Rounding the Bases

w00t! We finally have word... it seems that part one of our two-part immigration application has been approved! I have officially "met the requirements for eligibility as a sponsor". As best we understand it, the family class spousal immigration application has two components: my application to sponsor Col as my spouse, and her section pertaining to her history, details etc. Now that my application to sponsor Col has been approved, our file is being sent from the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga (Ontario) to London (not Ontario). It seems that they evaluate the section of the sponsored spouse (Col) in the nearest office that processes immigration. As there our none in Ireland, our file is now on it's way to England. While it it a bit strange to her (being Irish) to think that her file is being picked over by the English, we are relieved to know that Phase One is done, and that things are on their way. I was talking on Msn with a friend of mine from Canada tonight (before we received the email from our immigration consultant telling us of the good news). I had told her that a decision had been made, and that we were happy. She assumed that this meant that the response was favorable. I explained that while we were aware that a decision had been reached, we didn't know if it was "yes, she can act as sponsor" or "No, she cannot act as sponsor". We were simply happy to have had some movement in the progress of our file. That's what happens when you are tangled in red tape for too long.