20Jun05 - Well the hurdles have started coming fast and furious now. We have tentatively decided to become non-residents in order to pay tax at an American rate. There is a long and involved process to this which includes, renting our apartment at an arms length agreement, severing ties with most financial institutions (including credit cards), giving up any club memberships and such, surrendering your BC drivers license (and obtaining one in Connecticut). We are planning to see a tax accountant next week to ensure we have all or iii's dotted and our ttt's crossed. Here's hoping....

Rayne decided to get a jump on things and drove to the Blaine border crossing today to get her TN (work) Visa processed. Unfortunately the very polite INS officer informed her that they could not process the Visa prior to our moving to the US.....Now this one is a doozy. You see we have been told, the moving company will not even so much as pack our things without a copy of the TN Visa. We had arranged to have out belongings packed on the 28th or 29th of June and moved on the 30th. We are planning to fly out on the 2nd of July after the aforementioned wedding ceremony.

So now we are in an akward bit. We may have to have the moving company store our things for a few days (for an additional fee I'm sure), fly to Toronto and get the TN Visa on the 2nd and then fax a copy of it to the moving company to get our things moving. All this will add to the projected 7 - 12 days that we will be spending sleeping on an airbed waiting for the moving truck. This is of course assumes they will even move our stuff without the Visa.....hmmm, maybe we should have asked for a hassle and annoyance entitlement from the company.

Ciao for Now!