NZ Citizenship
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@crucial said in NZ Citizenship:
@donsteppa said in NZ Citizenship:
You can be a dual citizen of the UK and NZ. Main benefit seems to be being able to choose which passport queue is quicker
Don't try exiting and entering on different P/Ports though It screws with their little heads and can lead to problems. Always enter and exit on the same passport.
As an aside, it gets really stupid when you enter/depart from a Swiss airport yet can walk over the border to/from an EU country without issue. The Swiss Immigration start asking how you got there in the first place searching for an entry stamp. Doh!
I managed to avoid that once by walking, at airport, from French side to Swiss side via an empty passport control!
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@crucial A long time ago I got arrested in Madrid for sitting on the grass in a central park - yep grass was for looking at not sitting on.
This was not long after Franco died so every second Spanish male was in some sort of uniform. They asked to see my passport - which was with the Portuguese Embassy getting a Visa. (you young guys have no idea....)
Anyways there was a bit of prodding me with guns in the chest etc and I get carted off to jail.
I explain Visa situation and eventually they get my passport from the Portuguese.
This was where it got interesting. I hitched everywhere and had entered Spain in a car with a family of Belgian holidaymakers.
Mr and Mrs Clijsters and their two sons Claude and Arnaud who looked maybe 17 and 15. I was 20. We all passed our passports to Mr C who handed them over. All 5 had blue covers. Belgians didn't need visa's. Border guard obviously saw a happy family of 5 Belgians and handed the passports back. Result I had a passport with no entry stamp. And I had been sitting on the fucking grass!!!!!! Cue 24 hours in Madrid cell.
This and being investigated by HM govt as an illegal over-stayer have made me very conscious of the requirement to be squeaky clean re passports etc as it appears you can only work in border control if you are a Nazi
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It's often a case of giving people with little brains a bit of power. Like Stores/Suppliers - I've been in to get a replacement flying boot, only one in my size left. 'I'll have that pair then, thanks' 'No Sir, I can't give it to you, then I'd have none left and someone might need it' 'yes I need it' (you moron!) It's like you're taking food from their kids mouths.
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We had the large crew-cut Czech gentleman with the large submachine gun yelling at Mrs Mariner about how long she had been in Europe, as her Aussie passport had no exit stamp from Aus, and no entry stamp to France (my kiwi one at least had the exit from Aus). How the fuck do they tell now with e-gates?
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Another time I was driving into France having been in Portugal for a month. Didn't have a Visa for France as Kiwi's didn't need one.
Only now they did. News to me but in the period I had been abroad the Rainbow Warrior had been bombed.
I was told I didn't have permission to enter France. Again with the out of the car into the office routine - only this time I got an apology for France's actions a bottle of red a couple of beers and some bread and pate from their canteen and an instruction if I was stopped to just say I had been in France the whole time.
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@antipodean said in NZ Citizenship:
@mariner4life minor benefit if at all for law abiding permanent residents. I travel on my NZ passport. There's a question when you enter Oz which you have to answer if you're not an OZ citizen. I obviously don't answer and it then becomes a thing with Immigration. They direct me to answer it and I politely decline. Then after a bit of back and forth I explain the law to their manager and that they're committing a crime forcing me to falsely make a statutory declaration. Then they tell me what I already know; that this wouldn't be a problem if I travelled on a OZ passport to which I explain I'm only too happy to do so if they pay for it...
My long suffering wife leaves me at immigration to collect the bags while I argue.
My mother gets hassled everytime she enters Oz for the same reason. She used to know all the Customs guys at Coolangatta Airport as she used to work there, but now most of the old ones have gone and they stop her every time and ask why she doesn't travel on an Oz passport.
@dogmeat You appear to be a travelling jinx.
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@crucial first time I went from Dover to Calais wanting a stamp in my passport (cos I was filling it up) I had to go searching for some French immigration officials to stamp my passport, they obviously looked at me like I was an idiot...was only me and my Kiwi mate that did this, the Czech and Slovakian girls we were with didnt bother...
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@taniwharugby said in NZ Citizenship:
the Czech and Slovakian girls we were with didnt bother..
fuuuuucking subtle
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Yeah, it's all changed. In 2000 I went to the AB test in France on a bus full of kiwis.
Immigration on the way back, the bus driver pulled up, opened the door and the UK border guy got in
"what you got here"
"bunch of kiwis on the way back from the rugby"
"ok off you go"Would NEVER happen now.
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@majorrage said in NZ Citizenship:
Yeah, it's all changed. In 2000 I went to the AB test in France on a bus full of kiwis.
Immigration on the way back, the bus driver pulled up, opened the door and the UK border guy got in
"what you got here"
"bunch of kiwis on the way back from the rugby"
"ok off you go"Would NEVER happen now.
I went to France to watch the 2011 RWC Final in a french pub,
Coming back, I was very very late for my train, when the Frenchies saw my All-Blacks jersey - they ran me through the staff-only area - bypassing immigration/security/everything - to get me to the train on-time.