457

It's Darren's last week in the job he came to do and he's spending most of it using up his remaining annual leave, moonlighting in the private hospital to pay for the enormous credit card bill we racked up in Queensland. Five introductory dives is all very well but somebody's gotta face the bill when we get back.

Despite all the plans in the pipeline, the private intensive care unit still hasn't merged with the public one so the private work is still out there for the taking. We're pretty sure it will all go ahead but already it's two months late and it does make you wonder whether all the hassle over changing jobs will have been worth it in the end.

Let's just say that if the private work doesn't dry up and he needn't have changed jobs, I'll be livid when he gets sent overseas.

So this time next week it'll be all jumpsuits and choppers and hot calls on the bat phone and if you think I'm joking, remind me to show you his induction folder when we get back because it describes all the protocols for what to do when the bat phone rings, which I'm assuming involves pulling a black mask halfway down his face and hopping into the flying bat mobile with Robin, his junior registrar.

It's tempting to start a fist fight just to check whether we get a "wham!" and a "bam" when he throws a punch.

Anyway, it's not all done and dusted yet because someone's decided we could use a bit more hassle on top of the cockroaches and the crappy washer, and with this in mind, we're still waiting for immigration to re-issue his visa naming his new employer as his sponsor. So he can still start work on Monday, there's just the small matter that they can't legally pay him.

We came to Australia on a 457 visa, which means that although it lasts for four years, it's tied to whichever employer is sponsoring him to be here. My own visa is a spousal 457, which means I can work for anyone and Ella's is a dependents one which carries the same conditions, so we really could put her to work down the mines if she were a few inches taller.

The 457 is exactly the same visa held by Mohamed Haneef, the doctor arrested in Brisbane on suspicion of being involved with the Glasgow bomb plot. Since this guy was arrested, the government's been under scrutiny for "handing out 457 visas like sweets" to certain classes of professionals, doctors included, though I don't remember it being particularly easy to obtain our visas, especially not all the medicals we had to pass and the paperwork we had to get signed by a JP and the letter from our high school confirming that the language of our education was English. And that was before Darren had all of his qualifications lengthily assessed in Philadelphia and we were police checked in both countries. It wasn't easy and it wasn't cheap either so I don't know what the public here is crapping on about.

Anyway, with a bit of luck the visa will be issued early next week and if there's a problem and they can't legally pay him then the consultants have guaranteed that the registrars and fellows will cough up $500 a throw to tide us over and hopefully they've checked that with them beforehand.

Having said that, luck might just be the key. It's not a good time to be applying for a 457 visa, all things considered. Especially not if you're a doctor and especially one who wants to work with planes.