Squandrous

One minute into his presidency, Barack Obama has already changed my life.

Many of you know that I have been having issues with regards to my upcoming immigration to the United States of America. I have visited the US Consulate here in Toronto quite often, trying to get all my paperwork sorted so that I can start my new job in Washington DC in the next few days.

I arrived at the US Consulate in Toronto at 10:30am this morning. After my initial check-in and submitting a few forms, I sat down in the waiting room, watching the inauguration on CNN on the big screen television in the corner of the room.

At around 11:30am, I was called in for a short chat with an immigration official who spoke to me for a few short minutes and then pulled me into a small party with the staff of the Consulate who were all watching the inauguration coverage: “We can finish signing your papers later. This is too big too miss.”

I agreed.

Just after noon on 20 January 2009, mere seconds after Barack Obama had completed repeating the last line of the oath of office, my immigration official signed my papers and handed them to me before the presidential address began.

“Congratulations,” he said, “you’re now the first person this Consul has allowed into our country under the Presidency of Barack Obama.”

There’s no prize for being the first person to get his papers signed under a new administration, but his words did remind me of one thing: this may be a time of change for the United States of America, but thanks to the new Obama administration, it’s a time of change for me too.