this might take awhile

I finally got the ink for my printer yesterday. We had a dump of snow over the weekend and I didn't want to go out in it. Now that I've printed the forms, I see it will take a few days before I have them completed. The primary reason? Despite the fact that I am the only one on the application (husband and daughters all being New Zealand citizens) I have to write out every member of my partner's immediate family. With their birthdates. Aidan is the youngest of nine kids, and he's not quite sure on all their birthdates! He knows all the days and months, it's the years that he's a bit unsure of.

I'm assuming the reason they want this information is to see who could potentially in the future want to try to gain entry based on my residency (assuming I get it). But it's silly, really, because all of them are New Zealanders. I guess in this sort of case it could be to see where we have the most ties, so it's a positive thing, having so much of our family in New Zealand. I don't know, but it's frustrating all the same. We'll have to contact his mother to get all the dates.

healthy as a horse

Whew! So glad that's done. I had my medical exam and lab work and chest x-ray needed for my New Zealand residency application. Time spent at the medical clinic totaled two and a half hours. Then two days later I went back in to pick it all up. I had been quite nervous about it, apparently unnecessarily so. My doctor was very nice about it and agreed to do all the paperwork herself, rather than sending it to Medical Records (as I was told must be done at the front desk) which would have taken weeks to get back. The chest x-ray was done at my clinic, but had to be sent to a radiologist off-site, and though I worried about it, the form for the radiologist went off with the x-ray, and came back correctly filled in. Once I got it all back, I celebrated in the classic Kiwi way, with beans on toast.



So now I've pretty much collected everything I need to submit my application. Last thing is for Aidan to get a couple of passport photos. I've gotten mine already. I needed three for my medical forms, so I got the extra 2 for the application at the same time. Oh, but I need to go to Staples tomorrow to get some more ink for my printer. I'm running out, and need to print up the application (24 pages), and the sponsorship form (12 pages). A few weeks ago I had called the NZ Embassy in Washington, DC to get them to send me copies of the form (wanting the nice, official versions), but they didn't have any to send! Told me I had to print off the web. So I will.