Herbal Teas for Stress Management
Herbal Teas for Stress Management

British Bureaucracy

British Bureaucracy
British Bureaucracy

British Bureaucracy

My Thai wife and I arrived back in the UK for the first time in five years last Wednesday, so our first encounter with British bureaucracy was at Rhoose airport’s immigration. My wife was coming in on a five-year Spanish Residency Card, and the official had never seen an Asian with one before. The poor man didn’t know what to do, so he gave her a six-month visa.

A friend coming in six months ago in exactly the same circumstances, obtained an open-ended right to remain for his wife, but they could also have given her ninety days (I think). ‘Get her residency as soon as you can’, he said to me quietly.

The following Friday, I went to the Job Centre to see about a National Insurance number for her. The official turned to his computer, and I waited while he called up the right page. After ten minutes, I asked whether there was a problem. ‘No’, he replied, ‘I’m just Googling how to apply for a new NI number’.

I couldn’t believe my ears! British bureaucracy… even civil servants, now have to use an American search engine to find the correct government policy! It doesn’t sound right to me. I wanted to ask whether they still receive training, but civil servants are not renowned for their sense of humour.

It turns out that we have to travel fifty miles to make the application!

So, that left residency to sort out, and to get more information, we visited the local Citizen’s Advice Centre (C.A.B.). The man took one look at the stamp in my wife’s passport and left to discuss the matter with his supervisor. ‘I’m sorry’, he said, ‘but this is way over our heads. We can’t even understand how you got this far!’.

‘Research, hard work and perseverance’, I replied.

‘We can only suggest that you go to see an immigration lawyer’, he said offering me a list to choose from.

I declined it, and left, thinking how sad it was that the C.A.B. had degenerated into a mere funnel for the local branch of the legal profession… especially since legal aid has been abolished.

What sort of a country have I brought my wife back to?

Please LIKE and SHARE this article using the buttons below and visit our bookshop

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: British Bureaucracy

Discover more from Megan Publishing Services

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Tags
Owen
Owen

Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.

Articles: 595

Related Posts