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By PETER KORUGL
AFTER a couple of anxious weeks, 18-year-old Michael Neumeier of Lae was
all smiles yesterday – he finally got a visa to travel to Australia for
studies.
He had planned to leave last week but the Foreign Affairs Department had
yet to process his travel documents which had expired.
The Lutheran church liaison office in Port Moresby tried to help but to
no avail.
The office was told that the Immigration Division of the department was
short of both staff and resources.
“I am in Grade 12 and will be sitting for my final examinations in three
weeks. I am really worried,” Michael said when he visited The National
yesterday morning with his father to highlight their predicament.
At 4.30pm, they learnt that his papers had been renewed.
Klaus Neumeier said it all came through when he rung Air Niugini to
cancel his son’s bookings.
“The Air Niugini staff told me she knew someone at the immigration
office who might be able to help and I told her I would say a prayer for
her.
“I don’t know how she did it but our liaison officer said he had picked
up the visa,” he told The National.
Mr Klaus, who is a German, has worked in PNG for several years and is
now the national adviser to the Lutheran Development Service.
Michael was born and raised in PNG and has been attending school in
Brisbane.
He usually spends his school holidays in PNG.
Mr Neumeier said Michael’s case was not an isolated one.
“Many foreigners working with churches and other development agencies
faced similar problems,” he said.
“This was one of the reasons the German Development Service decided to
close its office here, costing K12 million in foreign exchange earnings
a year.”
He regretted that Germany had no embassy in PNG despite the historical
ties.
He added that visa applications were also expensive in this country.
 
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