Biometric! Crackdown! on Illegal! Immigrants!
Filed under: Getting to New Zealand, Hubby's Views, NZIS & Immigration issues
In a headline that would bring pleasure to the ears of many Daily Mail or Daily Express readers, encapsulating many of the papers favourite subjects, NZ is to crack down in illegal immigrants, and share the information with the UK.
So what is behind the headlines?
Many (economic) refugee’s arriving in UK/Europe have in the past ‘lost’ their passports while on the flight over. Thereby making it very difficult for immigration authorities to prove who they are, or whether they are genuine refugees. Net result, they spend a protracted time in Europe while their refugee case is investigated and they can’t be returned to the country they flew in from. Since they don’t have a passport and their actual country of citizenship can’t be proven one way or the other. You can’t put someone on a plane and send then ‘home’ without a passport unless you can prove that the country you are sending them to is ‘home’.
One way to avoid this problem is by finger printing all non-resident arrivals. So when someone shows up without passport, you can potentially prove who they are, without their co-operation. The Americans have been doing this for a while, whether you need a visa before you fly or not.
(Which is why we refuse to fly through the US on the way back to the UK, and apparently we aren’t the only ones, because AirNZ started Flying Via Hong Kong a few years back to cater to people who refused to fly via Los Angeles).
What the NZ sharing of information means here is that if someone turns up in Australia on one passport, and whether they seek refugee status or not, then try and enter NZ on another passport (or ‘lose’ their passport on the plane to NZ) – the NZ authorities will be able to check their fingerprints with Australia when the person first entered. By return, the Australian authorities can then check NZ records. Net result, fewer ‘undesirable’ people are let into either country. Undesirable here is anyone who isn’t traveling on a genuine passport that belongs to them and correctly identifies them.
This helps with the bigger issue of criminal gangs establishing what appears to be genuine travel records on a fake passport. Using a patsy means that when the real criminal wants to enter a country, the passport looks used and genuine. Unless of course finger prints are taken each time. In which case Immigration authorities can determine that you’re using a fake passport. And you suddenly become ‘undesirable’.
The scope is being widened, to include Canada, the UK & the USA. Which casts a much wider net.
Why you may ask, is NZ part of this? Surely there aren’t that many criminals trying to sneak into the US via NZ? or the other way around?
Well, NZ has often been seen as a bit of a soft target for criminals looking to enter other friendly countries, or for obtaining fake passports. And NZ, for all it’s anti-nuclear stance, is still part of the friendly intelligence community. So the net result is that NZ passports are considered friendly, and less suspicious. NZ sharing finger print info is more likely to be of benefit to the other countries when checking on people arriving there, than of benefit to NZ for people arriving here.
So, NZ cracking down in illegal immigrants is more about stopping people using fake passports and keeping them out of any friendly country. Rather than turning a tide of economic refugee’s, which to be honest we really don’t have here.
But the headline was good!
Still no Ikea in NZ, but…
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
straight from the Facebook Page “I want IKEA stores to open in New Zealand” comes a link for a new company in Parnell Auckland that is shipping IKEA products from Australia for you, MYKEA.
The Idea is that you visit the Australian IKEA website, fill in a form with MYKEA telling them what you want, and they send you a quote telling you how much it will cost to get it delivered to you, including all costs (taxes, shipping etc). You can then place the order or not. They have a minimum order of $150 AUD, and you cant any item less than $10 AUD, but all in all it looks like a good system to me.
Now you are going to pay a premium for this obviously – not only are you covering IKEA’s profit, but also MYKEA’s, but hey – nowt wrong with that. They are being enterprising, and offering a service that many NZ’ers really want. Good on ‘em. And lets face it – you can always judge for yourself whether the quoted prices suit your pocket, or are fair. Given the numbe rof people I’ve met taking flights to Aussie just to go get stuff from IKEA – I’d say they could be onto something in saving you money on airfairs and excess baggage fees!
Actually they aren’t the first to do this. When we first arrived 5 and a bit years ago, there was a company doing the same thing, and another company that was actually just importing container loads of stuff and selling it the old fashioned way. Both of those stopped trading – Ive no idea if it was because they went out of business or went on to do other things. But it does suggest that there may be a window here in which to make the most of this opportunity.
Depending on whether we make out “city living” arrangement permanent after a few months of trialling – I am sorely tempted to splurge (once we have cleared the credit cards!) and buy some decent storage! NZ is woefully short on decent affordable storage I’m afraid. And to be honest – when you have kit out a second home -you need access to something that isnt going to rob you blind on the costs. The nearest similar store to IKEA in NZ is Freedom Furniture – but its a lot more expensive. Arguably the quality is better, especially if you compare it with the cheaper IKEA ranges, but when the budget is what matters – there really isn’t a good alternative.
If you have IKEA bookshelves – or indeed IKEA anything - what ever you do – bring it with you! You will regret it if you don’t. Even if you don’t want to keep it – bring it and sell it on Trade Me.
By the way: apparently the reason we cant have an IKEA store in NZ is becuase teh Auckland council reckons they cant cope with the traffic chaos that will inevitably ensue when 4,000,000 kiwis descend the place. Sheesh.
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Me and the MX5: The Finale
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Well, let’s just say at this point that Motors: Mazda: MX5 has been listed as a favorite on my Trade Me account as long as I have had a Trade Me account. This is basically becuase when I first started getting into Property Investing, I happened to pass by the Mazda garage in Wellington (as you do – honestly its on the route to Moore Wilsons). And I thought I would pop in to look at what they had in the showroom – so that I could build a “Vision Board” of where I wanted the investing to take us.
And lo: they had this really swanky new Dark Purple (so dark its almost black), shiny MX5 that was just screaming at me to buy it.
I was in Wuv.
Slight sticking point – it was $50,000.
And it was brand new – which means as soon as you drive it out the dealership its worth a lot less than you paid for it. Not great odds for anyone planning on making squillions in the property game. Besides – didn’t have $50,000 sitting around burning a hole in my pocket. But dammit – thats the car I wanted, so it went on the dream board, and I have been keeping an eye out on Trade me for 2nd hand ones. One came up a while back, but still with a price tag of $35,000 which is still too much for me.
Ho Hum. Of course now that I need to buy a new car, the swanky purple one isn’t available – at any price, but I have been watching and planning. I was hoping to be able to spend about $20,000 but in the end the pennies just weren’t there. So I decided to buy a cheaper version – and I can always spray it when I have some more money.
2nd hand MX5′s can be had for between $3,000 and $45,000 – so I thought I’d better be at the lower end. I test drove a few in the 8-10k range, but in the end decided I wanted an Automatic. Basically because most cars over here are automatics, all ours were, and I’ve just got used to them. Besides – my original 2 MX5′s were as well.
On Friday last week, I called a guy in Levin who was selling an 1999 MX5, automatic, British racing green (no pop up headlights). Asking price $7995. A quick price check said that was very reasonable – I looked at one a year older for $11K, and one a year younger at $14k. We drove over to take it for a spin, and I loved it! It was in good nick (needs a good clean inside), but the roof is sound, it drove well and everything worked. Experience says theres not likely to be a huge amount that needs fixing – they are not cars that are run by complicated computers so they tend not to be expensive to fix. And the big expense which was a new Cam Belt had already been done and there was a service bill to show it.
All it took was a call to the bank manager, who had been warned this might be coming, and she put the payment through straight away. The guy was comfortable enough from talking to me to let me take the car straight away, and within 10 minutes I finally had my long sought after dream: an MX5.
We then drove a little north to Foxton Beach, grabbed fish and chips from Mr Grumpy’s and coffee from the Simply Balmy Cafe and had a late lunch at the beach sitting in my new car with the hood down. I couldn’t stop grinning.
In fact – I still haven’t stopped grinning every time i get in the car.
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Me and the MX5: part3
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand
Well, we managed with one car for the first year, sharing it between myself and hubby, mum and dad. The fact that we managed that long without a car each and 3 spares was a minor miracle. Never before has my family coped with so little vehicular choice.
Being countryside dwellers for so long – we are into the habit of having to get around under our own steam. Theres kinda point relying on public transport when theres only one buss a week into town, and the train station is 10 miles away. Its no different here in NZ – public transport doesn’t start till you get to Carterton, and thats 15kms away.
But when mum and dad came back for there second 6 month stay they decided to go buy themselves a car. They went out one day – and came back with an old Jag XJ6 – basically a Tank with bigger comfier seats and a fuel consumption to match. Cheap to buy – small mortgage needed to fill up at the pump.
So we managed for a few years like this, then when they came to stay full time, my brother also bought a car, as he was now going to be living separately from the rest of us, and needed to be able to get about.
It was at this point that I made the comment over of coffee or two that if there were any more cars to be bought by this family – it was damn well going to be mine. Any deviation from this plan would be met with a major Grumpage alert.
At which point the Jag decided to die on us having failed its WoF and being about to cost considerably more to repair than was spent buying it. This was a few weeks ago. So I jumped and suggested that maybe now was the time for me to replace my MX5.
Obviously there are a lot of changes to our lives right now, with Hubby changing jobs and us moving into the city. So I figured that we could use a small car, and mum and dad could keep our big, fast, blacked out car with the big boot. Much more useful for the country life, and lets face it – a small car in the city is much easier to park.
Only problem was – how the hell do we buy a new car when we have little money and a credit card bill we cant pay in full?
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Me and the MX5: Part2
Filed under: Cost of living, Getting to New Zealand, Life in New Zealand
So we arrived in New Zealand, and oddly enough, as these things tend to pan out – I did not end up buying a new car straight away. Mostly this was because we started out living in Wellington City, right in the middle of the CBD and could walk almost everywhere. And as we were fainting with shock over the true cost of living, we decided that being sensible {shudder} we would leave the expense till we needed it.
I even on occasion succumbed to using Public Transport {Shudders}.
We made the most of it, there was a good bus service to Eastbourne and Days bay, or we could take the ferry over and get breakfast at the cafe and bum on the beach. But it was awkward for food shopping, because we weren’t as free to shop around. And lets face it – its a right pain in the patootie when you have to lug carrier bags full of food across town!
But then of course we decided to buy a house in the Wairarapa, and couldn’t put off buying a car any longer. Hubby would need it to get to work, even if he was using the train, and where were buying – will – there wasn’t a Tescos within walking distance. Nope – for country living – a car is a necessity.
So – MX5 it was then.
Ah nope!
Dammit but we needed a “sensible car” {Shudders}.
We ended up buying a “Station Wagon” which just sounds so hideous to me. Estate Car is so much more “English”. There were a number of reasons for this. Its was big, comfy, and very very fast. The fact that it was black, had blacked out windows and black lights glinting blackly on a black background also helped.
It was also only $9000, though we did have to spend another few $$$ on it afterwards. This was also at the time that my family were coming over for their first 6 months trip, and we figured it was big enough to fit all 5 of us plus a lot of luggage, which saved us a considerable amount of hassle and expense on getting them from Auckland to their new home, as we were going to take a few days holiday to do the trip and see some sights as well.
So that was that – still no MX5, all the money for a car spent on a fast, black, but decidedly non-convertible “sensible” car.
That was 5 years ago….
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Me and the MX5: Part1
In a previous life – I went through a divorce. And as many people do, I went out and spoiled myself afterwards with a completely unsensible and frivolous spending spree and bought a convertible. So about 11 years ago I bought my first wonderful British Racing Green MX5 – with pop-up headlights.
I had so much fun.
Then as luck would not have it – a bumble bee spoiled all my fun, by stinging a young lad in the arm while he was hurtling round a corner in the Forest of Dean, and he drove right in to me.
Which hurt. A lot.
So that was a write off, but the insurance paid out, and I went straight back to the dealer I had bought it from, and bought another one. That was my second British Racing Green MX5 – with pop-up headlights.
I had some laughs with that – as it had a disturbing habit of spinning wildly out of control at the most inconvenient moments – like just as I was going round roundabouts, and ending up facing the wrong way. So as this was just as me and new hubby were getting married and buggering off to NZ for 5 weeks on honeymoon, we dropped it back to the specialist dealer, and asked him to try and figure what was wrong.
When we got back – on a stupidly early flight into Heathrow, we detoured to Ilford to pick up the car. Apparently no one could replicate the madcap spinning – but they changed the wheels anyway, twiddled with the suspension, and prayed a bit. Thankfully – that seemed to do the trick, and I didn’t die mangled in a spinning car.
Of course at this point – we decided emigrating to NZ would be laugh.
Well, I wasn’t going to give up my lovely car, so started looking at shipping costs. Most companies were looking at charging about the same, and basically we were looking at hiring a 40ft container instead of a 20ft container, and boxing the car in.
At which point the gits at LTNZ (Land Transport New Zealand) threw a bureaucratic spanner in the wheels: we were not allowed to import the car becuase it didn’t have a Frontal Impact Standard Pass because it was 2 years too old.
But – I thought – the car obviously passed a frontal impact test in as much as a Transit Van driving at speed frontally impacted my last MX5 and I didn’t end up squished on the road. How much more frontal impact can you get than that????
Well – we reckoned this was those economic scams designed to stop scummy migrants from not spending more of their hard earned cash in New Zealand setting up their new lives.
Bah Humbug!
So I had to sell it.
When the guy came to buy it – I couldn’t watch as he drove it away. It was a few weeks before we were leaving – and I was gutted to be saying goodbye to my car. I swore I would buy another one as soon as we got to New Zealand….
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Moving to the city: not as easy as it sounds.
So we are becoming “Trendy City Folk” with an apartment in the big city and a county pile to escape to at the weekend.
I’d be turning in my grave if I had one.
On the plus side – we started with the country pile so we don’t have to work up to it, but still!
Now we actually own an apartment in the City, but that is rented out with really good tenants, and would actually cost us a small fortune to live in. So we are continue to keep that rented, and have rented another apartment ourselves in the same block. As much as I am not a city person – I have to say I do love the apartment itself. The building lets it down, and I am going to have to have words with the body corporate about what is going with the on site Gym and pool – I real selling point for me – as its a disgrace.
But – I’ve slept really well the couple of nights we have stayed there so far, we have a proper kitchen (cooker so clean it definitely wasn’t used by the previous tenant – not unusual), and space for a separate office. And our stonkingly large TV and surround sound system.
It could definitely be worse.
Our biggest issue was actually organizing the removal. We used Crown Relocations, who we recommend for the emigration move – they were brilliant. However shifting from the Wairarapa to Wellington with a fraction of the stuff we hauled half way round the world was much more tricky. It took hubby a lot of sorting out, and I believe at the final count he had to confirm our starting address, final address and access no less than 6 times. They have to paid in advance, but didn’t get the invoice to us till midday the day before. I had tp get the bank manager to set up the payment, and then send a confirmtion email, but the lady at Crown had gone home by then. Thankfully there was an out of office email which gave details of someone else to send the confirmation to, and he then called to confirm we were in fact moving.
All to get to wellington!
So we moved in - Crown arrived with our furniture, and i promptly left to have a coffee with a friend of mine, just round the corner from the apartment. City living has its benefits after all – I may as well make the most of them!
We topped off the evening with a couple of friends round and a bottle of wine.
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In any country you get idiots working in Immigration
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when i saw Nadene Ghouri’s story come up on my Google news alert this morning. Nadene was born and raised in Britain, and want to bring in her Kiwi husband to live with her there. They married in New Zealand a few months ago, but are planning a church blessing in the UK in a few weeks. Only her husband Sam has been refused a visa to live in the UK. Despite Sam having already lived in the UK for 5 years previously (and – as demanded of all long-suffering legal immigrants everywhere) left the UK when his previous visa expired.
Why, you ask? Is he a Terrorist? A repeat drink driver with a criminal record as long as your arm? Un-educated?
Nope. among the reasons given were that they have an overdraft, and are thus likely to try bludging off the state.
‘I am not satisfied that you or your sponsor will be able to maintain you or any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds,’ declared the immigration officer.
She said she’d reached her conclusion because my bank statements show an average overdraft of £1,000 to £2,000 each month. Sam’s accounts also show a small overdraft.
Well, I demand that forthwith – everyone with an overdraft be summarily removed from the shores of Britain – especially anyone in the immigration department (and especially especially anyone working for INZ in the UK who doesn’t have a spotless bank record).
Then theres there blindingly stupid assertion that
‘Given your history of working overseas I am not satisfied you intend to live permanently with your spouse.’
Well, it seems that what the silly bint at immigration failed to grasp was that these two people work in Journalism, and it seems they often travel abroad reporting for such fly-by-night outfits as SkyNews and the BBC. So if they had switched their brains on (assuming they had any) I think its not too far a stretch to realise that while they may both work abroad a lot, their marriage is no more false then that of a pilot, air hostess, soldier or a host of other professions.
I have actually heard of people coming to New Zealand being asked to prove thier relationship was real – despite having been married 40 years. You just cant make it up.
Besides – you cant have it both ways – refuse them because they work for a living at the same time as refusing them for being probable bludgers on the state????
Thankfully Nadene and Sam have lawyered up and are appealing the decision. They have also done what we did, and starting getting letters of support and help off other people who know them and support their decision.
I also hope that the person responsible for this blindingly stupid decision is sacked for being so thick. It offends me immeasurably that people this stupid are given jobs that are so vitally important. These are the people supposed to be protecting our borders from undesirable immigrants – not keeping out a newly married couple who can earn money, pay taxes and make a successful life together. I hope their lawyer wipes the floor with the UK immigration Department, and the case officer goes and get a less demanding job – flipping burgers for instance.
Id also be tempted to say scratch the UK and come here instead – except you might get just as unlucky and get a case officer just as stupid. It’s still pure luck. Most people get decent case officers, who treat them as people and take time to use a bit of common sense. But without doubt, some of get robots with no ability to make sensible decisions. I guess you are as likely to meet the problem going from New Zealand as you are coming in.
Finally – good on Nadene for using the fact that she is a journalist to highlight this issue. If I was the UK Immigration Department I would be asking some pointed questions as to why my staff made such a huge balls-up with the case of a BBC / Daily Mail journalist.
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It’s not just us plebs that have trouble getting into NZ.
Today the papers are talking about the fact that the amazing Richard O’Brien cant emigrate to New Zealand, despite that fact that he actually grew up here from the age of ten, and his family is still here.
Seems he didn’t get Citizenship before he left in his 20′s to go to London, and create the best dance in the history of the world (possible excepting the Hokey Cokey if you really want to argue about it).
So now – he appears to have no automatic right to apply for residency as he doesn’t fit any criteria according to his immigration advisor. (Licensed, though it doesn’t say that on their website).
Now obviously – being a Newspaper report, there are a huge number of questions that aren’t answered. I’m assuming that at the time his family emigrated there were no such thing as IRRV’s which allow you to come back to New Zealand permanently even if you have been away for many years.
As it is it seems he was trying to apply under the family residence (adult sibling) category – the same as my brother, becuase he has two siblings here. Only hes too old and yes – you guessed it – he cant apply until he gets a job offer. I somehow thing that wouldn’t be an issue. The Retirement visas don’t seem suitable – one is for sponsoring your parents and the one that doesn’t is only temporary. His son is also in New Zealand as a Student, and apparently applying for residence himself.
It also turns out that Richard O’Brien is so well thought of as a Kiwi, that theres a statue of him in Hamilton, where he used to live. It even has a Webcam! Actually I find that quite fitting.
So now hes writing to Mr Coleman the minister and asking for help. I damn well hope he gets it. New Zealand is ever so eager to lame claim to all sorts of famous people – right up till the might ask for something back. I remember at the premier for King Kong, Andy Serkis was complaining that he couldn’t get residence here either – despite being part of a set of films that NZ just wont stop banging on about because they were made here. And yet Michael Barrymore got in despite having a rather disturbing criminal record that would have ensured any normal person wasn’t allowed in.
So here’s wishing Mr O’Brien the best of luck in his plans to retire to New Zealand as a Permanent resident. He has family here, history here, and he’s claimed as a Kiwi. Cant see the issue myself!
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Why doesn’t Immigration New Zealand care about overstayers.
According to a report by TV3 News, there are still 16,000 overstayers in New Zealand, and Immigration New Zealand thinks that’s ok.
I beg to bloody differ!
Now before I start my rant (which is building quite nicely), lets just be clear: no one is saying just who these overstayers are. SO we don’t know how many people are deliberately flouting the law and staying here illegally, knowing full well they don’t have anything to offer by way of skills and would never be allowed to stay legally. And we don’t know how many are “overstayers” by pure bad luck of losing a skilled job and being given 2 seconds flat to find other work or get the hell out.
“Five hundred and two were removed last year; a further 537 were issued with removal orders but haven’t been deported; and 1,163 overstayers left the country voluntarily.”
“Immigration spends nearly $6 million on the issue of overstayers. Today it told 3 News it’s satisfied that the number of almost 16,000 is small.”
Ok – so here’s what offends me:
Those of us who work our butts off to get here legally are treated like garbage by INZ and it’s staff. If you dare stick your head above the parapet and complain – you get treated even worse. And why? Because there’s the tiniest possibility you might overstay! So what? 16,000 others are allowed to do so, and you admit you don’t really give a stuff about them being here.
So why the hell treat us like a piece of crap when we haven’t actually broken any laws, never overstayed (and can prove it!), and have no intention of overstaying.
How about we use that 6 million to employ some people to clear the humongous backlog of applications and train the INZ staff to give consistent and correct information to applicants. Oh – and lets train the London Family Team in some basic manners, decency, and email writing skills while we are at it.
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