For some reason, applying for an extension of the E3 is more involved and costly than just applying for a new E3 so that's the path we took. The company's lawyer had to file the Labor Certification Application (LCA) which basically states that my position is a specialty occupation that requires a degree and that they could not fill the position locally. Part of the requirement was that the position be advertised, to give residents the opportunity to fill the position. The requirement seems more of a formality because if an employer (particular a small company) has decided to fork out extra to hire a foreigner, it's pretty clear they've already considered the cheaper alternative. From my experience, the idea that American companies bringing in foreign workers to fill E3 or H1B positions are trying to lower costs is a myth.
The other part of the process is for me to actually turn up at a US Consulate with the necessary documents and get the new visa, after a short interview. Again, the obvious choice for us was to visit the US Consulate in Vancouver since it's less than 3 hours drive away and would save time and money. To book interviews, there's an online site that lists the available interview slots in various Consulates across different Canadian cities. All the Consulates limit how far you can book in advance, falling mostly between 6 - 8 weeks. I for a bit nervous when I logged on and found every Consulate completely booked out. At first I was only interested in Vancouver but as the days passed and no slots opened, I started looking in other cities. At work I had the browser permanently opened on the site and refreshed every 10 minutes to see if anything turned up. On two occasions I saw a slot open up but just as I selected it, it closed up. It appears other people were playing the same waiting game that I was. Fortunately I started the process 3 months before visa expired so I had a good window. Worst case, we would have had to book our interviews back in Sydney. Normally, that wouldn't be so bad but with amount of work I had that wasn't a luxury I could afford.
So after a few weeks of checking, a slot suddenly opened up for Wednesday, June 3 at 9:30am and I jumped on it straight away and managed to secure the booking. Interestingly enough, June 2 just so happens to be our 8th year wedding anniversary :) So we made plans to drive up to Vancouver on our anniversary. The weekend before our trip, Keli came up to Seattle to say good bye to her friends since she was moving back to Hawaii. We let her stay in our guest room again and she flew out the same day we left for Vancouver. Again, we were lucky enough to have Andy and Ellie take of the two dogs while we were away.
Even with our trip, we still went to work that day so we didn't start the drive up til the evening rush hour. Along the way we stopped by a Ross Cristina spotted from the interstate. We also stopped by Olive Garden to have our anniversary dinner. By the time we made it to the Canadian border, the sun had already set. We were hoping to change some currency at the border but the money exchange kiosks were closed. So all we had were US dollars and our credit cards. As it turns out, some shops actually accept US currency and automatically do currency conversions, albeit at a worse exchange rate. Other shops that didn't handle exchange rates would still accept US dollars, at a one to one rate. Oh, well...the US dollar isn't doing that great these days anyway.
So after relying on the GPS navigation to find our way around downtown Vancouver, we checked into the Hotel Le Soleil. One of the things we had to do before our 9:30am interview was to pay the two visa application fees (one for me and one for Cristina, totalling $262) at a Scotia Bank branch. We previously checked online and found only one Scotia Bank in downtown Vancouver that was open at 9:00am. Knowing we didn't have much time, we wanted to make sure we knew exactly where everything was. As soon as we dropped off our bags in the room, we headed down and planned the route to the bank and the Consulate. Fortunately, the Scotia Bank was on the same block as the hotel and the Consulate was just 2 blocks away so travel time wouldn't be an issue.
The next morning, we waited outside bank just before it opened. As soon as it opened we were in and out in about a minute. I wish
all bank experiences were that efficient. With about half an hour to kill, we decided to walk around and do a little sight seeing shopping.
(That everyone, is what I call "compromise". A little secret I picked up over the past 8 years ;-).
So we eventually headed back to the US Consulate, lined up, passed through security and headed up to the processing room. When the clerks were processing our paperwork, we were told that we were missing the LCA documentation. I was confused because the document the lawyers gave me was titled LCA. The clerk processing us insisted it was the wrong papers and had a second clerk confirm it. After a while, the clerk agreed to let us continue with the interview. While we were waiting to be sent up to the interview, an alarm went off. The staff working at the Consulate rushed around and then informed us we had to evacuate from the building. We left via the stairwell and the staff were ushered by security to an area on the other side of the block. The rest of us were left loitering around the building, clueless to what was going on. After questioning someone who was wearing a red helmet, we found out it was just a fire drill. Cool...I just hope in a real scenario they would have the courtesy to inform the rest of us what the threat was. So we waited for about 20 minutes before staff reentered the building and we went through security again. We finally did our interview and the interviewer took our passports and told us to pick them up again in 2 days and that everything was fine.
The afternoon of the same day, the Consulate called me on my cellphone and said I was missing the LCA and that they couldn't continue processing the application until I provided an LCA. Great. I talked to my manager, he talked to the lawyer and the lawyer insisted we had the correct papers. I actually asked the clerk at the Consulate exactly what form I was missing and all they could tell me was that it was a 4 page form from the department of labor. The forms I had contained 5 pages. After searching online, Cristina found a 4 page version of the LCA form. We did a compare and they looked almost similar except formatting and a few questions has changed. It turns out that the form we had in our possession was a revised version that was released in April. I headed back to the consulate the next day and handed in the form I had and explained to them the situation. Another staff looked at it and confirmed it was the correct form. Sigh. I couldn't believe we were the first people bringing in the new LCA form...and I couldn't believe Consulate staff failed to recognize it - because it had 5 pages instead of 4!
So even though we were in Vancouver, it was a company-sponsored trip so we were still obligated to log into work from the hotel. I continued to code on my Dell laptop from the hotel desk and Cristina continued to do her thing on her MacBook Pro from the coffee table. During lunch we would head out and checked out Vancouver. We found an international food court across from the hotel that served Filipino food so we had lunch there twice. Cristina spoke to them in Tagalog and they instantly warmed up to us. It seems Filipinos all over the world start behaving like they're your relative the moment you speak to them in Tagalog. In the evening we ventured further, heading out to Richmond and hitting up all the malls around there.
On Friday we picked up our passports, dropped by the Filipino Goldilocks bakery for lunch and head back to Seattle.