20211029 : Octopus

Yesterday I received my new Australian passport. The earlier one had expired. There was no hurry to get it done really - I won't be going anywhere soon 😂

However, every other form of ID like drivers licence, Medicare, etc had expired as well in the last 3 years and a good friend advised to have a valid form of ID, decided to get it done.

Normally, its quite impossible to get a passport without a physical appearance in the consulate.

Many emails later., Explaining my situation many times and crossing many hurdles, they realised I cannot speak as well to have a call. I was then shifted to WhatsApp chat with their consular officer in Chennai. Lots of back and forth later, and a video call with him, they agreed to use a loophole in the system that they had opened up for folks who were stranded and couldn't go to the consulate due to covid travel restrictions.

However, this route could only be taken for Australian residents and the online application would not take inputs for address and phone number (there were checks to comply with Australian formats).

 Back to back and forth communication and finally they used their back end access to fill the form. Had to get my dear wife to give a declaration on residence and address for it.

I didn't have any recent photo that meets their passport specifications. Had to take something with a phone camera while on the wheelchair with a white cloth as background and crop it. Had to give another declaration why it was not as per specifications and also had to upload the photo I had used in 2011 for the earlier passport.

Next, I had to download the completed form in their generated pdf and sign it. Had to give another declaration for why I am unable to sign.

There were a whole bunch of supporting documents also to be uploaded.

Finally I thought it was done, when I came to the payment. Could only pay using VISA or MasterCard credit card. Neither I or my wife currently owns a credit card. Back to comms and requested a good friend for help and gave the details. One more declaration on this. It was a 2 step process.

Finally it was done. 2 weeks later, the passport came home yesterday.

 Most of the heavy lifting was done by my dear wife and timely help by my close friend.

But I have a great sense of accomplishment. I got a passport without leaving my bed.

As I think about it, I feel like an octopus. With many tentacles - not just 8. Sure, they are not my own, but a lot more can be accomplished by just the head and everyone else being my tentacles. My wife is the strongest one. Followed by my close friends who have done much since my stroke. Followed by many friends and relatives who are ready to help anytime I ask.

I guess it is not how we are strong ourselves but how many such tentacles we can rely on in the end. 

I hope you are growing many tentacles too...

PS: As an aside, I will give some unsolicited advice (knowing very well what happens to unsolicited advice)

None of this would have been possible if I had not gotten several documents that were needed urgently. If it had to be searched and scanned etc. nothing would have been possible.

Sometime back in 2014 I think, I just decided to have any and all important documents digitised. I can't remember what prompted it. If anything seemed important it got digitised. Certificates, imp receipts, acknowledgments, medical reports, etc. You get the drift.

Next all of it went to the cloud - so it could be accessed anywhere, anytime and any device.

I strongly advise you do something similar. No guarantee of finding physical stuff when you want it. Or that it can be safe even.

Make sure it is secured and has atleast a 2 factor authentication.

It will probably take 2 weekends one off effort to save a lot of trouble later. Don't need a scanner too nowadays - just a smartphone will do.

Its a very minimal incremental effort after. 

And of course, It's named properly and stored in proper folder structure, so it can be easily searched and retrieved.

No point having unidentifiable files heaped in one place. It has to be easy for you to get to what you want when you want.

I am not very sure, but I hope it came to good use for my wife for the first 2 years after my stroke.

Now I can find and send stuff if needed. And I continue to upload stuff (whatever I am across anyway). So yes, the new passport is also there already 🙂...