I've never considered myself to be prejudiced before but I'm changing my mind......
Before I start, I don't read the Daily Mail or it's paramilitary wing (the Daily Express) and I am old enough and ugly enough to form my own opinions of things. I'm pro-Europe and in favour of free movement and would ideally love a world with no borders where we are all citizen of the world rather than citizens of "nations".

But I now find myself beginning to dislike Europeans:

My fiance is in Australia. She's Australian. We're getting married in May. We have known each other for a couple of years and we are devoted to each other even though we've had to be separated a few times. She is a teacher and is desperate to come to the UK, marry me, work for a living and be a productive member of society.

Australia is part of the British Commonwealth (indeed all australians were British until the act of Federation in 1909). They have the queen's head on their stamps and on their coins. The queen is the head of state and can dissolve their parliament at will (as she did in the '70s). Basically, including a liking for afternoon tea, Australia is now more British than Britain.

In order to move to the UK, we've had to provide the UKBA 6 months of my payslips, 6 months bank statements, copies of our telephone bills (both landline and mobile), photographs of us together, details of where we have travelled together, a full breakdown of where she has travelled outside Australia for the past ten years, a copy of my rental agreement, a letter from my landlord confirming that the tenancy can be extended, my passport details, confirmation that our wedding is booked, details of who is carrying out the service, my decree absolute from my previous marriage, my sponsorship letter, a letter from my parents and a letter from her parents pluss lots of other spurious bits and bobs! And all this is with no guarantee that the visa will be agreed.

When she does move here, she will have no rights to work or to any form of state benefit without then appplying (and paying another huge fee) for leave to remain which could take months.

Now maybe I'm misinformed but am I right in thinking that someone from elsewhere in the Eurozone can simply walk into the UK with full rights to work without any sort of checks being carried out???

Doesn't really seem fair to me
(penrose your dog's got tits, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:23, 8 replies)

hmm....
I was under the impression that spouses of EU citizens have right to live and work wherever their spouse is living/working. UK is EU country, so I say get married and move to Poland and work as plumbers.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:37, closed)

Yes, but Australia has it's own stringent immigration laws applying to Brits who want to move out there.
As you'd have found out if you decided to go there rather than bring your mrs here.
Are you going to blame Europe for that too?
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:47, closed)

I'm not BLAMING anyone
I just feel that it is slightly unfair....but I suppose I am talking from a prejudiced position.

Maybe if I wasn't in the same situation I'd be saying something different.
(penrose your dog's got tits, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:54, closed)

True.
And don't forget that as stringent as the immigration procedure for Brits going to Australia is, it'd be a lot easier for you than for someone from say the Phillipines, it's only in the past year or so that the roo-shaggers started dismantling the internment camps they had set up for immigants and asylum seekers from the Pacific nations.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:00, closed)

What stuj said
EU countries have reciprocal arrangements, meaning that you could go to Poland or Estonia or wherever and start claiming their dole etc. without having to prove anything beyond your UK citizenship. (That's how it's supposed to work, anyway.)

There's no such reciprocal arrangement with Australia, so Aussies have to tick boxes before they get to live here.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:38, closed)

Reciprocal Agreements..
Mostly refer to Employment Rights, Healthcare and Education over the whole of the EU. I'm almost 100% certain that this doesn't extend to State Benefits, although it could encompass UK Tax Credits if you were brave enough to claim them..
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 20:33, closed)

Not bloody wrong.
Even the Swiss didn't treat us as badly in some ways. I pay tax, yet can claim no family benefits, have to pay an extra $4,500 a year for each kid to go to school and we don't get the same rebate that someone on my wages would if they were a local.
Not to mention them backing out of all sorts of reciprocal healthcare agreements and adding extra conditions to new visas that contravene the few remaining.
Otherwise, we're enjoying it...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:38, closed)

Speaking as someone who went the other way...
The Australian immigration people wanted all sorts of stuff from me and my partner as well. We'd heard some horror stories about immigration officials knocking on your door at 5am to check we were really living together, but we never got any of that. We just had to fill in the usual mound of paperwork.

The first interview we had, we produced our wedding album. They believed us, and I was granted a 'Temporary Permanent Resident Visa'.

Two years later, to make me a 'Permanent Permanent Resident' I turned up to the final interview, with a heavily pregnant wife brandishing ultrasound pictures of our soon be born dual citizen. That interview didn't take long.
(theremin put the lotion in the basket on, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 15:00, closed)