We have been away for the last couple of days.
Now that Rose is an Australian, she needs an Australian passport. This means filling in a long form, gathering lots of original documentation together and visiting the closest consulate - in our case in Atlanta.
We experienced the difference between Australian vs most US bureaucracy. On arriving at the Consulate and being let in our interviewer stepped out and immediately said with a smile, "Is that all? Or are there more of you?" I answered, "That's it for the moment." He said that he had been going to use the interview room but it was too small so we did the interview in the lobby.
He was very personable and typically Australian. The children, who have not really heard any Australian accents for some time other than ours, listened carefully. Our paperwork was mostly correct, but the interviewer had his white correction pen ready to sort out most of the errors. I suspect he had no doubt about the authenticity of the claim considering we were all there and had enough original documents to sink a ship. (At least it seemed that many.)
This photo is the one we finally settled on as it had the correct face size as required. But we forgot that the mouth cannot be open! They may end up using the earlier photo (shown here). We'll see.
At the end of the interview, he asked Lana whether "the children were allowed these", and showed Lana a pack of Arnott's Butternut Snaps. (These are based on a crunchy ANZAC/oatmeal biscuit (cookie) recipe). Lana mentioned, "They like chocolate too!" and he smiled and answered he had to save them.
The children enjoyed the biscuits (cookies) and we enjoyed the friendliness and professional of the Australian Consulate staff. Hopefully in due course Rose will be properly accredited!
Now that Rose is an Australian, she needs an Australian passport. This means filling in a long form, gathering lots of original documentation together and visiting the closest consulate - in our case in Atlanta.
We experienced the difference between Australian vs most US bureaucracy. On arriving at the Consulate and being let in our interviewer stepped out and immediately said with a smile, "Is that all? Or are there more of you?" I answered, "That's it for the moment." He said that he had been going to use the interview room but it was too small so we did the interview in the lobby.
He was very personable and typically Australian. The children, who have not really heard any Australian accents for some time other than ours, listened carefully. Our paperwork was mostly correct, but the interviewer had his white correction pen ready to sort out most of the errors. I suspect he had no doubt about the authenticity of the claim considering we were all there and had enough original documents to sink a ship. (At least it seemed that many.)
This photo is the one we finally settled on as it had the correct face size as required. But we forgot that the mouth cannot be open! They may end up using the earlier photo (shown here). We'll see.
At the end of the interview, he asked Lana whether "the children were allowed these", and showed Lana a pack of Arnott's Butternut Snaps. (These are based on a crunchy ANZAC/oatmeal biscuit (cookie) recipe). Lana mentioned, "They like chocolate too!" and he smiled and answered he had to save them.
The children enjoyed the biscuits (cookies) and we enjoyed the friendliness and professional of the Australian Consulate staff. Hopefully in due course Rose will be properly accredited!
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