I think the story needs a little updating from where it left off last (i.e. with the proposal in July 2006). After that, Stephen returned to Australia, Joni returned to work, and life failed to return to normal. That is, Joni now had a wedding to plan, Stephen had a religion to convret to, and they both had immigration documents to prepare. Between then and the big day, Joni made a further pilgrimage to Melbourne for a Thanksgiving 2006 cookapalooza for the Tuck clan. We then didn't see each other for 6 solid months, after which Stephen travelled to the USA to wed Joni. The story so far is described below in an email to Stephen's work friends titled "Give me your tired, your poor, and a Goddamn aisle seat!" ...
Hi everyone,
As I recall, the Statue of Liberty says "send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to breathe free". Well, Joni's migration to Australia has now seen her tired (which she still is), poor (in specific terms), huddled (in several consecutive window seats) and longing to breathe free (40 hours breathing recycled airliner air can do that to you).
Perhaps I should explain.
The best news of the week is that on Friday her passport arrived back from the Australian embassy in Washington, complete with her prospective marriage visa. Hence, she was allowed to migrate to Australia subject to two conditions. One, that she has to marry within 9 months of the visa being granted. Two, that she not marry before first entering Australia on that visa. The first of these obviously isn't a problem. The second we were aware of when applying for the visa. Some of you may already know that we'd planned to get around this by having a purely religious wedding: that is, we'd go through the rite of marriage prescribed by the Catholic church, but without having a marriage licence. Hence, no marriage known to the law of the State of Louisiana. Therefore no marriage as far as the Department of Immigration was concerned. Which would let her marry me in the church, then we'd marry civilly in Victoria once installed there. We'd sought advice from lawyers in Melbourne and Louisiana who both said this plan was legally sound, if unorthodox. So, that was what we'd do. Plain sailing all the way to the chapel and beyond, right?
Wrong.
The flaw in the plan was that it assumed that the church would go along with it. When we met with Fr Trey (one of the priests at St Philomena's Church) he doubted that it could be done but made a few enquiries, including with the office of the Bishop of Baton Rouge. Ultimately the answer came back: yes, what you want to do can be done, but no, the bishop won't provide the necessary approval as a matter of policy. There followed a call to the Embassy, who were sympathetic but clear: the requirement to enter Australia before marrying cannot be waived, although there's no minimum time to be spent in Australia.
So there was one option left: hop onto the website of United Airlines, book a return ticket to Sydney, go through immigration in Sydney, then fly back. Sounds insane? Yes it was. Oh, and she would have to make that trip alone: My visa allows me to stay in the US till 22 November, but only if I don't leave. So, Saturday evening Joni starts the long round trip from New Orleans - Los Angeles - Sydney - Auckland - Los Angeles - New Orleans. She safely passed through immigration in Sydney, and left the country 8 hours later with her passport duly stamped, arriving back in NO on Monday evening, 20,000 miles later, tired, jetlagged, and completely sick to death of air travel.
Eight Hours. It must be one of the shortest stays in the history of migration.
Anyway, the good news is that this means she can properly migrate to Australia once we're married. The wedding bits will be the subject of the next email.
Stephen.
Hi everyone,
As I recall, the Statue of Liberty says "send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to breathe free". Well, Joni's migration to Australia has now seen her tired (which she still is), poor (in specific terms), huddled (in several consecutive window seats) and longing to breathe free (40 hours breathing recycled airliner air can do that to you).
Perhaps I should explain.
The best news of the week is that on Friday her passport arrived back from the Australian embassy in Washington, complete with her prospective marriage visa. Hence, she was allowed to migrate to Australia subject to two conditions. One, that she has to marry within 9 months of the visa being granted. Two, that she not marry before first entering Australia on that visa. The first of these obviously isn't a problem. The second we were aware of when applying for the visa. Some of you may already know that we'd planned to get around this by having a purely religious wedding: that is, we'd go through the rite of marriage prescribed by the Catholic church, but without having a marriage licence. Hence, no marriage known to the law of the State of Louisiana. Therefore no marriage as far as the Department of Immigration was concerned. Which would let her marry me in the church, then we'd marry civilly in Victoria once installed there. We'd sought advice from lawyers in Melbourne and Louisiana who both said this plan was legally sound, if unorthodox. So, that was what we'd do. Plain sailing all the way to the chapel and beyond, right?
Wrong.
The flaw in the plan was that it assumed that the church would go along with it. When we met with Fr Trey (one of the priests at St Philomena's Church) he doubted that it could be done but made a few enquiries, including with the office of the Bishop of Baton Rouge. Ultimately the answer came back: yes, what you want to do can be done, but no, the bishop won't provide the necessary approval as a matter of policy. There followed a call to the Embassy, who were sympathetic but clear: the requirement to enter Australia before marrying cannot be waived, although there's no minimum time to be spent in Australia.
So there was one option left: hop onto the website of United Airlines, book a return ticket to Sydney, go through immigration in Sydney, then fly back. Sounds insane? Yes it was. Oh, and she would have to make that trip alone: My visa allows me to stay in the US till 22 November, but only if I don't leave. So, Saturday evening Joni starts the long round trip from New Orleans - Los Angeles - Sydney - Auckland - Los Angeles - New Orleans. She safely passed through immigration in Sydney, and left the country 8 hours later with her passport duly stamped, arriving back in NO on Monday evening, 20,000 miles later, tired, jetlagged, and completely sick to death of air travel.
Eight Hours. It must be one of the shortest stays in the history of migration.
Anyway, the good news is that this means she can properly migrate to Australia once we're married. The wedding bits will be the subject of the next email.
Stephen.
posted by Joni and Stephen | 12:14 AM
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