Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

Many years ago when Wendy was first in the UK we applied for and received a European residence permit but after we went to France we didn’t bother to renew it.

To get the European family permit (ie entry clearance visa) whilst we were in France would have entailed a three or four day trip to the embassy in Paris and a wait of anything up to a year. This made it impractical for us so we didn’t bother and instead just went without the visa. Wendy’s Australian so doesn’t need a visa to get into the UK but as it turned out, the immigration people at Rosslare just accepted our statement that we were living in Belfast and let us pass.

So, we’re in the UK sans visa. Interestingly, since there’s no requirement to register with local authorities in the UK, there appears to be nothing stopping you just staying on regardless of what any stamp in your passport may say about when you should leave.

Anyway, to get Wendy legal we, in principle, are supposed to apply for a residence permit for her. Snag is that when we arrived the processing time for this was getting on for two years (despite the legal obligation for the authorities to do it within six months) and we knew that we needed to go back to France that summer. So we didn’t bother. Next time we came back the immigration people accepted our statement about living here (which we had been doing) and off we went again.

Since we’re notionally in the process of selling our place in France we knew that we’d need to go back there at some stage to finish packing etc. but didn’t know when so a two year processing time (during which time they keep your passport) also wasn’t on. Thus we find ourselves living in the UK for getting on for two years now with nothing to show any right to do so and nobody making any attempt to deport Wendy as yet.

The one problem is with social security who have already stated that they don’t believe Wendy is here legally but, despite their obligation to do so, have done nothing about reporting her to the border agency people although they do insist that we need a European family permit.

Funnily enough, we’ve since found that, courtesy of a determination made right here in Belfast, we were correct in our assumption that we didn’t need a European family permit to enter the UK. Just as well really since it’s a visa and you can’t get a UK visa when you’re actually in the UK as you can only get UK visas from British embassies and, of course, there are no British embassies in the UK.

What we are doing, somewhat belatedly, is applying for a European residence permit. At present, the advice is that we may be turned down for this (although we may not). Being refused this permit doesn’t appear to be a problem though as there are no limits to the number of applications and appeals that you can make (all of which are free) and you’re legal in the UK whilst they’re processing the application. Since it currently takes them about six months to process an application, all that you need to do is to reapply if/when you get the refusal and you’ve another six months legality. Weird, huh?

Quite why anyone bothers trying to stay here illegally when they can legalise things seemingly permanently so easily is beyond me.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that people were debating about whether mobile phones should be banned from restaurants.

Nowadays, many people make the assumption that they can call you at any time. After all, if you’ve got a mobile, then why shouldn’t they call you? Of course, at the other end of the line this leads to the habit of never turning the phone off and of answering it no matter where you are.

So it confuses people when I don’t have the phone switched on all day. Why would it? I don’t want to be called all of the time. It’s not so much that I switch it off in the movies  but that I only have it switched on when I want to be reached on the phone.

Probably more annoying to those who feel that I should be contactable 100% of the time is that I don’t even pick up the voice mails more than once a day. In this instantly-reachable age my record so far is one person leaving seven voice mails over the course of a single day asking me to call them. It must have been urgent then? Well, no, it would have been OK to leave it another week that time.

Regain your freedom: switch off your mobile!

Aren’t debit cards the same as credit cards? No, they are very different and have different characteristics when you’re trying to use them overseas which aren’t always apparent.

The first key difference is that they are directly linked to your bank account and this makes them a little more risky to take abroad (it’s much safer to take credit cards and a cash card).

Debit cards for international use come in four versions although not all are available in every country. These are Visa, Visa Electon, Mastercard and Maestro.

Cards branded Visa and Mastercard can be used where-ever the equivalent credit card can be used and, aside from the link to your bank account, are processed in the same manner as a credit card (press the “credit” button if prompted on an ATM or till).

Cards branded Visa Electron and Maestro are supposed to be electronic use only which means that you cannot use them in one of the old-style carbon copy type machines. In practical terms, almost all “civilised” countries use online terminals these days but this does not apply everywhere so it’s best to have a credit card as a backup. Maestro is a little more limited in that it can’t be used when you’re not at the point of sale therefore you can’t use it to guarantee hotel reservations. You can’t use either of these cards to hire a car.

Note that acceptance of cards is neither universal nor universally practical. If you are travelling to countries off the tourist routes you can find that cards aren’t accepted or are only accepted in widely dispersed locations. For example, in India I found that using cards simply wasn’t practical. Cards branded Visa Electon and Maestro are much less widely accepted than those branded Mastercard and Visa.

Bank charges on debit cards come in several basic forms. First, they charge transaction fees when you use the card to get cash. Typically these fees are around 2% with a minimum charge of £2/$2 per transaction therefore it’s best to withdraw amounts of £100/$100 to minimise this charge. In most cases, there is no transaction charge when you buy things using the card so it’s better to do that instead of withdrawing cash. Second, they usually apply a foreign currency charge which is typically around 3% (no minimum). And, of course, there may be an annual fee for having the card. Some card issuers charge a transaction fee on overseas purchases too: if this applies to your bank, use a credit card to make purchases instead or if you can’t do that, withdraw cash and use that for purchases.

Despite all that, it’s still usually cheaper to get cash on a card than to buy travellers cheques as your cost will typically be around 5% max compared to the 7% or so for travellers cheques.

Downsides are basically those charges but, if you’re careful, you can minimise them. For those living in the UK, some pre-paid cards eliminate all charges and if you’re in the American military a USAA card works in much the same way as do some American issued CapitalOne cards. If your bank is a member of the Global Alliance (Bank of America, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays, BNP, Deutschebank and Westpac) then you can withdraw cash from one of the other member banks ATMs without the transaction charge (you still get charged the foreign exchange fee).

I’m going to work my way through the various ways you can take money abroad over the next few weeks or so in the travel money series. I’ve already covered cash, travellers cheques and credit cards and will be covering cash cards and prepaid cards in future episodes.

It was both windy and raining heavily yesterday which always seems to bring out the worst of fashion, doesn’t it?

Gone are the nice looking clothes and in their place are all kinds of really awful anoraks, wellington boots, and iffy umbrellas. Hairstyles are, of course, are history at least for the day though some seem to take days to recover after a windy day.

Still, on the whole it’s not as if anyone is actually looking at what you’re wearing on a windy day as they’re all racing to get out of the wind and rain.

However, even inside it doesn’t always get much better as even in heated rooms it somehow seems colder when it’s windy outside and, of course, there are all the wet clothes, umbrellas and windswept hair to contend with too.

If you think that you’re just joining the gym to get fit, think again.

For a start there’s a clear pecking order dividing those who run on the running machines from those who walk on them, those who stick to those from those who use the cross-training machines, the divide from those who stick to that group from those that use the strength machines and then there’s the gulf between those who use machines and those who use the free weights. And that’s before you even consider those who only go to the exercise classes.

Then there’s the fashion parade that you get in some gyms. Thankfully there’s not much competition with the men’s fashion but the women certainly make up for any lack of fashion sense in the men with some clearly joining because it’s the fashionable thing to do rather than with any sense of getting fit.

But don’t let all this put you off… it’ll not be long before you find your own niche in the gym whether that be amongst those there to get fit or with the fashionistas.