Time skipping saves you from the necessity of explaining how the worlds crossed over and is easier if you time skip far enough ahead. But I definitely think we should do it during the actual "collision."
Also, it's been a while since the creator of the thread has said anything. I'm going to remake the interest check, however, I don't know if I would be comfortable GMing, at least not without a Co-GM, due to the lack experience I have with nation RPs and my schedule.
I'll probably remake this in roughly an hour with some details regarding things that we have already established we would like and put the link for it up here, if that's okay.