visa power

It used to be the caption of the Visa credit card advertising in India "I've got the visa power". With the credit crunch, I am not very certain of this, but the other visa allowing one to travel is indeed a power. Life had been kind to me, as I got my visas very easily so far, and I mean until recently. From India to go to the US, and from US, to come to Switzerland.

Of course, I belong to a generation which started experiencing the most changes in the US visa policy. Firstly, following the unfortunate events in 2001, the drop-box policy changed to visa interview policy. Then the visa interview format changed from a simple "get it or get away" approach to that of maintaining a long drawn soap opera suspense. People with advanced scientific degrees may need an additional screening which may take months at a time. Some of my Indian friends had this trouble when they went to renew their visa in the middle of PhD. Poor them, firstly the fact that they needed a visa renewal is not pleasant, because this means their PhD needed more than 5 years. And on top of it, they were put on hold for over 2 months. What could they do, they were exactly on the other side of the planet earth, with a small lead of 12 hours in the time zone, but a long wait nevertheless. They waited, waited, and finally when they felt they may not have such a long break again, they got married. Nice ha?? I hope this is not a racket between the visa officers in Chennai and the local marriage bureaus in India.

When it was my turn for extending my sweet PhD period, I was at an interview as well. When I heard of interview, I went very well dressed, with polished shoes even. Well, I stopped there. Some others were so scared of the US interview that they were crying in front of the officer, at which point the officer was suggesting that they should practice yoga, breathing and all that .. .. ! Well, to my surprise the officer could only see upto my waist from the glass window she was behind. "What's your work useful for?", she asked. "Nothing", I replied sharply without any hesitation. "No, it must be useful for some science, some application?" "not really", I said. She asked me one more time and this time I replied "look at this point you almost make me feel bad that my work is not really useful for anything, but that's the sad truth". She was convinced and I got my visa, (or missed my window of opportunity for getting married??).

Recently, after moving to Switzerland, I had to apply for a US visa again. This time I decided to give the same answers, but unfortunately the questions were different, with even a special application form just for men. I was a little concerned about the privacy content of the questions until I read them all :). And finally the officer said we put your visa on a casual hold which may take up to months. That was 2 months ago and I still have not heard from them. hmm.

Now compare it to the Swiss visa. I had to give all my information to my university after accepting my job. After 2 months of processing at the Swiss consulate, the papers finally reached Mumbai. I had to go there to pick up my visa. Upon entering the country, I had to obtain a work permit, which again took 2 months of processing. At least I could stay in the country and work while I waited for it. I thought all of these delays in the Swiss work permit were for security reasons. A friend of mine who also applied for a work permit with me did not get it even after 2 months of wait. When he enquired, they said "look, we do not have it. Either we sent it to you and it was lost in the mail or we sent it to the printing office where it is processed". "Either, OR?" for such an important document. He asked if he could get the phone number of this printing office. And their response was that there is no phone in the printing office. Really? I do not understand what's happening. They were not even sure whether they sent it or not, and they mention this strange printing office which probably does not even exist. Now I know the delays are not due to security, but more due to a laid back life style in Switzerland.

Thankfully, as an Indian citizen, I do not need a visa for going back home. Otherwise I wonder how much of delays I can expect from my sweet very well relaxed home country. Anyway, although the hold on my US visa application was a disappointment, I had my fun counting the number of Indians, to be specific south Indians outside the consulate. After I saw 6 of us south Indians among the 25-30 people lined up outside the consulate in Bern, I was pretty sure that if I am really desparate for finding a south Indian person, I just have to look for them outside the local US consulate, whichever part of the world I am in.