Hello

Can someone help me and my Canadian husband decipher all the official dogma we keep getting? We are trying to work out whether we should stay in Canada or move back to my country, England.

We got married here in August (a romantic surprise for me), I applied for PR in September, and Immigration Canada began processing it in November 06. I am epileptic and therefore could not obtain UK holiday health insurance for longer than 3 months, and cannot be included on my husband's medical until I get PR. I take 4.5g of antiepileptics a day (a lot), which i am receiving from the UK and which will run out by July 07.

I am a qualified Chemistry/general Science teacher and currently volunteer in a High School in Prince Rupert BC. The principal is very keen to employ me, but the district has stated it would take 8 months to get work permit clearance from the govenrment and they may not be successful, because although our town has a teacher shortage, BC does not.

Is the 8 months true?

Immigration Canada has said i may get a work permit by June (which should cover my medical!) but this seems far too long a time (especially considering it would take my husband 2 weeks to get a work permit in the UK). Why is the Canadian system so slow?

All i'm asking is what type of applications take years to process...surely not one made by a professional woman who moved to Canada for no other reason other than she was in love with her husband? The fact that the government may think i did this for monetary gain is laughable - I am worse off than i have ever been! And what time frame can i REALLY expect?

Please tell me. I don't want to waste any time here (especially as I'm 31 and we are planning to have a family), but my husband has a fairly non-ptransferrable job - he works for BC Ferries - so we don't want to run back to the UK if we don;t have to either.

Many thanks for any guidance, sarah