Wednesday, July 11, 2012

mad rabbits

Have you ever had a song go feral in your mind, and get stuck there? I've had an old Gordon Lightfoot track turn itself into something that keeps repeating like over-greasy chili sauce. So I thought I'd inflict it on you. "Look here child, your father's pride was his means to provide everybody around with mad rabbits."

Yes it's been rainy and miserable. I spent 2 hours on the 'phone to Immigration about James's Fiance and am no wiser. After my experiences with New Zealand's Emigration (we wanted Flinders, but we were not sure we'd get into Australia, but if we got NZ permanent residence we could also come to Australia after 4 years - the process of applying and acceptance took nearly 3 so, same ball park.) dept. I concluded there was a certain level of pure beurocratic inertia that mere logic doesn't penetrate (NZ - Yes, you have the points to come here as a migrant and bring your wife, if you work in your field. Yes, your wife has the points to come here and bring you, if she works in her field (and there is a large demand). Yes you could come here and write, but only if you are published by a NZ publisher - which would not pay you enough to live on. You could come and be sponsored by a peer organization of sf/fantasy writers, but we don't have one. They would have to put a smallish amount of money to guarantee you would not be a drain on the state. No you can't put it up and in trust so you can't spend it. Gah. Basically, we could have got on an 'plane - as friends of ours did, and -as they had the points, applied from inside the country, and got temporary status fast, and to permanent residence in 2 years. But despite the fact that their own rules said we'd be very desirable citizens, they tossed us about from pillar to post, and the Australian visa came through. And in fact if it hadn't we'd have taken 2 years of Barbs working at radiography job, and got permanent residence, and all they would have gained would be 2 years they'd quite possibly have got anyway. This is much the same, the girl has the points to get a visa - she's a very desirable graduate, in a field which Australia doesn't have enough of, her husband to be is a permanent resident, she's over 21, short of some major impediment (like another husband or criminal record - which she doesn't have) she has two ways into the country. Why then make it complex? Why make her spend 7-12 months of uncertainty -- apart from her partner, thereby making it more likely they'll go there instead of coming here? Yes, I could see the sense, perhaps, if she was 17 year old illiterate coming for an arranged marriage, of trying to slow it down. It's futile anyway, because the people who might take it as an impediment, you want. But seriously, if you're eligible for a working visa, have desirable skills, have a permanent resident partner with desirable skills and a job... why does it need a year? There are no time advantages to doing it right, to doing it from outside the country.

Sigh. Mad rabbits.

I think the wallaby are close enough for me to supply everybody around with.

7 comments:

  1. yep. We have a stupid immigration policy here that seems to get stupider with time.
    Want to do it the legal way? Gonna cost ya...after getting resident visas and what not and prove you will not be a burden etc pay up $3000 and go through the testing etc... no voting until you get those full citizen papers, and make certain your taxes are spot on or else...Want to do it the illegal way? many areas, and our current Federal administration will refuse to ask your status, likely not only will not deport you, but help you get on any assistance programs, turn a blind eye if you have a voter registration card in your pocket with your false ID, and woe betide anyone who might try to enforce the laws.
    Especially if one is of a certain racial set, it is far easier to be here illegally than to follow that law.

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    1. Sigh. It all comes down to refusing to acknowledge that, well, actually you have to reward good behavior, and punish bad, instead of the other way around. And while I know this not PC, not all migrants are of equal value to a country. Those that can pick and choose - like my son - will. And rather like publishers and authors, they still have to learn that brains, hard work, training and education are not really an infinite resource.

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  2. I had to chuckle at what you wrote about NZ, when I tried it was "Permanent residence? no problem all you need is a job" only catch was no company would offer a job unless you tad the right to work in NZ. How did you get that right? Why you got permanent residence. For us Oz was much simpler, I got in on a sponsored long term business visa & then the company sponsored the permanent residence.

    BTW, I know that there is, or was, a bridging class visa for people planning to marry, the immigrating partner can (could?) then apply for permanent residence from here. For what it's worth the I found immigration people in Hobart very easy to deal with, they would even use what discretion they had to make things easier. Unfortunately there is no way to call them directly these days as everyone has to go through the call center and the people there seem to know nothing.

    DaveC

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    1. Yes, chicken and egg country. The point was, certainly at that time, Barbs could walk into a job, and I didn't actually need one, and we had the money to live for a couple of years. The situation with the prospective marriage visa is that it makes planning very difficult - the visa can take anything between 5-12 months. You MUST enter the country before you marry (but you may leave to marry) and must marry in 9 months. They want to marry there with her family, fair enough. They have friends and relations all over the world to invite - so it can only be in June-July or December. But they can't plan this until the visa is issued... because you can't apply, and get married say 8 months... because if you marry before the visa gets around to being issued, you can't enter the country on that visa, but have to wait another 5-12 months for a partner visa. Gah.

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    2. OK, that sort of timing makes things ... awkward.

      DaveC

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  3. This comment exists for two reasons: one to prove I still read this blog (personally, I'm currently blogging about the accident I was in when I was 12) and two, because you actually quoted (kind of) a Gordon Lightfoot song that wasn't Sundown or the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Don't get me wrong--I love both those songs, but it was nice to see Circle of Steel quoted, too.

    Lisa S. in Seattle

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    1. Have to confess I'd never heard Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - I've just read the lyrics, and must get it. It's my sort of song. I am more likely to quote Don Quixote than any of the others. I identify with it I guess.

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