Indelible Adventures: A Grand Adventure

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For those of you who’ve been following my weekly blog series you know that one of my big trips this year is to take Zach and Sami to Australia for their March Break holidays and visit family. Well, no surprise that we are now only a week or so away from leaving for our grand adventure.

It certainly is a long trip, close to 30 hours door to door, and so not for those who don’t like long haul flights, and apart from the actual packing I think we’re now all pretty set in terms of our trip.

Earlier this week I finally got Sami’s travel visa approved. Strangely it wasn’t a straightforward process and quite different than for prior visits. Its been 8 years since the kids were last in Australia and a lot has changed in that time, much more than I would ever have imagined and so the simple visitor visa process became quite the unexpected journey.

To really understand the full story you have to go back to before Sami was born. In those days an Australian citizen couldn’t hold any other passport, no it’s, and’s or but’s...

However, unbeknownst to me (guess I should have read the full statute and fine print), the day I applied for my Canadian citizenship was the day I lost my Australian citizenship and so becoming a stateless person for the duration of the application and approval process. Goodness knows what would of happened if I hadn’t for some reason been able to acquire Canadian citizenship.

And it wasn’t until Sami was born and now a few months old that I applied to obtain her Australian Citizenship, thus giving her dual Canadian and Australian status like I had gotten for Zach after he was born.

I diligently collected all of the requisite documentation, packaged it up along with the processing fee and sent it off to the Australian consulate expecting it to come back to me with her certificate of Citizenship with no problem. Then I could apply for her Australian passport and then the kids would both have dual citizenships and passports, thus enabling them a broader set of possibilities in the future.

Instead, I received a call from an Immigration official asking very pointed questions about my citizenship. My response was that I was Australian as per the documentation, however then there was a pause…”have you ever applied for Canadian citizenship?” I had no choice but to say that I had applied. “What was the date of your application? they asked brusquely.

I provided them with the date…at which time they informed me that because I had applied to become a Canadian citizen prior to Samantha’s birth, that in effect, I had lost my Australian Citizenship and now stateless.

I was flabbergasted! What? I stammered on the other end of the phone, unable to believe what I’d just heard. They then went on “And as such, she is ineligible to apply for citizenship as you, yourself are not Australian”.

I was incredulous! “What do you mean I’m not an Australian, all my family live in Australia, its where I was born, raised, went to school and worked there for goodness sake”.

“If you believe you have a case for review with the Australian immigration department you can apply for Australian citizenship by going to our website and downloading the requisite documentation and apply”. They then wished me good day and hung up.

I was too stunned for words… All I could hear was “not an Australian citizen” ringing in my ears.

And so began more than a year-long journey of me trying to regain my Australian citizenship. This was both a costly and extremely time consuming effort as I had to get birth certificates, marriage certificates, grandparents marriage and birth certificates, secondary school transcripts, university transcripts, track down my old Australian tax filings etc… It seemed a never ending process, with always another “gotcha” to go track down before they could consider my eligibility.

Once all of the paperwork had been filed and agreed they had everything, so began the waiting game. Three months turned into six without a word and so finally I called them only to find that they were now waiting on yet another piece of evidence that they had neglected to tell me about. The administrator said that because I hadn't responded (not that I received any notification) that they had assumed I had abandoned the application.

And so we then started over again…

A mere six months later I finally received a certificate of Australian citizenship. Hallelujah I was Australian again! With this news I re-apply for Sami’s citizenship. Starting from scratch I gathered all of the information required along with the forms, certificates and processing fee (for a second time, with the first being non refundable) and began the waiting game all over again.

Some three months later I received an official letter stating that, after review she was ineligible to apply for Australian Citizenship…

Oi vey – here we go again!

I protested vigorously, and applied to the Immigration Board of Appeals in Australia for a hearing. We duly received a day and date and we had a conference call so that the judge presiding could make a final judgment.

The judges decision came down "on the day you applied for my Canadian Citizenship, you lost your Australian citizenship, and it is irrelevant that you are now an Australian citizen".He pressed home the fact that "on that day the law stated". I tried to reason with them that the law had now changed to allow for dual citizenship, but he continued his mantra "on that day..." There were no more avenues or appeals and thus were denied Sami's application.

Which brings us to our application for her to visit Australia this time around. Now, because she has an Immigration file thicker than your arm, I had a special process to go through and had to pay another processing fee (five times the standard rate for a visitor visa to make an application to get her a visitor visa for the two week stay), complete the laundry list of online forms and provide evidence of her Canadian citizenship, etc. I had assumed, rather naively that because we were only going for two weeks there would be no further issue... Not so fast mister!

They required additional information before they could decide to grant her a visa. Next we had to get all of our passports and her birth certificate notarized by a lawyer plus an affidavit stating she would not be staying in Australia. I guess they were afraid I was going to leave my 15 year old daughter in the country.

I keep checking to see if they will now allow her application or if the law has been relaxed to allow for her to apply, but no luck so far! Ludicrous bureaucracy at its finest! It makes no sense what’s so ever…but there you have it.

Thank goodness we finally got her visa application granted for our visit, so now it’s just a matter packing our carryon!

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“Hanoi Posting”

A series of fictional micro-stories by Terence Wallis

Episode 34: Tuesday 2:00 pm

Mai picked up the receiver and placed it to her ear "Chào buổi sáng" she said softly. On hearing Mai's voice Bill's face immediately flushed and he awkwardly stammered "Ahhh hi...Mai, it's..its Bill". The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening.

Bill started to explain why he hadn't contacted her since their last meeting, Mai smiled inwardly as he made his excuses but let him continue until he was done. She could hear him breathing heavily on the other end of the phone, waiting momentarily before purring "Tuesday 2:00 pm, you know where I'll be", the receiver went dead in his hands.

He wasn't sure how he felt given the one way conversation between them. He was thrilled to be seeing Mai again, but also felt anxious with the impending meeting. He felt conflicted as to whether to tell Phuong, if nothing more than to know where he was and reasoning with himself that the more people that knew the more risk of Trung and his cronies finding out and showing up...that he knew he didn't want.

Bill was also nervous about seeing Mai again, generally he was so confident and always in control with few situations unnerving him, but Mai was different in so many ways and she always seemed keep him a little off balance and unsure of himself.

One thing was certain, Tuesday couldn't come fast enough...

Next week: Episode 35: One Spirit

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This week's selection of photos from last summers trip to Venezia nella mia bella Italia (in my beautiful Italy).

Enjoy! TW