Alright so here is the longer story:
The interview itself is pretty intimidating. They bring you into a room with a glass in between (like a jail) and little speakers and microphones. My husband had an interpreter so there were 2 chairs. You CANNOT bring your purse, telephone, etc. So if you have additional proofs, make sure they are PRINTED.
After 1.5 hours, I was sitting outside and freaking out. The security guard says it never takes more than 1 hour. Then he got a call asking me to go up to speak to them. I was SO scared. The interviewer had one question about my work address and then made me speak Italian so he could be sure that we could communicate well. This seems to be a main concern. Age difference came up, he told them the truth, that it didn't matter to him or to me, but language has a big impact. Seeing that his english was bad, if I did not make enough money to support him while he went to school in the first few months, they may have denied him. He spoke a little english but they didn't make him answer any questions in english or anything. They asked him about how we met, how we fell in love, how we communicated until I learned Italian, why he was out of work, what his family thought of our relationship and that's about it.
It only took 1.5 hours because a fellow Cdn had lost her passport and had a child with her so she went before them.
At the end of the interview they told us we could go celebrate, that they would be approving the app and when I went to give him the passport he said we needed to wait for PPR. So I got really stressed because everyone else said that they asked for the Passport right away. So I insisted that I wanted to leave it and told him I was leaving on the 18th and hoping to take him home with me. He got a little defensive that it might take time, etc. but in the end I'm sure he just handed the file over to a JR person who processed it right away.
He said our file was WAY too big and that that's why it took so long. But I don't regret sending all possible proofs (because they had lost half my app for like 2 days back in Mississauga).
After the interview I emailed the VO asking them if they would issue the Visa before I was departing on the 18th. No response. Then 2 hours later while we were visiting the Vatican, I got an email saying that the documents were ready to be picked up by courrier or in person between 8 and 10 am. So we responded that we would come the next day and went to an internet café to book his flight.
Nothing went smoothly. Flight changes and one-way flight bookings are a nightmare but somehow we made it happen and booked his ticket that day. The next day we went to the Embassy and were handed a giant envelope. In it was pretty much every document and picture I sent, except the application. So that's good. I sent double the photos so we were able to leave some for his family to keep and keep some for our albums. I also signed him up for Blue Cross insurance until his OHIP will kick in. It was 210$ for 3 months. Not bad at all.
On flight day we brought his passport and his 2 landing documents required to come to Canada and had no problems in Italy getting through EXCEPT that my husband had to give up his Italian working permit in Rome because he said he was moving to Canada permanently. So he can now only return to Italy as a tourist and is not considered a resident of Italy anymore. We weren't expecting that but we were running late for our flight so we complied.
I had the flu so it was a HORRIBLE day for me and a HORRIBLE flight. My parents surprised us by coming into the airport to pick us up, along with my sister. They didn't make a sign but they did take pics for us
I was very happy but have never felt more horrible or exhausted in my life. Thankfully they bought me some gatorade and we began the 4 hour drive home.
Got home around midnight and hubby was super cute walking through the house, remembering only the bits and pieces he had seen on Skype. His family was great and bought calling cards the first day, checking in and everything. Voxer is a great APP to chat with using only data as well.
And now we got all of his family on skype so we can speak more and they can see we are well.
So that's it. I did a lot of research and a lot of work getting him registered with OHIP right away, his SIN, registered in the free ESL classes, etc so if anyone has any questions about that please PM me and I will be glad to help!
