Here’s a tip for anyone considering moving to Australia:
don’t get sick
Been there, done that. But I’ve got an extra incentive not to be sick in the time I’ve got left here (fifty days. No, I’m not counting).
Here’s the deal. I came to Australia on a temporary short term business visa (‘class 457’). After a bit of farting around I figured out that I was covered under the ‘Reciprocal Health Care Arrangement’. Which essentially means I get a card I can wave at the paramedics to prove they can treat me before stealing my wallet. I also took out private medical insurance, because if you don’t, you pay for just about everything (which at $90 per chest X-ray gets bloody expensive when you have pneumonia). Kate and the Pawns, being NZ citizens, automatically got covered.
And time passed, and the 457 expired, and because things were a little unsettled I went onto a NZ spouse visa, a class 4611 (and dear God I’m glad I never have to go through that again). And my Medicare card expired with it. So just before Christmas I trooped into the Burwood Medicare office and said ho! I need a new card, good yeoman. Herewith my passport and my visa grant notice.
‘No,’ they saith, ‘for thou must bringeth in the actual email wot you got from Immigration.’
But look, I replied. It says ‘Visa granted’.
‘We need to see the email.’
You fornicating muppets I thought to myself, and went away again.
I went back this afternoon with a print-out of the email, and spoke to someone who promptly disappeared to see her supervisor. When she got back we talked a little more, and she disappeared again.
Time passed.
More time passed.
Eventually she came back and said I couldn’t have a card, unless I was applying for permanent residence.
Eh? But I’m a UK national. I’m covered by the RHCA.
Yes, because you have an electronic travel authority. But then you have to leave after three months.
Noo… because look, it’s a five year visa.
Yes, but that’s not eligible for cover unless you’re applying for permanent residence.
But I was covered while I was on the 457?
That’s expired. Look.
Yes, I know it’s expired. That’s why I’m on a 461.
But that’s not eligible for Medicare coverage.
gnnngngngngnngggg
OK, I said, let’s attack this logically. (Hah). My wife and children are NZ citizens and they have a Medicare card.
They were applying for permanent residence, then.
No! We’d just got in the country.
You’ve been here a couple of weeks?
No! Nearly three years! On the 457 that’s expired!
They’re applying for permanent residence.
cries no.
Oh, they shouldn’t have got that then.
Listen, we got into the country, three years ago, and within the week came in here to get the Medicare card.
They shouldn’t have been given one. Unless they were applying for—
Permanent residence. Yes, I know. But it was this very office!
They were wrong.
Look, can I speak to your supervisor?
Sure. She’s just left.
—
Brilliant. The manager knows there’s a difficult case so she leaves the office for ten minutes. Very professional. I stalked out, muttering very dark words, and seriously considering getting a taxi direct to the airport.
When I’d calmed down enough to talk, Kate did some digging and ended up calling Medicare, or DIMIA, or some related bunch of utter twonks. Apparently, I’m officially a ‘grey area’. I don’t get a RHCA card, or even a NZ spouse card, but allegedly I am covered—as long as I have my passport on me (which has in it an expired 457 and no 461 because it’s purely electronic).
Probably.
I am not brimming with confidence at this point. Furthermore, someone is lying to me, and I am not best pleased.
And Burwood Medicare offices? You suck.
I think you might have had a better day
If you’d changed your name to Josef K.
I didn’t realize Kafka had lived in Australia.
I think he did, during his cockroach phase.
Would this be the right time to link to my mantis photograph?
(Warning. If you don’t like big insects, don’t click there.)
Ah that sucks, not your fault you don’t belong to the wanna-be resident caste. I struggled with health care in Canada, but felt it easier just not to be ill. Of course, since returning to the UK, all I’ve been is ill．
I’m so sorry to hear that. I don’t know how many similar experiences I’ve had after moving to the USA. This bureaucratic waste of time I find particularly infuriating. Can’t you just try another office? It might sound stupid but I figured at some point they fairly often don’t know what they are doing or why and if you only talk to enough people somebody will eventually make a stamp at the right place.
Someone was angry at me at customs yesterday because two old student visas fell out of my passport wallet when I fumbled with that on my way back into Canada. “Are those valid?” “Probably not”, I said, “I have a permanent resident card now.” “Give them to me” [confusion – the old ones? The PR card? I gave everything.] “You’re supposed to hand these in.” WHERE?? I got new ones per mail! Who was I supposed to give the OLD ones to? Anyway, she gave me one of my student visas back, because “this one is still valid”. NO it is NOT valid – I am no longer a student and I’m on another type of card! (I did take it back. Her fault.)
And on the way to the US an American border guard reprimanded me for keeping old visa waivers to the US. Those things are good for 3 months, so I should technically hold onto them for 3 months in case I go to the US again. and then 3 months pass, and I did not go to the US, so did not run into a customs official to return it to. IT MAKES NO SENSE.
And meanwhile, my sister is trying to get her visa to Australia, and ran into conflicting instructions from the embassy and the immigration website. She has a ticket for late February, but may or may not actually be let into the country. I’ll tell her not to get sick, just in case….
@Eva I had a similar problem the final time I arrived at Vancouver – the border person took all my visas from my passport to remove the old ones but never put the valid one back. As I was planning to leave a few months later it wasn’t a problem but it was pretty stressful. You are supposed to hand the visa waivers back, as in drive to the airport to hand them in if they expire. I always just hand them back as I leave and figure on filling a new one out even if I come back within 3 months.
@Richard, was the title some kind of closet geek B5 reference?
_ was the title some kind of closet geek B5 reference?_
Really? What makes you think that?
Eva, I got a stern telling off from a US official about not handing the visa waiver back in upon leaving the US. “According to this you have overstayed your allotted time in the US because you arrived in Chicago on Feb 2nd and never left the country. I’m going to have to stamp your passport accordingly”, he said. This despite the fact that I had a stamp arriving in the US on Feb 2, and a stamp arriving in Canada later that same day, plus I was standing there having this conversation in Vancouver airport which is blatantly in Canada, i.e. I did sodding leave.,
Didn’t make any difference – I got an angry red stamp in my passport and a warning that “two more of those and you’re never getting in again”.
WHICH SUCKS
And now the red stamp in my passport gives me even more hassles at the US border than you should expect with a non-US or Canadian passport. So now I do the same as Katherine and hand the damn visa waivers back in when I re-enter Canada, regardless of whether I think I might be back in the US within 3 months.
Citizenship test in less than a month. Patience, patience, the coveted Canadian passport is only a few months away.
p.s. Richard, once I get the Canadian passport, I’ll be posting the epic saga of my experiences with the Canadian immigration system, including healthcare status. Let’s just say that getting your wallet stolen and changing your name in the same month creates some additional problems.
Update: Medicare head office say Burwood Medicare offices were wrong, wrong, thrice wrong. The counter assistant didn’t ask the right, or enough, questions, and the supervisor certainly should not have scarpered like a sheep from an Australian farmer.
So. We’ll see.
They handed me a medicare card straight off the plane no problems and have renewed it at least once since then. No permanent residence application required.
Yeah, they were talking utter bollocks at the office. Apparently the conversation should have gone something like:
Mucking fuppets.
I suggest you get a copy of Meet the Feebles directed by Peter Jackson. Now there’s some Mucking Fuppets.
I second that – one of the funniest films EVAH
But what about my expired student visas? There was never any opportunity to hand those in anywhere because I was always at home when the new one came and, aside from limits of patience and sanity, not crossing any borders at all.
Dunno mate – I’ve never heard of that requirement, and I have all of my old expired work permits stuffed in an envelope at home. My Record of Landing is the only Canadian immigration document that I still have folded up inside my passport.
And we’re supposed to be the smart ones.
How do ordinary people cope?
Sadly, they sometimes don’t.
“How do ordinary people cope?”
Well, my sister’s current problem is that one website says she needs a “copy” of her degree and the other one says she needs a “certified copy” of her degree. A dilemma easily solved by simply not having one.
I had the same conversation after my student visa expired…. in Canada.. and the next time i entered the US and the entry visa was still there “why did you not remove this” ehhh…. was I supposed to? Really? Since I rather leave my passport alone an let the officials deal with it I do not know really what they expect.
Other than that, I can tell you about the fear when I returned to the US this summer (from UK, not talking about the trouble I had leaving the UK … “why have you been here? Why do you have a Swedish passport when you are flying to the US?” – yes, I loved that one too…..) and the immigration officer stamps my visa slip with NO and hands me back all my papers and says “the date is too old”…. and when I show her that the date next to the signature (you know, the signature that needs to be updated once a year) is valid she goes… “well, I did not think of that”. And after that trying to enter with a Red stamp NO and a black one Yes…. oh so fun…. not.
I just slowly count to 15 and remember that nothing will ever be better unless I stay calm and on my best behaviour :)
Do you think there’s an exam to be an immigration officer?
Hah! At least in Australia you get to see a doctor and get an X-ray when you need one. I’m an Australian in Canada on a temp residence working visa, I have been waiting 18 months to see an ortho surgeon, it took 6 months just to get a CT scan! Private health coverage or not.
Don;t even get me started about the immigration process. Having experienced both, the Canadians could beat the Australians for bureaucracy any day.
Richard> I don’t know. I would think so (“Remember that if you feel threatened at any point, or just are bored, you can revoke thier rights and toss them out of the country. you are, in the real meaning, small gods” bitter? me? nahhh.)
I do know that I have to admit pulling the “PhD card” after endless mins of the whole thing in UK. Being interviewed, rather ‘questioned’, by a man who looked like he was younger than 20. And having to state “how long I’d been in the country, why only 4 nights (gosh forbid you’d stay a short time) and why flying to the US when it was clear to me that I could live anywhere in the EU….” That’s when the temper took the way of “I am a doctor and was invited to Cambridge and now I’m on my way home to my research institute in US”. ehh…. going crazy with titles and important places? The sad thing was that it worked. He looked at me, gave me the [wrong] visa paper to fill in and left me.
this turned out to be 12 hours before the US immigration officer stamped a big NO in my passport and I had less than an hour layover to catch the last flight to my city… not the best trip. Therefore I am flying direct to Stockholm this time and hope to be greeted with a “välkommen hem” :)
“There’s no place like home”—or hem!
Richard> Exactly :) (or at least; there is no place where your passport and you are in sync)
Oh! I’m going back to Burwood Medicare offices today—with a name and a phone number to tell them they’re wrong.
Wish me luck…
wish wish :)
I read this post, and now I am confused.
Also, you’ve completely killed any residual desire I might have had to emigrate, anywhere. Even to the Province next door.
This post and the conversation are so depressing, I was trying to stay out of it. After going through tons of hassle getting my resident status sorted out in the US, we are now back in Germany – and are being asked to prove that we really are married before my husband’s resident status here can be finalized. Which means sending the original marriage certificate back to Colorado to get some additional stamp on it.. keep your fingers crossed that they’ll know what we want back in CO, and that the document shows back up here in one piece.. (of course, flying over and doing it in person might be better, but tickets are a wee bit beyond the budget right now..).
I don’t think I’m ever leaving the country again. It’s a madhouse out there!
Don’t even get me started on the ridiculous hoops we (and the applicant) have to jump through when we (gasp!) desire to hire a foreign national. The term “Labour Market Opinion” should strike fear into your very heart, believe me.
Richard W., that’s why I decided to land as a resident in Canada, instead of trying to get a 1 year work permit. It was easier (and it wasn’t easy at all!)
Update: we don’t have to mail the original marriage certificate. Hubby got on the phone and now found out that we can have a certified copy mailed from Routt County, Colorado, to the Secretary of State’s office in Denver, to have them put the ‘apostille’ on there. The hold-up now is getting a cheque (remember those?) for USD 1.25 to Routt County and of USD 2.00 to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Denver office by snail mail.
I guess that’s good news so far?
Better than Eastenders, this.
It is, isn’t it?
When’s the next episode?
Wintle said
Only ‘now’?
Update: It was too hot to traipse to Medicare the last two days. I’ll go in on Tuesday.
The hold-up now is getting a cheque (remember those?) for USD 1.25 to Routt County and of USD 2.00 to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Denver office by snail mail
Crikey! I’ll send them the checks for US$3.25, Steffi, if it’s any help. Less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks or Java City.
Richard: It was too hot to traipse to Medicare the last two days. I’ll go in on Tuesday. Man, things are so going to change when you’re back in the UK, aren’t they?
Kristi: Thanks so much! We still have a bunch of friends in CO who would help out, but my husband actually still has a bank account there at this point (and some cheques in the drawer). I will buy you a coffee whenever I see you for offering, anyway!
Oh yes, Steffi. I’ll get access to decent beer for starters.
Better than Eastenders, this.
Tune in next week for another riveting episode of The Scientist, in which the perpetually peripatetic protagonist is p*ssed off with pesky procedures at his local medical office.
I don’t know any more “p” words this early on a Saturday morning.