Greetings Beautiful Family~ It is with a confused and weary heart that i write this. After the first 26 hours of airports and travel I did indeed make it Brisbane. I cleared Customs, no problem and was just half a room away from freedom when i encountered a man asking me once again about my purpose of coming to Australia today. For the sake of time I will endeavor to abbtreviate the course of events that followed. I told hime I was there to visit some friends for about 6 weeks. He asked about what I did for work at home, when my return ticket was, and how much money I had immediate access to. Understandably I balked at answering such personal questions that seemed none of his business...he informed me that once one clears immigration but has not yet cleared customs the Australian government has the right to any and all information about you, can ask any questions they wish and can basically use any means at their disposal to get their questions answered. He asked me if i planned to teach any classes while i was in Australia, warning me that he would be investigating anything I said and that if I were found put in any lies it would go very badly for me. I lold him about my teaching tour there, that only 3 of the proposed locations were actually confirmed, and that mostly the proceeds, after rentals and publicity costs, were for the intent of offsetting the costs of travel. He then took my passport, and my ipad, and searched my suitcases twice while he searched my ipad and his female counterpart searched my computer. once that was completed he directed myself and my newly repacked pags to sit on this metal bench and he would get back to me shortly, once they prepared an investigation room for me. It was now 9:30, I actually had arrived at 7:30. I sat on that bench for 1.5 hours, with no one who passed by able or willing to answer any questions about what was happening give me any information. At 11:00 the took me back to the room. The short version is that I was informed that under either a visitors or a business Visa it was illegal for me to teach classes in Australia, either for free or for money. Over the course of the next 5 hours, the interview was recorded and filmed, during which time there long stretches of time i would just be sitting in the cold and windowless room while my interrogator went out to talk to his supervisor. I was allowed a book or a couple of magazines and a bottle of water but not much else. He would re enter from time to time with color copies of my FB page and posts I have written, events etc, it was pretty freaky, and then more waiting. Luckily everything I told him ligned up (of course it did!) but 5 hours later, based upon the meetings he had had with various officials, it was decided that I was in breech of my Visa when I first visited here in December because of the classes I offered, and that my intention was to breech via teaching this time, thus my visa was revoked and I have been taken into custody until a flight back can be arranged. That should be interesting because the money for the next phase of the tour was intended to be earned here and I have no money to give them for a flight back! The dance continues. To sum up, for the crime of teaching 3 dance classes in Australia with the wrong Visa, after being detained for 8.5 hours, 5 of which was in a small, cold room where I had to be let out via passcard to go to the bathroom and was fed once, I am being held in a facility until transport back can be arranged (72 hours or less), deported back to the US, and am unable to to Australia return for 3 years! The facility Im staying at is a decent place with pretty nice people, but I am unable to access my icloud account andf therefore have to reach everyone this way. Until I am stateside again the only way to reach me is to message me here evidently. This throws a huge wrench into the tour that i have spent months and many hours carefully organizing and I am at a bit of a loss how to proceed from here. Your prayers and messages of support are most welcomed here. Im feeling pretty strong and centered amidst it all and I WILL come through this even stronger, more focused and in my power, but DAMN! Im seriously investigasting how and why I created such a lesson for myself! Thank you for your support and Love! What a ride!!
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 22:59:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015