Posted by Jim at January 25th, 2004

Before the destruction of the World Trade Center Canadians and US citizens could freely cross the border without much bother. After 9/11, the US stopped allowing Canadians special treatment. In response, Canada stopped allowing US citizens special treatment.

What does that have to do with my life? On Saturday night, one of Kristen’s friends married a nice guy who happens to be Canadian. Owing to the sheer hassle, only 5 members of his family could attend the wedding–his parents and an uncle, aunt and cousin.

Wierder yet, the wedding only took place due to bureaucratic changes in the visa program.

Originally they’d been planning to marry in April. Unfortunately, the visa they applied for had been changed. The Canadian government now only allows same sex couples to get married while using that visa.

So they got married yesterday (in a bit of a rush) and have applied for the other available visa. This one allows spousal visits. This should allow the reception in April to work out–assuming the Canadian government believes that they really got married. They were told to take a lot of pictures (from every possible angle) to show that they weren’t faking it for immigration purposes.

They passed out disposable cameras to the crowd to ensure that they had enough proof. Hopefully the constant glare of camera flashes doesn’t damage to the eye. If it did, they should be blind by now.

Amusingly, they might have been able to use the same sex marriage visa after all. Apparently Kristen’s friend has 2 birth certificates. One of them, (owing to bureacratic error) shows her to be male.

Twisted, eh?