Part two: How Coronavirus derailed our plans for moving to Canada

This post continues from Part one: The original plan for moving to Canada which, you guessed it, explained our original plans for moving to Canada.

Part one ended with our decision that Jacob, my husband, should return from Canada to the UK. Read on to find out how two humans and a greyhound solve the problems of having no where to live in the UK and how to get to Canada during a global pandemic…

March 2020

After Jacob arrives back we spend a few days at Rebecca and Simon’s house (our friends I have been living) attempting to plan our next move. They made it clear that we were welcome to stay with them forever, but we need space to mope and plan. Besides, as an NHS Doctor, Simon might be facing a nightmare fairly soon, crowding the house with two extra people isn’t going to help.

The UK government are not asking people to quarantine upon arrival in the UK, but we decide that Jacob ought to wait two weeks before we consider moving in with any friends or family. We book an AirBnB for a two week stay in Cirencester and meet Aaron, Jacob’s brother, on the way there to hand over Bally our Greyhound.

Unfortunately, the AirBnB is tiny and not particularly clean. Plus, despite explaining to the owner that we will be self-isolating, due to one of us having just made a transatlantic flight, they have to send someone over to show us how the electricity works.

Deciding a two week stay here, potentially while ill, is not a good idea. I write a message to the owners of an AirBnB we have stayed in twice previously in Glastonbury. Thankfully, they remember us (thank god Jacob always make me leave places spotlessly clean and I write sparkling reviews!) and they are willing to help us with a reduced price.

So after one night in Cirencester we’re off to Glastonbury. Almost immediately after arriving we have to sort a plan for where we’re going to go next. We’ve only booked five nights here as, even at the amazingly kind discount, we cannot afford longer.

We send out an message to pretty much everyone we know asking for help finding somewhere to stay that is cheap (or free!) and away from other people (we’re still assuming Jacob may develop symptoms).

I then receive a text from my friend and fellow Guide Leader who invited us to stay in her holiday let – a four bedroom thatched cottage by the sea – FOR A MONTH!!

That same night lock down was announced. It’s hard to ‘stay home’ when you don’t have one. So needless to say the offer of a house of our own, for a month, for free, was amazing.

After 4 nights basking in the healing powers of Glastonbury we were off to our next home in Uplyme.

April 2020

If not for the global pandemic our month in Uplyme in a beautiful thatch cottage with friendly neighbours and walks to the sea would have actually been quite idyllic. While there, in early April, we secure a letter of exemption from the London IRCC (Canadian Consular in London) allowing me to travel to Canada despite the travel ban.

May 2020

At the end of April we (Jacob, Bally and a car full of our possessions) move into my Mum’s house for what we assure her will be a short stay, since we had an exemption letter to travel to Canada.

Two weeks later we drop Bally off at Rebecca and Simon’s who – apparently feeling they hadn’t done enough for us already – are currently taking care of him. We say some difficult goodbyes to family through panes of glass, booked flights, an AirBnB for the two week quarantine in Vancouver and set off for Heathrow.

A few hours later we were back from Heathrow after I was denied bordering.

I’m not going to describe to foul place that is Heathrow Airport right now. You’ve seen pandemic movies, right? Well, it’s something like that. Mask-clad human-zombies trying to escape. I’m also not going to go into detail about the employee who called the Canadian boarder security to ask if we would be permitted entry and, with zero sympathy, informed us of our fate – well my fate – bushing the exemption letter off as ‘meaning nothing’.

A week after our failed attempt, I email the IRCC to inform them of the delightful experience their so called ‘exemption letter’ had led us to. They were actually rather helpful: they expedited my work visa.

With a work visa I now, finally, had the right to travel to Canada since the travel ban does not apply to foreign nationals with a work permit right? Wrong. Wrong, because not only do you need a work permit, you need to have a job.

Aware of this the IRCC also ask me to provide documents (such as my P45) which prove we had given up our life in the UK before this happened; these were then presented to the Canadian Boarder Security Authority on our behalf.

June 2020

The IRCC’s next email was promising because it informed us that: ‘following consultation with the Canadian Boarder Services Liaison Office in London, they have determined that they will permit you to board a flight to Canada based on the information you have provided’. But frustrating because it also includes the delightful addition that the final decision as to whether we’ll be admitted to enter Canada will be with a boarder security agent in Canada and we must be able to demonstrate that our travel is non-discretionary or we will not be permitted to entered Canada. In short, we’ve basically been granted another exemption letter.

And that brings us to the point where I wrote the first blog detailing option one and option two.

To strengthen our case I have start looking for somewhere to rent in Prince George and find a wonderful three bed house, in a desirable area with a Landlady whose emails are delightful!

And we choose option two. Mostly because it looked promising that Canada would open their boarders at the end of June. Thus making an anxious flight (using the new exemption letter) to Canada, with the knowledge that I could be denied entry, unnecessary.

But of course we now know that Canada have decided not to open their boarders with the USA at the end of June, making it highly probable that they will decide to do the same with the rest of the world. The USA and Canada are now set to open their boarder on 21st July, we currently don’t know Canada’s plan for the rest of the world.

I’m only checking online every five minutes to see if Trudeau has made an announcement.