Day 36

Ricardo with his visa at the Embassy

Ricardo has been granted Canadian Citizenship!!! We can come home!!!!! 

At 8:30 the phone rang.  It was the immigration officer and she let me know that she was going to grant Canadian Citizenship.  She said that I could come back to the Embassy at 11:00 with the other papers I had to fill out.  It was such a relief to get this phone call.  I was impressed that she followed through and called and first thing in the morning as well.  I thought I would have to wait all morning to get the call. 

At the Mall

So after breakfast and some resting up, we headed back to the Embassy.  We waited just a few moments for the immigration officer.  She took my papers and said to come back in two hours.  So we headed back to the mall.  At 1:00 we headed back again to the Embassy and a few moments later we had his passport back with the facilitation visa.  Although Ricardo was granted Citizenship, he is still travelling on a Honduran passport as it would take many weeks to get a Canadian passport here in Guatemala.  So, the extra papers we filled out were for a facilitation visa which will allow Ricardo to enter Canada with the Honduran passport. 

Yesterday the immigration officer took all my adoption papers including Ricardo's birth certficate.  She told me she was going to keep them.  I asked today about getting them back.  She responded that she needs to send them to Sydney, Nova Scotia where the Canadian Citizen Certificate would be issued.  When I returned in the afternoon, she gave me some copies of the documents with a stamp and her signature on them and a letter saying that citizenship was granted.  She said that if there were any issues entering Canada, to show the letter and the stamped documents.  She said that Ricardo was now entered as a Canadian Citizen in the immigration system so I shouldn't have any problem.  She went on to mention that she had included a letter with my file asking the staff in Sydney to return my original documents to me with the Citizenship Certificate.  So hopefully, I will get all my documents back. 

The rest of the day we spent in the pool.  This hotel has a nice pool and a kids pool which is one of the reasons I picked this hotel, the Grand Tikal Futura Hotel.  Plus the fact that it was only $75 and I got free breakfast.  I have to pay for the kids but it is a big buffet breakfast so we eat lots and then only need a small lunch.  The hotel is nice but a ten minute drive from the Embassy.  Our room looks out to the Pacaya Volcano which erupted in May of last year sending think ash all over the city.  It also causes small quakes.  I had just read this and we had a small quake making Ali sit up in bed and ask me why I was moving her bed.

Ricardo in the kid's pool

Ali in one of the hot tubs

The kids in the glass elevator. Great fun!

Lobby and inside of the hotel

Coming back from the pool

View from our window - Pacaya volcano

 

Tomorrow we might hire a taxi to go somewhere.  I would like to see something while I am in Guatemala and not just a mall.