Ship-it!

Lots has happened over the past few weeks. I've been so busy that posting to my blog has fallen through the cracks. One of the most exciting things is shipping Visual Studio 8.0 at work. Yes, the past 2.5 years of my life have been dedicated to shaping the future of software development for millions of developers worldwide. Now the time has come to release the product to the world. November 7th Steve B. hosts the official launch from San Fransisco. Check the site here for a launch event near you! Some of my favorite features are the profiler, generics in C#, and of course the class designer. If you just want to try it out you can download the C# express version from here.
One of the nice things about shipping is that we get a little time-off. I had Wednesday-Friday last week to do whatever I wanted. I used the time to get a lot of stuff done which I never had time for.
Another cool thing is that I bought a Scion XA for Amanda. It's a cute little 4-door, 5-speed in silver. It has 32/38 mpg, side/curtain air-bags and tons of other nice options. We've had a lot of fun driving it around and she's using it to commute to Tacoma. She named it 'Squirt'.

The wait for a green card gets longer

Green card applicants (including myself) have received bad news regarding their quest to become a permanant resident of the US. The US Department of State (DOS) has announced much longer waits for green-card applicants.

Some background information: my application to get a green-card involves two steps: 1) Apply for labour certification in the United States. 2) Apply for permanent residence. When I reach step 2 there must be an available immigrant visa number for my category. In any given year a country may use up to 7% of the available immigrant visas. Currently there are 140000 employment based GCs available a year. So Canada gets at max 9800 of them. This number includes family of those who come in on the same application.

Monthly, the government sets a cutoff date for each employment category. If you have applied for your labour certification before this date than you can get in line for a Green Card. Otherwise, you have to wait until this date is moved up to your priority date. The date can move forward or be retrogressed at any given time based on the number of expected applicants for GCs.

My situation is not immediately affected. I am currently on a visa which allows me to work in the United States temporarily while I apply for a GC. Eventually this will run-out but by then hopefully things will have changed for the better... or I can apply for an extension. I hope after the next presidential elections things will be a little better. The Bush administration will probably not increase the number of immigrant visas right before the election. Meanwhile, large companies are trying to get a bill passed which will have the 140000 limit not include the family members of incoming workers.

This is an informative article which explains the DOS's announcement and how it is affecting people waiting for their green-cards. The biggest issue is that family members of employees on temporary visas are not allowed to work in the US.

Canuck Thanksgiving

It's time to go back... back to the island. Canadian thanksgiving is this weekend and Tom and I are leaving in about 3 hours for Canada. I'm riding my bike to meet at his place, jumping in his 330, boarding the boat, and arriving in Nanaimo around 10pm. Just like old times. I'm sure we'll have a few beer up on deck to pass the time during the 2 hour ferry crossing. I've planned dinner with the family on Sunday, and will meetup with the crew (Cathers, Charmley, Derek, and more) while I'm there.

Since you're reading my site, you obviously expect me to entertain you with useless links. So here's one called stuffonmycat.

I've joined both a dodgeball and soccer league for the fall. Yesterday I played both. Our dodgeball team is unstoppable! We won both rounds. In soccer, my team lost its first game. I scored a goal so am not too dissapointed. These activities should pass the time while I wait for snow, which is already falling in Manitoba.