I imagin that if our new star from abroad had been signed by Rangers or Celtic he would have had his work permit the next day.

Can anyone enlighten me into why it is taking so long :024: :024: :024: :024:

cant be bothered going hunting on the home office site - but a player who had "lived in Scotland all their life but never gained citizenship" would have documentation of some sort allowing them to remain in the country possibly because of parentage or after a number of years because of naturalisation.

In my own situation, I am classed as a 'permanent resident' despite not having citizenship of Canada. Because I have been here for more than 3 years, I am eligible to apply for citizenship if I wish, but if not, all I need to do is renew my permanent resident card after 5 years and all is good ..... I am, in effect, a 'naturalised' Canadian (which will always be second to 'born Scottish') !!!

That makes sense then.

Well that is a surprise Scotty. Noy yet a Citizen of this wide and handsome country.

.No idea how long it takes these days to get your Citizenship but if the Passport Application is anything to go by --for me it was some 22 weeks-- good luck !

Sounds like your "permanent Residency"  is akin to a Permit Ha! Ha!.

:003: :014:

Sounds like your "permanent Residency"  is akin to a Permit Ha! Ha!.  :003: :014:

pretty much.

It's a credit card sized ID card that allows me to work, pay taxes, swap my UK driving license for an Ontario one, pay taxes, Get my UK passport renewal issued from Ottawa, pay taxes, Get my Ontario health coverage (think NHS), pay taxes ....... but what it doesnt allow me to do is vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections, or claim 'welfare' should the need arise, these only come if I decide to go for citizenship and become one of these dual-nationality bods ..... oh, and I need to have it with me in addition to my passport when I leave or enter the country.

After I had been here in Canada for a few years I got to thinking " Hmmmmm, there are benefits going here and if I am getting a living from this country maybe I should just get my Citizenship"--which I then did.

Taxes---yes they are always there Grrr.  My property taxes have gone up by a net amount of 13%, whilst inflation, like the U.K. is about 2%,--castigated the mayor who chickened out, fobbed me off to the Municipalities Financial officer who supervised the Annual budget preparation and he  never replied Grrrrr2.I am still mad... :008:

Pokey--never tried to get it, never needed to --always worked . Passport--you can have a British Passport and a Canadian one--but why bother with the British one, probably costs a fortune now to get it. Canadian passport costs about $100 (close to 47 pounds) and the only advantage to renewing the British Passport is that you maybe get through the line-ups when you arrive in a British Airport a bit quicker.

And the cost of living, not to memntion the cost of homes, in Scotland does not inspire me to retire in Scotland...but who knows....?

Beautiful day here in Lotus Land, Scotty--probably humid as usual in the East, eh?

Cheers  S.P

Niculae's view

I see Arsenal are having the same problem just now with Edmundo de Silva.

I think its kind of ludicrous ....

I can understand why the EU allows immigration restrictions to be put in place by member states for the first 7 years of a new country's membership of the EU (even though it can be applied arbitrarily - eg. we did it for Bulgaria and Romania but not Poland) . I can even understand the rule about 75% of international games (although I don't necessarily agree with it)

However, I simply dont see why the 75% rule is a blanket rule, especially as Romania are a lot higher in the FIFA rankings than Scotland and probably have hundreds of players who would be able to compete at the same or higher level than those at SPL clubs. If Romania play 4 fixtures a year, less than 20 players could actually manage to reach 75% of fixtures !

It is quite clear that Niculae is not an 'economic migrant' like some who might try and come here from new EU member states.

It is also clear that his pedigree is pretty good despite not playing in 75% of his country's fixtures in the last two years.

And it is further clear that ICT could not purchase a player like this in the domestic market as we could not afford it .....

so c'mon bureaucrats - sign the papers !!!!!

Hear hear.

Are St Mirren likely to have similar problems with the Israeli & Argentine players they are hoping to sign?

How about Dundee with there Slovakian??

I doubt any of them are even internationalists  :017:

Think the reason for the delay must be to do with the simple fact that the Rangers fan at the Scottish office responsible for permits is terrified of a repeat of last season and is doing his best to help them out.