Subject: Re: U.S. Consular Officials' Behavior--Last Comment
From: Karl Feld (KARL@office.westernwats.com)
Date: Thu Oct 28 1999 - 18:08:30 EDT
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
[Note from CCSI: This topic has generated a lively reaction, but as it is
CivilSoc policy to be concise and oriented to information and
announcements rather than extended discussion, this will be the last post
we'll circulate on the topic of U.S. consular staff behavior. Holt Ruffin,
CCSI]
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
I feel the need to present the consular officer's viewpoint on this issue,
especially as no US officer could respond to this issue even if they
wanted too because of gov. regulations. I am not a foreign service
officer. However, I worked in international development for years. Part
of my job was processing foreigners' visas through German and US consular
officers, so I have some understanding of their viewpoint. I've stood
behind the window as a disinterested third party and listened to
applicants.
This is not a defense of the behavior. It IS an insight into why officers
sometimes behave as they do. Any solution to the problem would need to
address the pressures causing the behavior in addition to requring a
behavioral change on the part of consular staff.
Imagine yourself mobbed by hundreds of people each day asking you for
something many of them aren't allowed to have. The line never ends.
There are no appointments. It's like passing out hamburghers as a
McDonald's employee at lunchtime, except that lunchtime lasts 4-6 hours.
It's your job to decide which of these hundreds of people standing at your
hamburgher counter are lying to you and which are not. You have five
minutes to decide, as there are hundreds in line behind them. Many of the
stories these people tell are downright ridiculous. But they come back
day after day. Others are pathetic and your heart goes out, but your job
is to say "Sorry, no" when they can't prove sufficient support.
I would imagine that dealing with numerous liers all day every day can
make one calloused. Working under pressure to make snap decisions each
and every workday of the week, 6 hours a day for two years can develop
behavior that seems/is short or rude and can often seem capricious.
In contrast, I was never treated poorly at the US Embassy when I submitted
visas for students and academics on exchange or businessmen and government
officials on technical exchanges. This was partly because my processing
was done after hours. It was partly because USAID guaranteed monitoring
of participants' return, so the embassy didn't have to be concerned with
asking questions. It was also partly because I was an American, I'm sure.
Interestingly enough, my assistant did occasionally encounter resistance,
especially from the foreign nationals working for the consular section of
the embassies. Many applicants deal with fellow foreign nationals, not
Americans or Germans, which brings local ethnic tensions and other
problems into the picture. Much of the rude behavior comes from these
folks. I was once seriously harrassed for no good reason by a security
guard of the German Embassy who was Russian, even though I speak perfect
German and had been there several times. He knew me by sight. In the US
foreign service EVERYONE spends their first two years processing visas.
I suspect this leads senior officers to sympathize with consuler officers,
as they know what it's like.
I suggest that yes, a petition might be in order directed at foreign
national staff as well as Embassy ex-pats in the consular division. I
also suggest that that petition contain provisions for changing the
working conditions of consular officers to include visas issued by
appointment only, appointments to be made in advance in writing. The
obvious problem of course is that this slows down the process even further
beyond it's already snail-like pace.
Regards, Karl Feld
*----------------------------------------------------------*
| CivilSoc is an electronic news and information service |
| provided free of charge to 1,500 subscribers worldwide. |
| CivilSoc is a project of CCSI--Center for Civil Society |
| International in Seattle, in association with Friends |
| & Partners. For more information about civic initia- |
| tives in nations of the former USSR and elsewhere, |
| visit CCSI's web site at: |
| http://www.friends-partners.org/ccsi/ |
| |
| To subscribe or access the archives of CivilSoc, go to: |
| http://www.friends-partners.org/ccsi/info/civilsoc.htm |
| |
| To post a message to CivilSoc, send it to: |
| civilsoc@solar.cini.utk.edu |
| |
| CCSI's non-list e-mail address: ccsi@u.washington.edu |
*----------------------------------------------------------*
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a22 : Thu Oct 28 1999 - 18:08:53 EDT