http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-23109,00.html

Richie Trezise, an English submarine cable specialist headhunted for a job with Telecom, was forced to slim down before the New Zealand Immigration Service would let him in, the New Zealand Press Association reported.
He was denied an employer-backed talent visa when he failed the body mass index (BMI) test, a fat measurement using a person's height and weight.
According to reports, Mr Trezise's BMI was 42, making him morbidly obese under New Zealand Immigration guidelines.


Mr Trezise was forced to go on a crash diet to lose weight and 5cm from his waist and passed the test to start work in New Zealand in September.
...


Mr Trezise's wife Rowan is still in Britain attempting to meet BMI requirements before joining her husband in New Zealand.

Richie Trezise, an English submarine cable specialist headhunted for a job with Telecom, was forced to slim down before the New Zealand Immigration Service would let him in, the New Zealand Press Association reported.


It was a fat bloke not a woman, clearly fat women must still be allowed but us fat blokes will have to stay out,

I'm sure amercia will let us in though, I might even bring down the average

He was let in after he lost weight, but his wife is still in Britain trying to lose weight ...

Don't you have to be relatively thin to work in a submarine?

apprently not.

Submarine cabling has to be put down deep in the ocean floor... maybe his weight helped him to dive deeper ....

hahahahahah, like his own diving bell...nice.
If he breathed in he could float, fart it out and down she goes.

If you read to the very, very last line of the article it says that his wife is still in the UK trying to lose enough weight to be allowed in.

I think Australia has had regulations along these lines for a while now. I can't remember if there is a BMI restriction. But there have been cases of people coming to the country, or marrying a foreigner, and then their spouse being refused entry because they are handicapped or have a health issue.

I think all these were also denied entry, but the uk are happy to have them

Harsh but sort of right, the thinking is along the lines of do we want a drain on our health system? Not very nice but there you go.

Same should apply to smoking, heavy drinkers etc etc. Well if they're going these lines...

Which means I'm pretty shafted.

Btw

Oz as part of the application process for entry also ask you for a chest xray for TB, HIV test and a health check from a cert'd Ozzie ok GP in the UK if I remember rightly.

Could be used as a depth charge for the military, feed curry throw of the side of the NZ Navy frigate...

It implies he's laying sub surface cables...(i.e. below water) We all like our internet right

I agree, the door should not be open to everyone like it is in the UK for example, it puts a real strain on the health care resources that are in place for the people who paid for them.

BTW you often hear of Obese folks, heavy smokers/drinkers going to the bottom of waiting lists for things like liver transplants (Unless your name is George Best of course).

While I am ranting I would like to add that IMHO immigrants and asylum seekers alike should be routinely tested for STD's/HIV, TB and Hepetitis. If they fail they should be refused entry. Full stop.

on the same theme i recently flew back from Brussels. sitting at the back of the plane i spied a huge great fat bloke waddling down the aisle.i thought oh no! correct he sat next to me spilling over into my seat .needless to say American.
now my point is should not fat people pay a fuel surcharge? after all he is using more fuel than me for the same trip so why should i subsidise his burger fixation?
what makes me smile is the euphemisms used such as BMI ,heavy etc etc. no these people are just fat

I quite agree... great idea! Lets get charged for our tickets according to our weight and while we are at it lets fit scales at the door of the aircraft and have the steward anounce the passengers weight at the door and the ammount of carbon they are going to produce during the flight and award the the person who produces the least carbon during the flight a prize!

As Jim Royal would say... 'Carbon footprint my arse!'

Your last paragraph - Dude, bad

When i came to this country in 1981 one of the requisites for my work permit was TB screening, is there anyone else who had to do this?

A relative newcomer here, as in 1998, I didn't need one. But with reference to the thread about Saudi, in the early 1990s one of my friends needed a visa to go there and was asked to do an AIDS/HIV test. At that time in the UK you got penalised for ticking the box on an insurance form saying that you had such a test. Yes, you read that correctly, you could get penalised for doing something which shows responsibility.

BMI isn't a euphemism, it's just a way of measuring something. We all have a BMI.

Economic migrations are not the same as asylum seekers,
I will agree that Asylum seekers are often economic migrants in disguise, but often they have fled their country because they have been forced to leave.
Bet in as part of war, or part or other things, a lot of them have a VERY good case as to why they can’t go home, it’s never simple, and I think your comment is not exactly fair

Sam

What relevance does a news story originating in Australia, concerning a UK citizen's BMI and New Zealand immigration policy have to do with Swiss politics?
Surely "off topic" is the place for this thread.
Nick.