The saga continues… (Friday)

Cory got a call last night from his contact at the hospital; she said the medical council had come through and that he needed to go to Auckland to do his medical council interview on Friday. So, this morning, we waited for her phone call and then headed out on the road. The trip to Auckland takes about 3 hours, so while it wouldn’t be a short trip, it was good to be getting this taken care of!!

If you’ve missed all this, we’ve arrived here in NZ without a visa because we were missing the “registration” from the NZ Medical Council. We actually tried sending our application off to the consulate without the form, but they promptly sent it back – they really do check those things. Unfortunate in our case. :)

So, when the lady from the hospital called about the interview, she assumed that the council also had the registration and that we would receive it today. We’d then be able to apply for our visas on Monday.

Well, if you’ve caught on to the blatant foreshadowing, you will realize that this did not all happen according to our hopes. We arrived and Cory had his interview with a member of the NZ Medical Council. The guy promptly asked if Cory had his registration from the council. Whuuu? So the council guy gets on and calls someone else from “the council” and they indicate that Cory’s medical council application is missing a letter of reference… Without the letter of reference, we can’t get the registration. Without the registration, we can’t apply for the visa.

Now, if you want to do a quick flashback with us, you’ll see this exchange in a series of emails:
Hospital lady – Cory, I have all of your letters of reference.
Cory – Great!
(3 weeks later)
Hospital lady – Um, Cory I have two of your letters; I’m waiting on a third.
Cory – You said earlier that you had them all. They should’ve been sent.
(1 week later)
Hospital lady – Oh. Yeah. So, I have all of your letters of reference.
Cory – Oh. Okay. Well, great.
Really, this should have been cause for alarm. But, you know, you have to put some worries aside and move on. So we assumed it was okay and we forgot about it. Silly rabbit…

So, now, we’ve got to locate the missing letter of reference or (probably the simpler route) just get another one sent. Then, we can send it in to the medical council, get the registration, and apply for the visa. Finally.

Honestly, there hasn’t been that much harm done, not having a visa. We had to buy plane tickets for three months out, so that we could enter on a visitors visa. There will have to be a cancellation fee so we can change the tickets, but that is really all we are put out. So, don’t feel too bad as you read this tale of woe. Hey, we’re in New Zealand! :)