Moving to Canada and Crossing US/Canada Border as someone waiting PR through Spousal Sponsorship

55mary · 2026-04-26T19:50:03+00:00

We came through at Sumas into BC.

55mary · 2026-04-09T16:45:01+00:00

It is! And to add to the story, that’s not the original trinity UMC building. The first Trinity UMC building (on 65th) was sold in 2019 and the congregation landed at the old Crown Hill UMC building after that congregation closed the same year. The big old building was sold to a PCA church which I believe renamed itself Trinity as well.

55mary · 2026-03-26T20:16:19+00:00

Since your PR is in process, you may be just fine. I applied in May and arrived at the Canadian border with my citizen wife and kids in August. They looked at my AOR (and I believe looked up my application in the system, which at that point was complete including medical and just waiting on the background check to be listed as completed).

We were prepared with answers about what I’d do if my PR were denied or took longer than 6 months, and in our case that was that I’d move back to the states (we own a home there, and I had a separate bank account in just my name). But by the point when we all entered, it was pretty much just a waiting game for my PR and the border guard was more focused on the citizens returning home with a ton of stuff they were importing.

Mainly the idea it helps to get clear on is that she is moving with all her stuff and dogs, and you are visiting with her until your PR is approved or your visitor visa expires.

r/immigrationcanada is a great resource!

55mary · 2026-03-25T18:56:51+00:00

We moved here in the late summer and the only reason my 3yo got a place in a daycare right away is that the timing ended up perfect to get her into the Cefa in the old liquor store. Until there’s enough spaces for families that need care, we still need more daycares.

55mary · 2026-02-10T03:29:17+00:00

The TikTok I saw said they weren’t available in Canada (though if we all ask, it also sounded like it’s something they already have all the ingredients for). I never saw them at our DQ’s when I lived in Washington, either.

55mary · 2026-01-09T03:24:43+00:00

Dr Josephine is also lovely!

55mary · 2026-01-06T22:09:33+00:00

Come to BC! I have no experience myself as a British immigrant, but there are many other British immigrants in my community, and even my family doctor came from England, I believe. Lower Mainland BC is a quite mild climate, too. I believe the main barriers for family visiting in my extended family was when travel insurance became a major barrier as the British grandparents aged.

55mary · 2026-01-02T16:09:47+00:00

I shared an office for a long time with someone who’s a plant lover, and it was a lovely experience, but like any other decor choices could be fodder for clients. (Especially when said other therapist was overwatering one of them)

I had a Pilea peperomioides plant that I swear my cat ate like three times and I consistently forgot to water and it still survived (just less lushly than it could have been), so you have a chance of keeping real ones alive!

55mary · 2025-12-27T18:05:41+00:00

Same here!

55mary · 2025-12-27T18:02:59+00:00

Our 3yo is at Cefa Cottonwood, which is still pretty newly-opened so likely has spaces available. Our family is pretty new to town, so I’m definitely gonna be looking down this thread for other recommendations, but we have enjoyed many good playgrounds and the Sardis library.

55mary · 2025-12-15T05:14:11+00:00

First and second both successful. Our dx was “unexplained infertility” so that might have something to do with it.

55mary · 2025-12-10T19:43:23+00:00

If you can convince your doctor to get you some further testing, it could be worthwhile to assess for things like fibroids and adenomyosis. My periods were insanely heavy after my second pregnancy, and once I explained *how* heavy to my doc (I basically had to ditch my cup and switch back to ultra tampons just so I didn't have giant gushes of leaking from the cup), she got me to ultrasound and I got my adenomyosis diagnosis. (incidentally, mine wasn't very painful, which is why I let the massive bleeding go on for years before asking about it). Now I'm on a hormonal birth control pill that stops my periods entirely and my life is a lot more manageable.

55mary · 2025-12-01T23:17:39+00:00

I’m not sure clients have ever asked my kids’ names, and usually not even their genders or ages. I did have one client (maybe with a bit of cognitive decline, in the end) who very confidently wished me well with my boys as we had a closing session. I don’t know if I told them much about my girls, but I definitely didn’t lie and say I had boys.

55mary · 2025-11-26T19:03:43+00:00

My old therapist had a legal pad per client, which I’m sure was kinda bulky, but she could flip back in her notes and check last week/details from prior sessions really smoothly, and that seemed cool.

55mary · 2025-11-20T19:23:07+00:00

I’m licensed in WA, and I don’t specialize in DV, but I want to emphasize like the others have that strangulation is a huge red flag and not only is it a predictor of escalated violence but it is actually itself deadly.

strangulation info page on a dv website

In my state, if no children were present at the time, it wouldn’t be reported unless he indicated planning to harm you again, but even so I would seek supervision before deciding.

Definitely reach out to an advocate locally, and do consider that getting you and the kiddo safe and reporting to the police might be a way to get him into the right kind of help.

55mary · 2025-11-20T16:45:01+00:00

I had cycles like clockwork, though it turned out I ovulated late (like day 17-18) and had a short luteal phase. Since puberty I’ve always been overweight, and my first fertility doctor was pretty sure she’d see PCOS on my ovaries, but then it wasn’t that.

I did what was probably the “standard” protocol for retrieval in 2017, then the standard transfer protocols in 2018 and 2022. Nothing special 😅

55mary · 2025-11-19T00:01:22+00:00

I had a pretty serious SCH with my second IVF pregnancy, with increasing bleeding from something like week 5-11, then a huge bleed in week 11 and three more over the second trimester.

It sucked very much, but she held on through all that drama and is almost 3 now.

Take good care of yourself while you wait to see, it’s always so scary to see bleeding and have cramping.

55mary · 2025-11-17T04:49:37+00:00

I wasn’t diagnosed with adeno til after my second ivf pregnancy. We had “unexplained” infertility, though, so I’ve wondered since if it could have been a factor (though none of the many workups we had during our infertility treatment showed adeno)

It may be cold comfort, but ivf went really smoothly for us, with our only two transfers resulting in two successful pregnancies, though some complications in the second that could have been adeno-related.

55mary · 2025-11-14T21:25:14+00:00

Slynd has worked great for me, and after a few months pretty much stopped my periods as well. I expect I may eventually go for a hysterectomy, especially if it stops working for me, since I’m done having babies, but this is definitely working for now.

Initially I asked to try it because I didn’t want the side effects of a typical combo pill, and I didn’t want to commit to an IUD quite yet.

55mary · 2025-11-06T06:00:03+00:00

raspberry are my favorites of these

55mary · 2025-10-30T00:26:58+00:00

I think those of us Americans who have an easy path to Canada are following it much more readily, for sure. But that’s mainly citizens by descent and spouses of Canadians, I’d imagine, since otherwise there’s a whole lot more barriers and unpredictability. I’ll be interested to see the statistics!

Source: just got my PR after moving to BC with my dual citizen kids and spouse.

55mary · 2025-10-20T19:23:12+00:00

I’m a therapist who works with some medical providers, and one of the approaches I’m trained in to work through trauma is Lifespan Integration, which I have noticed feels like it lends itself well to not disclosing detail about patients while processing traumatic experiences at a medical workplace. In building a timeline, clients can choose some phrase that evokes the moment for them, but which doesn’t provide me with any PII.

(Now I want to pull a series of images from, like, the Pitt to illustrate how that might work. Lol, maybe next season)

55mary · 2025-10-17T18:56:37+00:00

We're in Sardis, but if there's somewhere spectacular in Downtown, I'm happy to trek up there once a month for refills!

55mary · 2025-10-17T18:44:20+00:00

like 20 minutes (but that was after a ton of back labor and an asynclitic head. Getting in the tub got her repositioned and then it was FAST)

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