Mick Davidson

Hello everyone,
The online form asks you to list every country you've visited in the last ten years, giving dates, and explain why you were there. Being a member of the EU, this is quite a hard question to answer, especially as the form has no flexibility regarding frequent cross-border travel for work.

My scenario is that I'm a British citizen who lived in the Netherlands for about six years from 2006. I moved back to the UK in 2012.

While I was in NL I was working for a British company and had to go back to the office a few times a year. This meant driving across Belgium and France twice in a week. Every year I probably did this trip three times, so I crossed into both countries (from NL and from the UK) six times a year. (and I have no recollection of the dates of course...)

On top of that my father lived across the border from NL in Belgium, so I was regular visitor there, mainly just popping down for a few hours in an evening. I probably did this at least six times.

And then there were the two holidays I had in France, and the multiple times I've now been to Australia.

As you can see, this is a lot of travel and a lot of form to fill in, with a lot of detail that is inconsequential - I only went to France and Belgium to get to the UK. I was probably in those countries for no more than a couple of hours at the most on each occasion.

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do about this? I was thinking of only entering the main info (that I lived in NL, that I was on holiday in France and Oz) and not listing the frequent travel. But I don't want to hide anything or seem to be, so I was going to attach a covering letter explaining my work arrangements.

I'm sure the immigration office are well aware of the ability to cross borders in the EU, so am hoping they might accept my covering letter, but what do the experts think?
Thanks in advance, Mick.

Pollyana

Driving through a country doesn't count as visiting it

Enter as much detail as you can on the main part - that bit I have put into bold - with the fact you worked in the NL and made frequent trips 'home' to the UK, . Add Belgium with a note that you visited numerous times due to your father living there.
You will obviously be listing the NL as a previous address, supplying police checks etc as you were living there (you will also need an Aus AFP check if you have spent more than 12 months here in total, and a UK ACRO check)

Its not a memory test, they want to see where you have been, do they need to chase for police checks, do you spend a lot of time in high risk countries etc etc. Nothing to stress over, honestly, I think part of my list said 'numerous day trips to northern France 1996-2003, cannot remember dates

Mick Davidson

Pollyana, thanks for the tips. I will have a look at the form to see how much leeway I have regarding the info I can add. Cheers.