Thursday, February 21, 2008

Alea Jacta Est II - Two (OK, make that Three) Immigration Processes

Note: if you've been enjoying all the posts and photos about home renovation, check the previous post :).

I.
So, K1 (my husband) just forwarded to me an email from the attorneys saying that our applications for r3sidency were mailed on 2/19 and received by them on 2/20. Now we cannot travel until we receive the @dvance p@role and our work permit cards. It should take two to three months. I want to go to Brazil in July for a conference and to see my brother, so it should all work out.

Intro to II.
Now, do you remember those 2006 and 2007 posts about "family internationalization"? If you don't, here's a recap: In 2006 my in-laws came to live (for a five year period) in the U.S. and my brother and his wife went to live in China for at least two years (my brother is a [Brazilian] forest engineer working for a Swedish paper company there, small world, huh?) (on a side note, my husband's uncle moved from the U.S. to South Africa then too). Last year "K3" (my husband's third brother) moved with his wife (who, BTW is pregnant with a boy who will be my in-law's fifth grandSON after having FOUR sons) to Turkey, also to teach for two years.

II.
We just received an email from "K4" (the fourth and youngest brother, although he is the tallest ;) saying that the interview of their (his and his wife) immigration process to Quebec, Canada, has been scheduled for April 18. (Keiko, you'll have to help them out, right?)

III.?
"K2" (second brother) and his wife have already applied for r3sidency a month earlier than we did. So... now the race is on to who will receive their paperwork (and the coveted gr33n cards) first!!

Afterword/"Coda"
So, it looks like by the end of this year, K's whole family will be expatriates like us. It will have taken 12.5 years since we, the first ones, came here, and 15 years since the landmark 1993 trip when my in-laws brought their four sons (and future daughter-in-law: me) to visit the U.S. and which started this whole familial immigration wave.

(OK, the real pioneer was K's uncle, now is in South Africa, who came here with his family to be a student back in 1993 and, before him, my paternal uncle who moved from France to the U.S. around 1980, and my dad's youngest sister who brought her whole family to Miami back in 1986 -- all of them are citizens by now).

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, that's amazing. So glad we got you all here with us!

Rene said...

It's crazy huh? And you didn't even mention K3's application for c!t!zensh!p.

I love this family for all of their international adventures.

Vera said...

Amazing family !
but why do you all wished so much to leave Brasil ? ...