The Interview
I was WAY too confident!
Well, I’m adult and mature enough to admit when I’m wrong. This time is one of those wonderful occasions. Well as you all know, I had my dredded appointment/interview with immigration yesterday arvo – Thursday 25th August. I will remember it and have nightmares about it forever!
Ok let me give you all a short run down of it all. Here I am, confident as anything that they (customs) are going to just welcome me in with open arms; another pommie backpacker to add to the millions living here. I’m reasonably intelligent, can speak English adequately, am willing to work and am rather unlikely to claim off their dole. Now you’d think with that in mind it would be a walk in the park. Alas… no such luck. See, the way I look at it is like this, if I couldn’t speak English, wanted to rape their benefit system and had no intention to work, it would seem that they would let me in with open arms. Trust me, all you had to do was look around at the others in the waiting room to know that this was true. I was the only English speaker there. There were translators, lawyers and other such folk lurking around every corner and little old Billy and me – the outcasts!!!
OK, I’m waffling but I have to set the scene for you all so you can experience just what I did on that fateful day! OK so we get there early, being the punctual people we are!! (No sarcasm intended I promise!) Tore off one of those tickets, you know the ones, the things you get at the butchers so you wait in line for your steak! I should have known from that, that it was going to be a shambles! Appointment was at 2pm, got called up to an open counter and with reasonable confidence, sat ourselves down. The girl looked like my brothers nasty ex, which should have been clue number 2!!
The witch a.k.a brothers ex a.k.a immigration chick asked me for all my forms… check…Had those no problemo, then came a few other easy to find bits. Then came the fun transaction, how will you pay "oh just pop it on the credit card” She asks me if I knew how much this tiny little visa stamp cost, “$2 grand”, I promptly reply. To which she says, “You know it’s non-refundable, if they don’t give you the visa you lose the money”. I knew that joyous news already. Then came the question, quite simple to be honest but felt like a knife digging into my kidney. “So next thing I need is proof you’ve been living together for the full 12months”, she says. “Well, erm”, big pause from the both of us, “well, we only have proof from November as we were living together out in Asia before then, but we were here for 2 weeks in August but obviously we weren’t renting so we don’t have any rental agreements as we were staying with his family and friends”.
Now tumble-weed was free flowing through the office, me and Bill looked at each other and it looked liked we just flopped at the first hurdle. Completely unexpected and unplanned for. OK so now the sweat starts to bead off both of us, no exaggeration at all, we looked so guilty – even though we aren’t! We were stuck as we really didn’t have any proof to cover us for the first 3 months that we were living together. “Right, well then Danielle, if you cant prove that you have been together for the whole 12 months period prior to today then I suggest you don’t go forth and see the case officer as you will loose your money”, the witch explained.
Billy looked at me as if to say, lets not bother, 2 grand is too much money just to loose, lets just wait a few more months. I looked back with devil eyes as if to say, not a chance sunshine, I aint no gambler but this one I’m going to stick on the nose (so to speak!). Now, ever so slightly rattled, sweating and now shaking profusely from anger that the Witch has put an enormous stumbling block in my path, I resoundedly told both of them that I was going to see the case officer. I didn’t come all the way down here to get turned away at the first hurdle. The decision had been made. I was prepared to fight. Anyone who knows me well will know just what I mean. The battle had commenced. Adrenaline was pumping and I was shaking like a leaf. Not a pleasant sight I can tell you.
Ok so we wait what seems like an hour to be seen. It was probably only 20mins but it felt like I was on Death Row! Oprah was playing in the background and she didn’t make me feel any better! Billy and I were going through the whole thing in our heads, we must have looked hysterical, if only someone would have caught the moment on film!
Anyway, we get called in to a closed off office and were introduced to Steve. Thank the Lord, Steve was lovely. Here’s me in my battle outfit, stern faced, sweating and shaking, Billy exactly the same… and then there’s lovely Steve who welcomed us in with a big smile and hand shake. Immediately I dropped the daggers!
We went through everything that we had, all the evidence, all the paperwork and told him our story of the past 12 months. Now here’s some advice to one and all, my whole visa was in the balance and do you know what could have saved me? (Incidentally it didn’t). You know when you arrive into a country you have to fill in an Arrivals card and on it, it has an intended address whilst you are in that country? Well here Steve was with all and I mean ALL my arrivals cards into Australia over the past few years. Now see, if I was sensible, on my August 13th Arrival card you’d think that id put Billy’s address as my intended address. Well clever old Danielle, I put f***ing Sydney down. You can just imagine how irritated I was! Now if I would have put Billy’s address, the interview would have been over and I would have had my f***ing visa… So my advice to one and all is this;
BE SPECIFIC WHEN FILLING IN THOSE ARRIVAL CARDS, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THEM
Ok, with that complete mess up on my part, I was lucky enough to have kept a printed statement from the Flight Centre when we booked to fly from Australia to Bali in August. This one piece of paper may just have saved the day. On the itinerary, it had both mine and Billy’s names and our address and luckily enough it also had the date that we went in there to book the flight – 26th August. 364 days ago. So it proved that 364 days ago we were living at the same address. Admittedly according to regulations, you have to be living together for 365 days, but he thinks that the 1 day can be overlooked! My god, was I happy that I kept that tiny, eeny, weeny piece of paper.
Bless Steve; he looked as relieved as us that we had it. He kept saying to us that he really wants to give us this Visa but he has to cover his ass incase he gets audited. Which is understandable.
So after about 20mins, Steve said to us that he thinks its pretty positive and that he’ll send us a letter in the NEXT FEW DAYS to tell us whether it has been granted. I nearly fell off my seat, FEW DAYS????!!! Here’s me dredding the 2 month wait and this time next week I’ll know whether I got it or not.
I’m, still not 100% sure, he still may ask for more information and proof from us but I can cope with that. As long as we don’t loose that money I’m not that fussed. I came out a hellava lot happier than the first chick, the witch.
So after that huge step by step explanation as to what happened I’m going to leave you all with this cliffhanger…
WILL SHE OR WONT SHE GET IT!!!
I’ll keep you posted!
Well, I’m adult and mature enough to admit when I’m wrong. This time is one of those wonderful occasions. Well as you all know, I had my dredded appointment/interview with immigration yesterday arvo – Thursday 25th August. I will remember it and have nightmares about it forever!
Ok let me give you all a short run down of it all. Here I am, confident as anything that they (customs) are going to just welcome me in with open arms; another pommie backpacker to add to the millions living here. I’m reasonably intelligent, can speak English adequately, am willing to work and am rather unlikely to claim off their dole. Now you’d think with that in mind it would be a walk in the park. Alas… no such luck. See, the way I look at it is like this, if I couldn’t speak English, wanted to rape their benefit system and had no intention to work, it would seem that they would let me in with open arms. Trust me, all you had to do was look around at the others in the waiting room to know that this was true. I was the only English speaker there. There were translators, lawyers and other such folk lurking around every corner and little old Billy and me – the outcasts!!!
OK, I’m waffling but I have to set the scene for you all so you can experience just what I did on that fateful day! OK so we get there early, being the punctual people we are!! (No sarcasm intended I promise!) Tore off one of those tickets, you know the ones, the things you get at the butchers so you wait in line for your steak! I should have known from that, that it was going to be a shambles! Appointment was at 2pm, got called up to an open counter and with reasonable confidence, sat ourselves down. The girl looked like my brothers nasty ex, which should have been clue number 2!!
The witch a.k.a brothers ex a.k.a immigration chick asked me for all my forms… check…Had those no problemo, then came a few other easy to find bits. Then came the fun transaction, how will you pay "oh just pop it on the credit card” She asks me if I knew how much this tiny little visa stamp cost, “$2 grand”, I promptly reply. To which she says, “You know it’s non-refundable, if they don’t give you the visa you lose the money”. I knew that joyous news already. Then came the question, quite simple to be honest but felt like a knife digging into my kidney. “So next thing I need is proof you’ve been living together for the full 12months”, she says. “Well, erm”, big pause from the both of us, “well, we only have proof from November as we were living together out in Asia before then, but we were here for 2 weeks in August but obviously we weren’t renting so we don’t have any rental agreements as we were staying with his family and friends”.
Now tumble-weed was free flowing through the office, me and Bill looked at each other and it looked liked we just flopped at the first hurdle. Completely unexpected and unplanned for. OK so now the sweat starts to bead off both of us, no exaggeration at all, we looked so guilty – even though we aren’t! We were stuck as we really didn’t have any proof to cover us for the first 3 months that we were living together. “Right, well then Danielle, if you cant prove that you have been together for the whole 12 months period prior to today then I suggest you don’t go forth and see the case officer as you will loose your money”, the witch explained.
Billy looked at me as if to say, lets not bother, 2 grand is too much money just to loose, lets just wait a few more months. I looked back with devil eyes as if to say, not a chance sunshine, I aint no gambler but this one I’m going to stick on the nose (so to speak!). Now, ever so slightly rattled, sweating and now shaking profusely from anger that the Witch has put an enormous stumbling block in my path, I resoundedly told both of them that I was going to see the case officer. I didn’t come all the way down here to get turned away at the first hurdle. The decision had been made. I was prepared to fight. Anyone who knows me well will know just what I mean. The battle had commenced. Adrenaline was pumping and I was shaking like a leaf. Not a pleasant sight I can tell you.
Ok so we wait what seems like an hour to be seen. It was probably only 20mins but it felt like I was on Death Row! Oprah was playing in the background and she didn’t make me feel any better! Billy and I were going through the whole thing in our heads, we must have looked hysterical, if only someone would have caught the moment on film!
Anyway, we get called in to a closed off office and were introduced to Steve. Thank the Lord, Steve was lovely. Here’s me in my battle outfit, stern faced, sweating and shaking, Billy exactly the same… and then there’s lovely Steve who welcomed us in with a big smile and hand shake. Immediately I dropped the daggers!
We went through everything that we had, all the evidence, all the paperwork and told him our story of the past 12 months. Now here’s some advice to one and all, my whole visa was in the balance and do you know what could have saved me? (Incidentally it didn’t). You know when you arrive into a country you have to fill in an Arrivals card and on it, it has an intended address whilst you are in that country? Well here Steve was with all and I mean ALL my arrivals cards into Australia over the past few years. Now see, if I was sensible, on my August 13th Arrival card you’d think that id put Billy’s address as my intended address. Well clever old Danielle, I put f***ing Sydney down. You can just imagine how irritated I was! Now if I would have put Billy’s address, the interview would have been over and I would have had my f***ing visa… So my advice to one and all is this;
BE SPECIFIC WHEN FILLING IN THOSE ARRIVAL CARDS, YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THEM
Ok, with that complete mess up on my part, I was lucky enough to have kept a printed statement from the Flight Centre when we booked to fly from Australia to Bali in August. This one piece of paper may just have saved the day. On the itinerary, it had both mine and Billy’s names and our address and luckily enough it also had the date that we went in there to book the flight – 26th August. 364 days ago. So it proved that 364 days ago we were living at the same address. Admittedly according to regulations, you have to be living together for 365 days, but he thinks that the 1 day can be overlooked! My god, was I happy that I kept that tiny, eeny, weeny piece of paper.
Bless Steve; he looked as relieved as us that we had it. He kept saying to us that he really wants to give us this Visa but he has to cover his ass incase he gets audited. Which is understandable.
So after about 20mins, Steve said to us that he thinks its pretty positive and that he’ll send us a letter in the NEXT FEW DAYS to tell us whether it has been granted. I nearly fell off my seat, FEW DAYS????!!! Here’s me dredding the 2 month wait and this time next week I’ll know whether I got it or not.
I’m, still not 100% sure, he still may ask for more information and proof from us but I can cope with that. As long as we don’t loose that money I’m not that fussed. I came out a hellava lot happier than the first chick, the witch.
So after that huge step by step explanation as to what happened I’m going to leave you all with this cliffhanger…
WILL SHE OR WONT SHE GET IT!!!
I’ll keep you posted!
posted by Danielle at 8:47 am
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