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now that i have successfully made it out of australia, i thought it might be helpful to talk about my experience applying for a travel exemption - what i had to provide, how long it took etc - for anyone who finds themselves in a similar boat
when i first looked in to applying, there was virtually no public info. there are more and more articles like this one available now, which document people's experiences and the process, but they often still talk in fairly general terms https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/09/i-was-helpless-the-australians-caught-up-in-a-dysfunctional-covid-travel-exemption-system?fbclid=IwAR2-Mo8pg12h2lMGSGudbO9h81vE6XaXciTf9o2IYIBRWGgIcPdVkh1Nomw
of course, everyone's circumstances for needing to travel will vary, but mine were these: i needed to travel to finland to start a new job - a two-year position which i could not do from australia.
the hardest part was finding out whether i would be eligible to apply for an exemption, and what i would need to provide to make a case. i STRONGLY recommend contacting your federal MP or senator to ask them to help you with this.
my senator did a first informational call and then a few follow ups to check my application's progress. i happen to know my senator socially (a massive privilege i know!), which made communicating with them a little easier, but any of your representatives should do this for you
we worked out that my best case would hinge on the fact that i would not seek to return to australia for the entire two year contract - the govt doesn't want people a) coming back with covid germs and b) getting stuck overseas and needing consular assistance
sidebar: i knew i would be moving away from my friends and family for a long time when i accepted this job, but putting in official writing that i will not try to come back to australia for *two years* was HARD
it has made the move to finland seem much further away than it first did back in january - there are some friends and family i will probably not see for the next two years. i will almost certainly never see my beloved 16 year old family dog in person again.
to make my case to home affairs, i had to provide all the evidence i could to prove that i will be staying in finland and not be a nuisance to australian consular services. this included, among other things, providing a copy of my contract and proof i can support myself here
i have read about other people providing additional evidence that they have packed up their lives here: lease endings, resignation letters etc.
i couldn't provide either of these (my boyfriend is staying in tasmania in our house with our cat, and my work before this was all casual), but my application was accepted anyway - i think if you've got them, great, but if you don't, the other stuff should be okay anyway
the online exemption form asks for your personal details (name, passport number, email etc), as well as your travel plans (flight number, date of travel, the port you intend to leave from).
the form then asks you to explain why you need to travel - the advice i got from home affairs was to provide as much specific detail as possible. the online form only looks like it has a small text box, but i wrote a full page of explanation:
my application took 3.5 weeks to be approved. as far as i can tell, this is relatively standard time for non-urgent applications, but it felt like forever. i had no idea if the documents and explanations i had provided would be sufficient, so it was an anxious wait.
it also meant there were only two weeks between getting my approval and actually having to fly out - i had to keep preparing to leave (selling my car, packing etc) as if i already had the exemption, while not knowing if i would actually get it.
the approval email looked like this. i had to read it twice to make sure i had understood the bland departmental speak did indeed say i was allowed to travel.
i have read a few accounts claiming that, once you are at the airport with the exemption, the process is very smooth and the airline checks your name on a screen - that was not my experience lol
i had to show a paper copy of the email at check in, & was then sent to a second counter where an airline staffer called home affairs & read out mine & ten other people's passport numbers manually, then check them off a paper list, then have the list checked by a third staffer
at this stage the queue had broken down entirely so all the australian passengers were waiting in a (socially distant) clump at a desk while the poor staffer (who was doing an excellent job in a weird situation) handed us back our passports and boarding passes
in hindsight, this was all fairly smooth and no worse than any other airport queue, but it was nerve-wracking and i was hot and tired after waiting in the check in queue for 90 minutes in a hot mask
the upside was that once we were through this extra-elaborate check in and exemption check, customs and security were extremely fast, so i had enough time to get to my gate and wash my hands six thousand more times comfortably before boarding
my main takeaways from the experience are these: 1) i had all the privilege of having a senator-friend to make calls for me, and a clear reason to leave the country long term, and am very used to writing bureaucratic form responses, and i still found this INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL
1cont) my heart goes out to everyone trying to apply for exemptions to visit ill/dying family, or who lacks similar institutional or cultural resources. it is not easy.
2) while individual workers are probably doing their best, home affairs as a government dept is fundamentally built on whimsy & opacity - it should be easier to find out what kind of documents people need to provide, & people receive clear reasons when their apps are rejected
finally: usual caveats apply - none of this is official advice, all very contingent on my personal circumstances - but i hope it is useful to anyone else who is going through the process. also happy to dm if anyone has questions.
