The angry thread

[cmason]

I'm a Canadian with Australian citizenship also, but was born in Scotland (left when I was three). About 5 years ago, I decided on a trip to Canada planning to use my Australian passport in and out. Quite by accident a month before I left, I found out that Canada had changed its entry rules a few months previously to me requiring a Canadian passport to enter the country as seems to be required for UK citizens entering Britain now. I picked up my freshly minted Canadian passport at the Canadian High Commission here in Canberra and asked the officer how would Canadian Immigration know I was Canadian as my listed POB is Glasgow. He replied that 'they just know'. In other words, passports or not, the system keeps track of you. This begs the question as to whether this extra passport requirement may be a revenue raising exercise.

Webbo

@Webbo So does that mean you also qualify for a Glaswegian passport? 

[Graham]

well that could prove interesting for you @Webbo if you ever decide to go to the UK, as it would now mean you have to have 3 passports, I know my mate in Auckland has his NZ and had to get his Canadian, but he also had an Aussie one which he decided not to renew once he got the Canadian one.

[Bealman]

All this talk about passports prompted me to look at mine. It expired on the 7th January! It's a UK one and it is a pain getting a new one. As I am not an Aussie citizen (permanent resident) I have to get a re-entry visa which is a hassle and expensive.

[Webbo]

well that could prove interesting for you @Webbo if you ever decide to go to the UK, as it would now mean you have to have 3 passports, I know my mate in Auckland has his NZ and had to get his Canadian, but he also had an Aussie one which he decided not to renew once he got the Canadian one.

Maybe I shouldn't bother with renewing my Oz passport even though I've lived here more than half my life. But, almost certainly, the Australian Government will soon introduce some new rule that requires me to have an Australian, Canadian, and Glaswegian passport for me to go where I want to go (and to get back into Australia on my return).

In the good old days, we were all British subjects and could go wherever we wanted at least amongst the Commonwealth countries without undue hassle.

Webbo

[kusojiji]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

[Webbo]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

Do you want to buy a passport?

[Newportnobby]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

Yeah - I can imagine @Bealman lifting up a floorboard and fetching out ½ a dozen passports before deciding who he's going to be - Aussie, British, Sunderland or summat else

[Browning 9mm]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

I loved my passport issued when I was in the RAF.

It stated as ON GOVERNMENT SERVICE

very James Bond

[Browning 9mm]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

Do you want to buy a passport?

cheaper to buy a dinghy these days, and more benefits

[cmason]

All you guys with all them passports! Kinda like a spy movie! 

Do you want to buy a passport?

Scarily I started to sing that to the tune of "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?" from one of the favourite movies of the smallest members of this here household.

[EtchedPixels]

Maybe I shouldn't bother with renewing my Oz passport even though I've lived here more than half my life. But, almost certainly, the Australian Government will soon introduce some new rule that requires me to have an Australian, Canadian, and Glaswegian passport for me to go where I want to go (and to get back into Australia on my return).

I didn't think you needed a Glaswegian passport, they just talk Rab C Nesbitt at you and check if you understand 

I managed to let my passport expire just whilst buying a house and as I don't drive (so no driving licence) that really did make the house buying a bit more exciting than intended and I had to get it renewed to deal with the idiot know your customer stuff.

[EtchedPixels]

cheaper to buy a dinghy these days, and more benefits

Having family members who include people who sought asylum from Albania (and were granted it) when the Americans brought down the state in 1990 you are very very wrong about that.

You'd get better benefits, better food and better accommodation by throwing a brick through a police station window.

[Graham]

All this talk about passports prompted me to look at mine. It expired on the 7th January! It's a UK one and it is a pain getting a new one. As I am not an Aussie citizen (permanent resident) I have to get a re-entry visa which is a hassle and expensive.

I became an Aussie citizen, when my job at the time required security clearance for a particular project, that coupled with the government at the time threatening non-citizens they would have to pay the full price for university, and my eldest about to embark on that journey.

Ironically, I still travelled for a few years on my British passport with the permanent residents visa, until one day, just after returning home for a trip, I was asked to go on another overseas business trip, only to find my visa would expire before I was due to return.

So off I went to the government office to renew said visa, only to be eventually told I could only get an emergency permanent residents return visa at an exorbitant cost as I was expected to have an Aussie passport. The emergency visa was some $500 and a single use, where the new passport was something like $250 at the time.

Next morning into passport office, and the following morning return for Aussie passport pick up.

So after almost 20yrs with no UK passport, I now have to get one so I can go and see the family.

I did explore the other options and found this youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbWd0jKsiXA
explaining it, and from this you can see why the UK passport is the best option for me.

[Bealman]

I had a similar problem in 1990, when my parents died suddenly and I had to return. I've told this story before on the forum, but briefly:

My passport had expired. I got emergency travel document from British Consulate here. Got to Heathrow, where they let me in but took it.

Did all the funeral stuff in NE England. Needed new passport to get back here. Trip back to London by bus to get new passport. One week, sir.

Trip back to NE. Trip back to London, running short of time. Got passport. Then off to Australia house to get re-entry visa. Sorry sir, you'll have to prove you live and work there.

Thankfully a student of mine had won a competition by BHP Coal that year, and I had a huge poster of the two of us at Cordeaux colliery in NSW! That worked.

Nevertheless, it was a stressful three weeks, tempered by a week on South Molle Island when I got back - prize the student won in the BHP competition!

[JulianO]

I had to look up South Molle Island. I wondered if it was a penitentiary.
How come you got that trip when the student won the prize?