Calling Sydney

I’ve experienced quite some frustrations with Australian bureaucracy the last weeks. The most annoying thing was that my working visa was on hold since christmas because they were waiting for a medical report to be sent from Vienna, which involved two different Austrian doctors, one translation office (144 EUR for 3 pages!), and another doctor here in Sydney, who had to approve it.

Officially I can’t work without a working visa, which is why I haven’t been paid for the last 4 weeks. However, fact is that I still had to work, because the semester starts next week and nobody else would have prepared my courses. So I’ve been working for the last weeks without being paid, and even doing long hours in order to get everything done.

Finally, I received a phone call from the immigration office this afternoon, to inform me that my visa has been approved, followed by this e-mail:

[Your visa has just been granted.] The approval email should get to you tomorrow. For the meantime, you may start working.

So, I may start working now. Thanks! In fact it should mean: you may be paid from now on.

Well, I hope I can get a deal to exchange the last weeks of unpaid work with some extra time for going back to Europe for research trips throughout this year.