I was on the way to the Thursday night seminar with Aunt Gisela and Alycia (who is down for a visit this week) and I received a phone call.  It was listed as “Unknown” so I thought it might be Bro. Kent Beeson with some kind of information about whether or not we would have the seminar that night.  You see, there is only one visitor/attendant, so if that person isn’t coming we normally will postpone the seminar until the next week.  So I answered the phone and it was a woman’s voice that asked for Jed.  I didn’t recognize the voice, until she said “This is Officer McCario with Canada Immigration, I have good news for you”.  My heart leaped, and Alycia knew immediately that it was Canada calling.

 

I am once again able to go to Canada.  YEE HAW!!

 

They are sending me an official letter that I need to have with me whenever I cross the border, and once that arrives I can go across.

 

She then asked me about the Work Permit that Alycia and I had applied for.  I told her that we had received back a letter from Service Canada (a branch of what the U.S. would call the Dept. of Labor) REFUSING the application.  She sounded surprised.  I proceeded to tell her that the reason they gave was essentially “we do not normally give work permits for volunteer positions”.  She said “But you’re not going to volunteer”.  I had already been through this with her.  For some reason, this officer feels that going to live for free with someone and work for free for someone else is somehow not volunteering.  Go figure.  Anyways, I said that we had sent a cover letter with the application explaining the whole situation and that the response from Service Canada was what I already said.  Work permits aren’t given for volunteer positions.

 

I then found out why she was surprised by my response.  She said she checked the “system” and it was showing that an employment validation number had been issued for me.  This was confusing to both of us, so she said she would try to get in touch with someone in Service Canada and get back to me about it.

 

Regardless of what the results of that are, though, I can once again visit Canada!  So even if there are more hoops to jump through for living temporarily in Canada or for us getting married or for me immigrating, at least I can be up there with Alycia to jump through the hoops on that side of the border.  The Rehabilitation Letter will be showing up in the mail sometime, and as soon as that arrives I will probably be contacting the border and trying to cross again.

 

Thank you ALL for all your prayers and support and help over the last couple of months.  It has truly been a trying time, but a time when my true Friends, my Brothers and Sisters, have really come through for me.

 

I will update further when I know anything else new, or when I am in Canada!!