Sunday, October 15, 2006

Ptooey... referee issues

I received a phone call on Friday from the Intercountry Adoption Unit (DoCS). We provided them with two referees, but they are not suitable. The referees need to be people who are not related to us or each other, have known us longer than two years and visit us regularly.

We lived in Mt Isa for seven years, until Dec 2005. We have been in Brisbane for nine months. Everyone who knows us well but isn't related is from Mt Isa, so we provided contact details for people who know us very well and are in a good position to speak of our relationship - but because they don't visit us regularly NOW (even though they did for the seven years we were in Mt Isa), they can't be used.

I said we've only been living here for 9 months. Most of the people who visit us are related in some way. I was told that it was okay, the referees don't really need to have known us for longer than two years (... so why is that written on the form?)

I can find people in Brisbane who have known us for five minutes and certainly can't speak about us with the same authority as our original referees... doesn't make sense, but if we want to get this box checked we must comply.

3 comments:

D said...

There are always those weird things...we had to get our doctor's forms redone because his signature wasn't readable. We were told that if they can read "Dr. Jane Smith" in the typing, they want to be able to read "Dr. Jane Smith" in her signature. So, we had to go back to the doctor and say "even though it's now how you really sign your name, can you sign it like you're in third grade and just learned cursive?"

It seems silly...because to me, it makes it all the more easy to fake really...anyone can write someone's name in plain cursive.

But...we did it.

D said...

And when I say "we did it" I do not mean we faked his signature...I mean we went back to the doctor's office and had him redid it.

Just to be clear!

Emma said...

How ridiculous! These are the things that we roll our eyes at, but know that we are powerless and must comply if we want to actually make progress!