Après un jour au Montréal, J'ai dit "God bless the U.S.A."

[intuitionsys 0]

I just thought I'd post real quick our experiences with the Medical we had done in Montréal for our interview coming in February. Nothing real eventful, everything went smooth, although arriving in Montréal right at rush hour wasn't fun. The 40 is a parking lot from about 8 until 10 (at least). We planned an extra hour early just in case and I'm glad we did. Our appointment was for 10:30 and we got there at 10:15 after getting parked and everything. We went to Montréal as it's closer to Ottawa than Toronto. The Plexo office is in the Rosemont hospital on the first floor (actually the second floor labelled the first) in room 115. They were unusually busy that day as they mostly do work related medicals. We were the only visa-related appointment that day. There is a parking lot (albeit crowded) next to the hospital if you're driving there as we were. We were there in total about two hours.

They were very professional and asked for all the documentation they said they'd be asking for when I talked to them on the phone to make the appointment. The receptionist we talked to spoke decent enough English although my wife is fluently bilingual and I'm what you might call "lingual and a half" so either way we were okay. After a short wait we presented the interview letter and all my wife's immunization records. She didn't have a record of mumps/measles/rubella immunization so rather than deal with the hassle of proving it afterwards we just had it done there for an extra $55. The medical is $260 so all tolled it cost us $315 plus the 13 bucks for parking and gas to get there and back. Making the appointment was the most difficult part as you get routed to voicemail to make the appointment and then they call you back some hours later. The lady who initially answers the phone doesn't speak the greatest English but it's passable so just be prepared for that.

After presenting all the documents there was another short wait, then a quick visit with the doctor and the usual blood pressure tests and the like, then another longer wait, and all the poking in the lab for taking blood, immunization shots, and chest x-rays. They do everything in the lab there including the chest x-ray. I waited patiently out in the hallway for about half an hour to 45 minutes for it to all be done. There is a small coffee and doughnut shop on the ground floor but don't expect anything beyond day old muffins The coffee was decent though.

The receptionist advised us that the pictures we provided would probably be rejected by the Consulate since the background was too dark (actually light gray and to anybody else they would be just fine but if it's too dark it's too dark and I guess they would know) so we ran down to the Jean Coutu about a 5 minute drive away (thank you Garmin) to get "proper" photos taken and paying an outrageous 18 bucks plus tax for four photos. The Plexo people needed three and I was able to keep one for duplicating myself ten times over for less than a tenth of that. We ran back to the hospital to drop off the photos and were then on our way back to Ottawa, sans the freeway parking lot we encountered in the morning.

The Rosemont Hospital front area is currently under construction and sidewalks are a luxury there right now, and there is scaffolding everywhere. If you enter through the front building with the bluish glass front, the office is one floor up and a very short walk from the elevator. I had to wait in the hallway as the waiting area was small and crowded and it was getting stuffy, and I don't mind standing anyway.

We got there at 10:15 and left Montréal around 1:00 or so, so all in all a pretty painless ordeal (for me not my wife she was the one who had to get poked with all the needles )

[Bern. 3]

This is going to sound silly but did you go to Seiden or Mediysis? (cantspellyay)

[intuitionsys 0]

This is going to sound silly but did you go to Seiden or Mediysis? (cantspellyay)

We went to Seiden. That's what the big logo on the receipt says

[intuitionsys 0]

Actually I was just going through all our documentation sorting out what's relevant for the interview and all the medical receipts say "Plexo, Inc." on them, but the website we made the appointments through (got the phone numbers from) says "Seiden" at panelphysicians.com.