Ask for the longer appointment slot. Ten minutes is not enough for a complex history and pretending otherwise wastes both your time.

An inconclusive account is useful if it stops the next person mistaking a story for a controlled comparison.

Filing early beats arguing later. And ask for the reference number, always. A fortnight in on the Australian personal importation scheme and it lines …

My rule, after years of this: if it cannot survive being written down with the numbers attached, it is marketing.

Imprint first, country second, colour last. And photograph both sides in daylight.

Fifteen years of this and the function column is the only one that changed anything for me. Also, one page of history, printed, handed over at the sta…