British actor Hugh Laurie has oddly tweeted about an issue with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) which immigration officials say is not a problem.
Laurie tweeted to his 360,000 followers his dismay with the bureaucracy of INZ, after what he thought was a request to provide evidence of his marriage so he could enter the country.
The impertinence of NZ’s immigration authorities is eye-watering. Will I send them personal letters as evidence of the state of my marriage
— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) February 19, 2014
He followed that tweet by saying he would not provide such evidence before launching into a bit of sarcasm.
Luckily I found this: “dear applicant, marry me for 25 years so one day we can scam a 3 day trip to Auckland. Yours etc.” Fingers crossed!
— Hugh Laurie (@hughlaurie) February 19, 2014
The star of television show House and the movie adaption of New Zealand author Lloyd Jones’ book, Mr. Pip, married theatre administrator Jo Green in 1989.
He is also a noted musician and will perform two shows with his band, the Copper Bottom Band, in New Zealand in April, but it appears his Twitter claims about immigration were a misunderstanding of the process.
INZ area manager Michael Carley said Laurie would not need to provide any evidence of his marriage.
“Although Mr Laurie needs a work visa for his planned shows in New Zealand his wife as a British citizen does not need a visitor visa if she is planning to stay here less than six months.
“It is important to stress that INZ would not require any evidence from the couple about the genuineness of their relationship as part of Mr Laurie’s work visa application.”
INZ had received an email from Laurie’s agent requesting information about the visa application process and duly provided that information, Carley said.
NZ publicist Michelle Lafferty says “Hugh was filling in the form and going through the usual red tape when it comes to visas. The tweet was intended to be tongue and cheek and certainly wasn’t meant to offend anyone.”
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