Project 365 Fri 25 Sep 09

WE'RE HOME
And no such thing as Thu 24 Sep 09 for us this year.

Instead we had two Tue 4 Aug 09 this year.

Weird thought.

And because a post isn't a post without a photo ... our luggage. And no, you're not counting incorrectly ... there are seven suitcases.


Our suitcases all in a row.

Project 365 Tue 26 May 09

PASSPORT UPDATE
As if I wasn't excited enough when Horace rang me at work to say my passport was arrrived, that was nothing to when I actually saw it. I believe I almost kissed it in relief ... it took almost a month to get here!


My old and new passports: both UK or rather now EU.

Horace is now well on his way to get an Australian passport, and is doing a really good job. The next stage is the Naturalisation Ceremony and then the passport should only take a few weeks after that.

Clarissa's been waiting for my old passport to return; she needs my residency stamp to prove her citizenship. A very dull story I bored you with a few months ago . I'm taking her passport application tomorrow with me and I'll drop it off when I get my new passport stamped with a residency visa.

And, of course, Wini's had her passport for years.

We're getting there.

Project 365 Wed 1 Apr 09

ANYBODY SEEN HORACE'S PASSPORT?
Horace's memory issues lead us astray at times; twice recently with his passport.

Clarissa started organising her passport last year for the Summer Camp program (which I should say is no longer on the cards for 2009), and we needed Horace's passport as part of proving her entitlement to Australian citizenship.


The envelope Horace's passport is inside in his drawer.

Anyway we found it after Horace searching for it over a couple of days and I asked him to leave it with me so we'd know where it was. He preferred not to, and I didn't press because it's his passport, but now we've paid for our tickets, Horace needs a visa in his passport to get into the US and we couldn't find his passport.

I arrived home last night to Horace's papers all over the bed and the floor, again, and Horace hunched over it all with a pain in his hip. He'd been sorting and resorting everything to find it, but with no luck.

While he went to get dinner organised, I started looking and came to the same conclusion. The passport was nowhere to be found, but because I'm obsessive and can't rest until I find something I started looking in other places ... which was Horace's plan for the next day.

I was luck and found it in the first place I looked ... in his sock drawer! Lucky ...

Project 365 Tue 31 Mar 09

WE'RE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY
What with everything that's been going on with my ears and trying to cope with work I've been a little remiss in not mentioning the whole family is travelling overseas.

At first it was just Horace, Clarissa and I, with Wini heading off to Tasmania with Siobhan and no chance of her coming for financial reasons. That has all changed now with Wini also heading overseas as well.

Horace, Clarissa and I are heading off to New York on 4 August and arriving back in Australia late September. Although the plane tickets suggest we'll be in the US for seven weeks, in reality the first two weeks will be in Montreal with Dianne, the next 2-3 weeks in New York (with Lloyd and family) and then heading over to England for about 2 weeks. The train tickets to Montreal and the return flight to the UK we'll be buying in the US when we get there.

This trip is all about family; Horace's family in particular, with the majority of our time to be spend with Dianne and Lloyd. I'm really looking forward to Horace and Clarissa having the chance to spend some time with them, and then we'll be spending some time with my family in England. Mainly my Mum's family but I'm also going to follow up on my dad's family

Wini's trip is a little different because (and this came as a great surprise to all of use really) Wini's going to Canada to spend some time with a guy she dated in Australia a couple of years ago. She's leaving on the same sort of ticket at the rest of us but much earlier in July, she'll be spending the month with Diane and Lloyd with us, and after that she'll go back to Ottawa until she returns to Australia in late October. I'll post separately another time about how this came about.

All four of us have paid for our tickets, I'll be arranging out insurance shortly, and I'm working through mine and Horace's passport issues and there's more of that to come ...

Storm in a teacup!

Talk about happy because my expired passport is considered proof of Clarissa's entitlement to Australian citizenship.

I spoke to my mystery caller from DFAT this morning and it turns out I was given dodgy information by the passport hotline; the expired bit applies to information that proves identity (eg a driver's licence), and not residence such as a passport.

So imagine if I'd given up and accepted the first advice I got, and we'd handed out $55 to get a certificate for Clarissa, only to discover later it wasn't required! That seriously would have got up my nose.

Now Clarissa has to get cracking on her passport and with any luck she'll have it within the month and we can finalise her application.

Government department update

The status at the end of my post ten days ago is that I emailed my local member of parliament, DFAT (which issues passport) and DIAC (who manage immigration and citizenship). A few days later I emailed the Senate Committee on Regulations and Ordinances which oversights legislation developed by all Government departments, with the hope that it might be something they could ask DFAT to review.

So far I've heard from DFAT and DIAC.

DIAC told me it wasn't them, which I've accepted because they can't make DFAT do anything it doesn't want to.

But wait for it; I've had two responses so far from DFAT.

The first said DIAC manages citizenship, so go bother them!

I responded back quickly (and very politely) with an "I don't think you've quite understood me yet, but DFAT is the problem", and "Can you answer the question I posed to you or explain why DFAT and DIAC have different standards for assessing proof of citizenship."

I then got amazing service with a phone call last Friday within four hours of responding to DFAT ... the only problem is that I'd already gone home and the person responding won't be in the office until tomorrow. Just my luck!

But my fingers are crossed that I got dodgy information when I rang DFAT in the first place and my passport will be enough to prove Clarissa's entitlement to Australian citizenship.

Otherwise I'm going to keep complaining.

Dealing with government departments

As I anticipated, Clarissa's interest in going to CAMP USA is resulting in plenty of delegation and all of it to me!

The first thing I've been looking at is her passport and it's not going to be as easy as Wini's passport.

The rules have been changed so that applicants need to provide evidence of their parent's status eg citizenship or permanent residence as part of the application process. For Horace and I as permanent residents, this turns out to be a passport with permanent residence stamp. However, it can't be any old passport; it has to be valid at the time the applicant was born. Lucky me or Clarissa, mine expired a few years before she was born, and so far no luck with even finding Horace's.

There is another approach to prove she's an Australian citizen that doesn't involve showing our passports to Foreign Affairs and Trade. And that's taking the same expired passport to Immigration and Citizenship and getting a certificate which identifies Clarissa as an Australian citizen.

So, get this: Foreign Affairs and Trade won't accept my passport as evidence Clarissa is an Australian citizen but Immigration and Citizenship will! And what is the magical thing that makes all this possible? The answer appears to be $55!

I'm not particularly happy that two departments have inconsistent rules and I've sent off emails to both departments and my local member of parliament. What's more I asked for the policy to be change. I'm not expecting anything to change (or turning blue because I'm holding my breath), and over the weekend I'll kick off the process of applying to Immigration and Citzenship to get the certificate. What else can we do? Clarissa want to go and the quicker we get her passport the better.

What's that saying; "You can't fight City Hall (and government departments)"? And I ought to know ... I work for one!

Odds & sods

It's been a quiet day and yet we've still managed to get a few things done which are very dull but necessary (eg clean the stove), but also some good stuff like giving Horace a much needed massage to get rid of a few tight spots in his back and a few things for myself.

I also made an inquiry earlier for a place in Paynesville for a three day trip away for Horace and I. It's a beautiful little town of 3,000 people on the Gippsland Lakes about 3 hours drive from here, and I think a few days away would do both of us some good.

And Wini gave me a start a few minutes ago. She came out of her bedroom to show me a butterfly on her arm. She told me recently she was planning to get another tattoo and I couldn't look at it. All I could think was is that Wini's new tattoo! Eeeeeeeek!



I had to take a couple of deep breaths and listen to Wini scoff at me for being such a baby (which I totally am) before I could actually look at it. It turns out somebody at the nightclub she went to last night was drawing on people's arms, and knowing that it would wash off I was more than happy to admit it's rather beautiful. But permanent ... that's a whole 'nother story!