Thanks Bandung, I think what I'll do then is check the up to date requirements about 3 weeks before, and then go in with all the accumulated material a few days before hand.

Bandung_Dero wrote: Paul must have really pissed em off at one stage or another to have had to make 5 visits to get his first
.

No I didn't piss them off. They warned me it would take a long time as I was (relatively) young, did not have employments/work permit and did not have any kids here - however what really threw a spanner in the works was getting the police to visit my home to make sure that I did actually live there and after 3 months they had still not visited. Immigration sent them a fax again and then gave me a letter to take in person to CID department at the police station. Whereupon they tried to tell me they had set out to find my house but couldn't find it - I almost fell off my chair laughing at that one.

It reminds me of the story about the guy who called the police and reported an intruder in his garage, but the police said they were too busy to attend and that he should wait to see if the intruder leaves of his own accord. 5 minutes later he called again and said - its me again - remember the intruder I told you about , well I have just shot him.
The police arrived within 2 minutes to which he said " I thought you were busy"???



So what if I had an intruder - would they expect me to believe they could not find my house ???

Anyway , my next door neighbout at that time was an ex policeman who just happened to be in CID before he retired. He came back to the station with me and with half an hour the documentation was signed and stamped then returned to immigration.

A month or so after that I got the stamp.

I never fail to be amazed at the 'system' here

I'm really looking forward to having to deal with farce in the future.

Paul wrote:

Bandung_Dero wrote: Paul must have really pissed em off at one stage or another to have had to make 5 visits to get his first
.

No I didn't piss them off. They warned me it would take a long time as I was (relatively) young, did not have employments/work permit and did not have any kids here - however what really threw a spanner in the works was getting the police to visit my home to make sure that I did actually live there and after 3 months they had still not visited. Immigration sent them a fax again and then gave me a letter to take in person to CID department at the police station. Whereupon they tried to tell me they had set out to find my house but couldn't find it - I almost fell off my chair laughing at that one.

My story was about the same except the couldn't find my house part. Police never tried to find my house or never were contacted by immigration to go or whatever. I just took a few neighbors down to the police sation with the letter.