Tuesday, August 18, 2009

10 Year Challenge

Seasoned readers may recall my previous post "10 Years in Limbo" about the 10 year moratorium placed on overseas-graduated doctors.

The 10 Year Moratorium applies to New Zealanders as well, as despite their special visa status they are not considered permanent residents even when enrolled in Australian Medical Schools, and the only way around this is to obtain permanent residency prior to commencing Medical School in Australia.

Well, Dr Mike Belich wants to do something about that, and he has challenged the validity of the 10 year lockout and is currently going through the courts, as reported in The Australian. To be honest, I don't really understand his argument for seeking an exemption from the current rules... but I guess this is how precedents are set.

No doubt all the New Zealander's over at Paging Dr will be all excited. I better go let them know...

GP goes to court fighting country duty - The Australian
(Click to Expand)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I think his argument is that up until 2000, kiwis arriving in Australia were automatically granted permanent residency and qualified for citizenship after 2 years - so given that he arrived in 1999, why has he been reclassified as a non PR?

If the report is correct, he should have been eligible for citizenship at 16, but didn't apply until he was 19 or so I guess, which is unlucky for him.

His argument doesn't hold true for kiwis who arrived post 2000 as they don't automatically get permanent residency. He's a bit of a special case I'd say.

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