Moving To Australia From The USA, Hopefully!

by Randy Barnhart

Australia! The name has a magical sound. The Outback. Down Under. They have the flavor of adventure and the Old American West.

Now we might actually live there. That will depend upon the progress of this protracted visa process. After submitting the many required forms, we are at the last step, we hope, in a tortuous endeavor. We need to get the FBI’s ok.

As you U.S. expats in Australia already know, we are required to have a criminal background check by the FBI, partly based upon their review of our fingerprints. We mailed our fingerprints last September, just a few days before the U.S. government shutdown. That set us back at least two weeks.

After waiting what seemed to be forever for the results, one Friday we received two different envelopes from the U.S. Department of Justice. One was a normal-sized number 10 business envelope addressed to my husband Jim. In it was a notice saying that he passed the FBI requirements. The other, addressed to me, was a large manila envelope. It contained a letter saying my fingerprints were illegible and a form for resubmitting my prints...

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