Subtle xenophobia

And now, something for my fellow citizens to ponder the next time anyone in a government role starts pontificating about tourism's vital role in the economy, the need for Australians to welcome tourists, etc. My colleague Trudi, a South African citizen, says that yesterday she would have cancelled her planned holiday in Australia had she not already paid for it, due to the hoops the Australian government expected her to jump through to get a 3-month tourist visa.

The first annoyance was the usual requirement by the high commission in Pretoria that Trudi send her passport to the embassy in Harare for processing, because Harare, according to the rule book, takes care of Mozambican residents. (This is the requirement which got me struck off the electoral rolls at the last federal election. I had to send more supporting documents to Harare than was worth the risk. Does DFAT not watch the news?) Being unwilling to lose her passport in the morass of Zimbabwe, Trudi evaded that one by arranging to have the passport sent from and delivered to the addresses of friends in South Africa.

Now she has to complete an eight-page form, which comes with five pages of instructions attached and a two-page checklist of documents which need to be provided. The documents include certified bank statements for the past three months (requiring a trip to Nelspruit to visit her South African bank, as there's no point in entrusting them to the Mozambican post), an official letter from her employer stating her leave dates (must include a date of return to work), and evidence of her accommodation bookings, including a letter of invitation from her friend's aunt, with whom she will be staying some of the time.

I would issue an apology to the government of Mozambique for anything I may have said associating it with excessive bureaucracy - except of course that we all know what this intimidating form is about. The "Health and Character" section of the form contains the interesting question "Have you ever stayed outside your country of usual residence for more than 3 months?" (I suppose my mother doesn't have to worry that her lengthy visits to Indonesia make her a degenerate, or unhealthy - she will be protected by that same magic which permits her to give a SIM card to her research assistant on departure, without getting involved in terrorist activity.) Given that the worst overstayers of Australian visas are British and New Zealanders, I presume that they have to fill out a sixteen-page form to visit for the holidays.

In the meantime, I plan to visit Nelspruit this weekend. Visa issued on presentation of passport at the border. I am aware of the reasons, but when people to whom you've been rude are polite in return, it's embarrassing.