oh you Tommy 🙄
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I don't like this ruling, particularly, but it's not that unusual, really.
It happens in Australia and NZ (and probably other Commonwealth countries) with a fair degree of regularity, and I believe I remember a similar case in Scotland a few years back.
Yes, it's shitty, but unlike, say, the Post Office scandal, I don't think the government is technically in the wrong, here. Morally is a different question, but technically and legally? I don't think the Government will lose this case...
Having said all that... even when you try to do things "the right way", it's still extraordinarily easy to get fucked over by the system.
I had that happen in Sweden, where migration system fuck-ups meant I never received my residency card, couldn't earn money or open a bank account, and then, when I decided to quit my study program, I was never informed how long I could remain in the country afterwards, so I was always on edge, lacking both that official "residency confirmation" and the knowledge of how many days I had left...
It's an awful situation to be in, from experience.
That sucks. I hope you got some Swedish pussy out of all that at least.
This Ghana fellow... I think he knew exactly what he was doing. I don't fault him for trying to live his best life, but he doesn't get to whine about it after the fact.
Can confirm I did, hahaha.
Honestly, that was one of the best aspects of the trip.
I (very temporarily) felt like a fucking boss, lol.
Also the Ukrainian girls, although obviously that... Comes with caution, lol.
But yeah, on your latter point, I completely agree. Even in 1977, I firmly do not believe that anyone (from Ghana, no less, and not a "skilled migrant", either) could arrive in the UK on a student visa and then "accidentally" just assume that they could remain there for life, now. I'm not naive enough to believe that as a "legitimate" mistake...
So yeah, sucks to be him, but he ran the risk of getting caught eventually, aaand then he was.
Somewhat similarly, I thought I was in trouble when leaving the Swedish border, because the customs official was confused by my lack of residency card, and the fact that i had been there for six months. But once I explained the situation (and corroborated it with the evidence I had on hand), he was totally fine with it.
Which, compared to the horrible threats I had received from the cult, when I left it, was a massive relief off my shoulders.
Which is to say that when you "play the game", the official system may or may not screw you over, but, by contrast, bad people will always try to take advantage of you, and cause you trouble when you don't play by their arbitrary rules...
Yep, totally agree re the correspondence bit.
In short, unfortunately I think the error was probably done by the bureaucrat in person. But yep, it did (probably, though I never got a clear answer) come down to the address issue you mention...
From what I heard from another Australian who had similar happen, they defaulted to sending the residency card back to Australia. For some reason, you're not allowed a second one, so she, at least, had to wait for the idiots to send it to the embassy in Australia, the embassy to realize the error, and then send it back to Sweden, to the correct address this time...
Given that I knew that when I went in, in person, I very specifically made the bureaucrat write down the correct address, and insisted that he send it there. But then he basically ignored me, said "Hurry up, other people are waiting for their turn" (which is very Swedish behaviour) and shoved me out of the office. Thus, I'm entirely unsurprised he then still managed to fuck it up.
Anyway, so I waited and waited for them to sort it, and for this fucking card to arrive (which delayed my leaving the cult I was living in), but it never did, even by the time I left Sweden, apparently, lol...
Bureaucracy, amirite?
So yeah. Ridiculous all round.