It's (almost) official!

This nice leafy courtyard is in Port Louis, the Mauritian capital. You enter through an impressive, green, wrought-iron gate and it is surrounded on three sides by 18th century colonial style buildings. It's the kind of architecture that you often see on postcards, yet I'm willing to bet that my parents are among a select few tourists to ever set foot in there. It's the Supreme Court. We took them there on the second day of their holiday for the last piece of the immigration card puzzle; the affidavit, signed by my Father-in-Law and a good friend, to say that Merv is who he says he is, even though his second middle name is missing from our marriage certificate.

As we had no role to play in the proceedings, we waited outside in the courtyard, watching the well-dressed judges striding purposefully up the path, and the less well-dressed citizens milling around, presumably waiting for their court appearances. It was fascinating, but I didn't dare take any photos. We stood out enough as it was, even after my Dad took off his safari hat. 

The whole thing was signed, sealed and delivered in about fifteen minutes (thank you Smita!) and we headed straight off to the immigration office, armed with all this :

Almost ten months to the day after our first visit, my documents were finally accepted and I was given a signed paper stating that my application for residency was under consideration. I was told the process took approximately sixty days and that they would call me to let me know when we could go collect the card. We were a bit worried that they would call while Merv was off working and that they would destroy the card and make me start the whole thing again if we didn't collect it in time, but we didn't need to worry. It turned out they were super efficient and called yesterday, after only twenty-four days, to say my card was ready. Merv explained that I had left Mauritius to spend Christmas with family and they said they'll keep it until we can go get it. Phew!