Tag: visa

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 901: Vancouver, BC – FINALLY Got The Permit

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Well, Curtis’ day isn’t very interesting in writing, but he actually had a good day and learned a lot!

Today was day 1 of Curtis’ workshop with Microsoft to learn about everything Microsoft Teams!

The full day of learning was intensive but actually very rewarding and it helped Curtis and his team figure out about how they will move forward with a project, so certainly worth it.

Curtis finished his day with a few catch ups with his team about this and then checked in on some tickets and other things, then he was done.

Kim’s Day

To start the day Kim had a one month check in for a new employee. They then all had a quick meeting with with another department to answer a couple of questions.

Kim then joined and interview and went straight from that into another new starter check in before joining a weekly recruitment meeting. After those meetings Kim joined a call to review a software to make sure it is sustainable for the company and will be able to support in all the ways that the team needs.

While she made and ate her lunch Kim joined another departments meeting to observe a system they are setting up so she can implement it in her team. It was really interesting and Kim learnt a lot and had a great time talking with the team. She then joined another meeting and had a bunch of quick check ins and chats with a few people during the time if a cancelled meeting. One was to get updates on projects that are ongoing and another two were just general check ins and updates from Kim .

To finish the day Kim had a chat with a hiring team to discuss all of the candidates that had recently been met with to review and make plans for the next steps.

Finally Got The Permit!

Kim’s work permit finally arrived in the mail today! She had a permit, technically, but wouldn’t be able to prove it as she didn’t have the physical permit. Kim now has this (after having to chase!) and is now good to go. We can also renew our driving licenses!

We had homemade fried lemon chicken with rice for dinner and then went out for a nice late evening walk.

We got back and watched some TV before heading to bed.

We found out we can book our first vaccine tomorrow, which is excellent!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 574: Vancouver, BC – Hand Delivery, We Can Stay & A Desk

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a fairly quite and slow day today.

He got some tickets done before his team meeting at 10:30 and then he got an uncommon request to move something to another location which took some research and was far more difficult than it should have been.

He got that done eventually and then post lunch was filled with tickets and some admin. He also setup the monitor he bought for Kim so she can use it whilst we’re at the old apartment.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent most of the day out and about! In the morning she worked on getting some HR stuff set up before she joined a meeting to help marketing.

When Kim arrived at the cocktail place she started labelling the cocktail boxes and sorting them out. That way when her teammate arrived they knew which cocktails were going in who’s car. Just before they left their other teammate came to pick up a couple of the kits too! Just before she left for the first delivery Kim received a notification in regards to her work permit, she has been given a work permit for the same amount of time as Curtis!

Kim then spent a lot of the day driving to a couple of colleagues homes to drop off cocktail kits. Everyone was masked and distanced so it was a really lovely and safe way to finally meet people!

While she was in the area Kim also grabbed a Popeyes for lunch!

Once she was done Kim got home and managed to get some actual work done.

First, she walked over one more kit to another teammate! For the rest of the afternoon Kim was able to get her head down and finish a few things, she first set up an interview, made a couple of calls and sent some more emails.

Evening

Kim found out today that she got her work permit and can also stay until 2023! So we both now can stay which is a huge relief.

We went to pickup a desk in the evening to use in our new place. Whilst we were on the way back, the person we bought it from said they forgot to give us a piece for the desk, so we had to go back again and get it!

We got that and came back home and then had some veggie chilli for dinner.

We ate our dinner and the did the usual TV watching for the remainder of the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 491: Vancouver, BC – Christmas Eve Nap

Kim & Curtis Hale

Final Work Day

Curtis had to work until 15:00 today. There was not a huge amount to do, but he did have an onboard and a few tickets to get done, as well as some admin and a little bit of project work.

Kim went out to get lunch today. We had Lebanese wraps and they were very delicious!

Curtis worked for a further 30 minutes whilst Kim went out to the shops to get a few things.

Once Kim got back, we went out for a walk and it was quite cold, but we got a hot chocolate, which was warming!

We got home from our walk and we were cold, so we thought we would get in bed to warm up…Then we had a nap by accident! We did feel better after that, though.

We then looked at some work permit information to see what we can do for Kim on that side of things, as some things changed a little bit from how we thought it would work.

After that we watched the film Happiest Season and then had some cheese and wine for dinner! Kim listened to Christmas music whilst she got this together which she was happy about.

We chilled for the rest of the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 474: Vancouver, BC – Interviews

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was back at work today! He had 400 emails to go through as well as some messages.

People clearly realised he was back as he got a flurry of messages asking for him to do different things and asking him questions, but he had fun doing it and was glad to be back at work again.

After his weekly team meeting, Curtis helped someone with an unusual request to add a logo to a couple of places on their file document storage space, so they are more recognisable for each team, which was not something he had done before!

Curtis figured out how to do this but then it didn’t work, but he got it working after some troubleshooting.

Curtis had a bit of other work to do and still had some emails to go through and then he had a meeting with some people from the Vancouver office to discuss the culture and how it feels to work for the company at the moment. They’re gathering information so they can make improvements if needed.

Curtis had some lunch and then his afternoon was a bit more relaxed.

He had some more work to do and caught up with a few more bits of information and prepared a bit for work tomorrow.

Curtis also completed one of his PR applications (for the BC PNP), paid for & submitted that so now he just waits until he can submit his work permit application!

Kim’s Day

Kim spent a lot of her day on various calls with her colleague. The first they went over a few questions they each had and Kim showed her colleague a few things in the HR system.

Shortly after this call they both joined an onboarding call where they met two new hires and helped them set up a few things. Then they joined a couple of the execs to discuss the facilities project and were able to move forward. Kim and the CEO will have a meeting and check things out on Thursday afternoon.

Kim then hosted her first interview! It went so well and she really enjoyed the experience. The candidate was great and it was so interesting. After the interview Kim and her teammate had a chat about the candidate and how it all went. Kim then worked on a few smaller tasks like looking at other candidates for the position, sending out an invite for the gift exchange and she called to chase a laptop, but had no response.

Later in the afternoon Kim hosted a second interview, again it went well and was interesting. Her colleague called after the interview again and they discussed it and then looked over more candidates waiting to be processed. They also then had a chat with a department manager about the onboarding process and how happy he was with it.

Evening

Once Kim was home, we had leftovers from our roast yesterday and we watched some TV.

We then played a whole host of games that recently became free, so we had a fun night trying out some different games!

Kim then watched some more of a movie she was watching and Curtis played some games.

We watched a bit of TV together and relaxed for a bit before heading to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 470: Vancouver, BC – Company Holiday Gift!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis woke up around 09:30 and had some breakfast, a shower and a coffee.

Once Curtis was done with his coffee, he walked down to the nearest post office as he had been told he had a package waiting for him that his company had sent him!

Curtis had to wait in the queue for a bit, but he got the package and headed back home.

The package was a holiday gift from his company, which he forgot they were sending! Each person got one of these and they contain a variety of snacks (mostly dark chocolate, which Curtis LOVES) and then he also got some socks in there, as well.

Curtis played games whilst Kim worked in the afternoon.

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day in the office and she was happy to see that the most of the fruit flies were now gone. She finished the laptop set up and then had a meeting about the interview she was in yesterday and the next steps for that process. After that she called a company that she ordered a laptop from to see where it was, she got through to voicemail so left a message an emailed the company too.

There are a few new hires over the next couple of weeks so Kim went to pick up a laptop from her colleague, but it wasn’t ready yet. So Kim drove home and shortly after joined a recruitment meeting to go over all the top candidates for open positions. It was an interesting meeting and some candidates that Kim liked for a new position are moving forward and will be interviewing with Kim next week.

Kim then hosted the weekly social call, for a while only her teammate was on the call so that had a great catch up. Then one other person joined so the three of them played a game of among us with another colleagues kid and it was so fun! They were only small and quick games, but really enjoyable!

Shortly after that Kim joined the team meeting and they went over some plans for the next few weeks. Then Kim went and picked up the laptop from her teammate, set it up in record time and managed to get it to fedex before the cut off time. Well, actually she was way past the cut off time, but they were running late!

When she got back Kim had a call with the external person about the facilities project. They talked about how the meeting yesterday went and what the possible next steps are. Then to finish the day Kim wrote up a chart about the difference in contractors that the company has to give some structure to the HR system and finance. She sent it off to her teammate and manager for their review.

Evening

We spent some time together writing up an email to send to our local MP. We are doing this to see if they can assist with our work permit situation, which is ongoing.

Once we did that, we went out to get an onion and have a bit of a walk!

Kim made a vegetable bolognese for dinner which was terrific! We had the final episode of Alex Rider to watch, so we watched that and also played some games/watched other shows.

We both have the day off tomorrow, so we plan to hang out and relax!

Curtis got the confirmation today that ice hockey is currently suspended by the province due to COVID-19, but there is a hope it will return at some point.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 469: Vancouver, BC – Flu Vaccination

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a bit longer of a sleep today, waking up at 09:30 and then he had some breakfast and showered.

Curtis played games for pretty much the whole day, but there was a bit of research and a chat with Kim about stuff, too.

We went to get our flu vaccination at 14:30 today and, as you’d expect, Curtis almost fainted from it, but not quite!

We finished those up and came back home.

Kim’s Day

Today Kim started by looking over some applications for the new role they are hiring for. She added notes to the candidates that she likes and tagged colleagues in to take a look.

Kim presented her facilities project to the executive team today! She prepared by updating a spreadsheet she received at the beginning of the day with her notes alongside the pros and cons of each of the options. Kim then presented the options to the executive team and it went really well! They like the options and Kim is about right on budget and timeline, so that was great.

From this meeting Kim joined an interview. She took notes for most of it, but also asked a few questions at the end. It was really interesting. Kim then played her first game in the connect four tournament, she won both games, but they were very close and good fun! Before having lunch Kim sent out the invites for the connect four games next week.

After lunch Kim set up the gift exchange for the winter party coming up and then she made some updates to the new HR system.

After the jabs Kim worked on resetting a laptop and setting up HR accounts for the new starters. She also gave all the current employees access. She then spent a while sending out the new hire packets and updating information in the system

Evening

We watched some TV and had homemade lemon chicken for dinner.

We played some games together and then watched a bit more Alex Rider which is a pretty good show! We’re enjoying it.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 468: Vancouver, BC – Application Consultation

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got up when Kim was up and had some breakfast, showered and then played some games for a little bit.

After that, he had his Norwegian lesson and then just played games and chilled out for most of the remainder of the day.

When Kim had her consultant chat with regards to the PR and work permits, Curtis followed along and did some research for it.

Kim’s Day

Kim joined the weekly company meeting and they did the usual stuff and updates before wishing someone a happy birthday! Kim organised gift vouchers for everyone so they can get cake, and then use the rest of the voucher for the winter party coming up. They all sang happy birthday and ate cake and it was amazing!

After the meting Kim went out to look at offices, she saw two new ones and popped by one from last week to take a video of it. Then when she was back at home Kim updated the photos and videos as well as made a few notes about each of the spaces.

For the early afternoon Kim made email profiles for new starters and continued to update the onboarding process for new hires.

Kim also had a meeting about a new role that the company is hiring for, its the same role Kim wrote the job posting for. They spoke about the kind of candidate they are looking for and some of the aspects of the role.

Kim had a chat with a PR consultant about our application, the chances of us being accepted and the remaining steps etc. We got some good information and clarity there!

Kim finished her day by looking into a new software for a department within the company and working on the winter partys quiz.

Evening

We had a very healthy dinner of potato, chicken nuggets & corn with Nandos sauce and then some nacho cheese on top for good measure!

We watched some TV, played some games and did some more research, made some decisions and discussed our PR application and some related items around that.

We then watched some more TV and chilled out.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 467: Vancouver, BC – A Week Off!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis woke up at 09:30 and had some breakfast.

Whilst he ate and a bit thereafter, he did his Norwegian homework in time for his lesson tomorrow.

Curtis played a lot of games today, but he did also receive the information he needed from work for his visa application, so he put all of that on his visa profile, but he needs to wait to submit until Kim has her consultation tomorrow.

Curtis also got some research done for our visas, to confirm a few things, and find some questions for Kim to ask tomorrow.

In the afternoon, after some lunch, Curtis went down to the drug store to book in for a flu shot, so we are both booked in for Wednesday now!

That was it for productiveness for the day, as Curtis just played games until he met with Kim to go to the shop.

Kim’s Day

Kim spent the day in the office today. When she arrived there were a lot of flies and bugs, so Kim made a couple of DIY fly catchers of clingfilm with little holes in it over a glass that has sugar and maple syrup in it.

She then went over the new HR system with her colleague by sending a new hire a lot of information and forms for them to complete and fill out. Kim the. Had a meeting with the new hire she had been helping over the weekend to finished setting her up and took her through the new hire packet that had been sent over. It was also very productive as they mentioned a few things that needed tweaking on the system and then Kim was able to contact the company there and then to make those changes.

Once Kim passed the new hire to their manager for the day she popped to a couple of shops to get a few things for the office like fly traps, paper towels and more hand sanitizer.

Kim was then back in the office for a short time before heading out to pick up a laptop from the CEO. It was so strange that it was her first time meeting him! She drove over, got the laptop and then they had a lovely quick chat before Kim left.

Once she was back in the office again Kim quickly ate before working on Bamboo again with her colleague. They used setting up her account as a test to see some of the functions of the system. It was great to have an option to run through it again so soon after the morning.

At the end of the day Kim joined a call in preparation for a meeting tomorrow. They ironed our a few last minute details and then Kim made a few purchases before heading home.

Evening

We did the shopping and when we got back home, around 19:00, we made some sweet chilli potato wedges for dinner.

We ate those and chatted about our day and watched some TV for the remainder of the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 457: Vancouver, BC – Curtis Achieved Today!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had a meeting right away in the morning with his team and directly after that he had a call with someone to try and fix a couple of issues that have been bugging them.

That call lasted for an hour and Curtis figured out their issues and what he needed to do and went away to do that.

About 30 minutes later, Curtis had a call with an external vendor to get an integration setup between two systems. That went nice and smoothly!

Curtis then had a long team meeting and right after that he jumped on a call with the person from the morning to continue helping with their issue.

After that, he finally had some lunch and then he did some tickets followed by an offboard for someone that left today.

Curtis had a long day but it was very successful and he achieved a lot!

Kim’s Day

Kim had a nice lazy morning with a sleep on and watching some TV. Then she updated and sent over some paperwork for her manager from yesterday.

For most of the afternoon Kim worked on the facilities project. She had someone email over a spreadsheet of information so Kim went through it and made notes before sending it back.

During the afternoon she also worked on an info page for new starters explaining a few things about the company.

Evening

We got pretty hungry right after work, considering we had a late lunch, so we got a pizza from the best pizza place here, Pizza Garden.

We are that and watched some TV then played some games.

We checked on our application from yesterday as it said it was updated, but nothing was changed at all.

We just chilled out for the rest of the evening and that’s pretty much the plan for the weekend as there are now further restrictions in place for BC for another 2 weeks, so no hockey, no pole dancing and pretty much no travel, other than essential, so at home we shall stay!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 456: Vancouver, BC – Applications Moving In The Right Direction!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had no meetings today which was great!

He started the day writing a script for something which took a bit of fighting with but he got it working.

Once he did that, he did some other tickets and some other work and then all of a sudden, it was lunch time!

After lunch, Curtis did a bit more work and then watched the new restrictions be announced for the province, which means no more hockey for at least 2 more weeks and also a few more restrictions like mandatory masks in public indoor spaces, finally!

Kim’s Day

Kim started her day by replying to a few emails about the facilities project and then updating the offer letter she put together yesterday. She spent the rest of the morning catching up on other smaller admin tasks.

At midday Kim hosted the social lunch hour. Only one employee joined so they just had a little chat and it was lovely. After this meeting Kim joined the recruitment meeting and provided a few updates on things there.

Kim then spent some time working on a couple of other Job Descriptions before joining the weekly team meeting. In this meeting Kim went over the updates for the facilities project and a few other things.

Everyone from that call went on to another call to have a chat with someone who will be starting shortly. It was so lovely to meet her and learn about some of the handover process.

For the rest of the day Kim looked into the new COVID restrictions here in BC and also worked on the facilities project.

First Application Submitted!

After work, Kim made a really nice roasted chicken tray bake, which had a Mediterranean taste to it, with some potatoes and a salad. It was pretty tasty!

We watched TV whilst we ate and then after we got both of our applications completed for the PR!

We are still waiting on some documents to come in, but we are hoping we can start the application process without the documents at the moment.

We submitted just Kim’s profile first, and then it was accepted right away! Due to this, Curtis submitted his and was also accepted right away!

Curtis then applied for the provincial nomination, which we couldn’t do until the other one was done, this helps to get a faster turn around as we have jobs! This way, we can get our bridging visa whilst the permanent residence is being sorted. (And need the bridging visa for May!)

Kim then went out to get herself an ice cream and we then were able to relax and watch some more TV and play some games together.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale