The Waiting Game

Well, I had a call from the recruiter in London today to assure me that all was well, it just wasn't moving along very fast. I am still waiting for the formal offer to arrive via email as promised. It's now been nearly 6 weeks since the interview and 2 weeks past when the agency promised we would hear from them. The recruiter explained that the Australian government agency has gone through major restructuring and this has caused some of the delay. As well, they are processing the last wave of successful applicants and the current wave of 25 they hired (I was one of 25). I can understand there is a lot of work to do, however I don't understand why they were not better prepared for this work. I mean, if asked to hire 45 employees in the coming year, you would make sure you had the appropriate amount of staff to carry this chore out. Perhaps they had no way to gauge this, I'm not sure. All I know is that I hate the waiting game. There is a great deal to do when emigrating to another country, and I can't really do ANY of it until I at the very least, have something in writing. Right now, all I have is the word from an unreliable recruiter in Toronto who has broken more promises than she has kept about time frames, so has stopped making them.

What the recruiter did say is that once the visa nomination is made, the visa processing time has been rather quick, usually 2 weeks and they're ready...that is good news, if it is to be believed.

Time is running out, and I have just 2 months left in my lease for my current housing, and less than that in employment insurance. I started this in November, and thought 6 months would be enough time to go through this process, but now I'm concerned it is not going to be, and I'll be homeless and broke come May 1st. So I've explained to the recruitment agency that I cannot continue to wait without making back-up plans, particularly with no formal offer on the table. I'm going to start applying for jobs in Canada this week. I've been browsing for months, but now will have to start getting down to business. As of May 1st, I have to be working SOMEWHERE. I really don't want to sign another lease, so will have to depend on the kindness of friends if it looks like it might only be a week or two, but otherwise will have to find yet another place to live. It is a lot of hurry up and wait. Sigh...

So that is the latest. Stay tuned...