is the Arch and the marker for the international border. Yes, we were on both sides....



Akis sitting in the car as we approached the Canadian border, the last time without Canadian Residency.

We were directed to the secondary office where the couple ahead of us were both landing as well. It took us about 45 minutes total, and after that, Akis walked out with his passport and knowledge that in 6 weeks he would be getting his Permanent Residency card.

To celebrate we went to Akis' favourite burger joint. And go figure, the owners happen to be Greek. It's like he can sniff them out a mile away. The ironic part being that he had no idea that the owners were Greek ~ it was the wife who asked about Akis' accent and that was when the Greek started to fly. Slowly, slowly, Akis settles in.