Paperwork time

I need to get a Social Insurance Number before I can work - this is the equivalent of the UK's National Insurance Number. I also need to register for the provincial health coverage programme. The immigration consultants have kindly provided me with the paperwork I need to make the applications, and a couple of minutes searching on google tells me that I can apply for both at City Hall.

The one downside is that I need my immigration paperwork. You know, the paperwork that I put in my safe deposit box yesterday because I didn't need it any more? So my first visit was to the bank, where I asked the same teller if I could access my safe deposit box again, please. This time, I waited for her to leave the room, though it was amusing yesterday to see the indecent haste with which she vacated the vault when she realised I was opening the box.

I'd come prepared for City Hall - well, I'd brought a book and the rest of the paperwork that I needed. What I wasn't prepared for was the haste with which everything worked out. I think I was in there for less than a half hour, all told, and that involved waiting in no less than three queues. I had all the paperwork ready to go, and I was most impressed that they managed to find the details of my previous Ontario health insurance - which I applied for just about twenty years ago.

So I've got a health insurance card and a Social Insurance card on their way in the next couple of weeks; I've also got a printout giving me my actual Social Insurance number, which I apparently need to memorize and then never tell anyone.