Subject: Re: U.S. Consular Officials' Behavior
From: Bill Parks (vachebleue@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Oct 27 1999 - 16:20:28 EDT
I just received this email, and I am in complete agreement, though the
problem is not confined to Russia, nor is the US embassy the only guilty
party. For example, the brother of a South African friend of mine was
denied a US visa because "(we) just don't believe you are not going to the
US to work." This gentleman was travelling from Britain to visit a friend
in LA before returning to Southa Africa to visit family and friends. He
had a legal British working visa and was employed in, I believe, a law
firm. Futhermore, he had already purchased an onward ticket to South
Africa.
A Russian teacher of mine in Yaroslavl spent over three months getting a
visa to Germany (she is fluent in German and often travelled to the GDR as a
translator and thus had friends there.) These friends invited her to visit,
sponsored her, and paid for her plane ticket. Since 1. She was married, 2.
Her husband had a resobably good job as editor at the local paper, 3. Her
son's wife had just had a baby, there was absolutely no reason for there to
be such a delay in issuing the visa.
A British man, whom I met through my work, who was an English teacher in
Moscow had spent years trying to get his wife(!) a British visa. He would
like to move back to Britain with his wife and children but they keep
denying her entry.
All in all, the treatment of visa applicants by Western embassies, from my
observations is arbitrary and often borders on cruel. As a consequence,
it really gives many foreigners a negative first impression. And since
embassies and counsuls are representatives of our countries abroad, we
should demand they put their best foot forward. Sadly, this is not always
the case.
Bill Parks
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