The Visa Office

If you want to see an inefficient bureaucracy in action, just visit the Indian Consulate on Massachusetts Ave in D.C. There in the basement is a small room where you get your visa. What a madhouse that place is!

Before I visited the consulate, I called to see if they would be open the Friday after Thanksgiving. I dialed the phone three times. Each time the phone rang for 100 rings (Yes 100!) and then went to a voice mail that said, “Sorry, you cannot leave a message, the voice mailbox is full.” I have an idea: Indian call center!

So we took our chances by visiting the consulate. We had to park a few blocks away and walk there (actually, the consulate is located in a very posh neighborhood). I saw a sign for visas. I went to the basement and knew instantly I was at the right place: it was standing room only!

I took a ticket. I was number 66 and they were on 15. It would be more than an hour to get to our number. That wouldn’t be so bad if we could sit somewhere but there few only 40 seats for 120 people. Luckily, my son got a seat.

There were only two clerks to take care of so many people. It was just ridiculous. And if that wasn’t bad enough, people who had questions were always bothering them. These were people who:
1. Didn’t understand the concept of taking a ticket and waiting for their number to be called,
2. Had specific difficult questions that should have been answered by someone on the phone if there had been such a person,
3. Had specific difficult problems that should have been dealt in another office if there had been one.

Luckily, I had read the web page carefully and came completely prepared with the proper cash amount and the forms filled out. If everyone was like that, they could have processed 200 applications an hour. As it was they only processed 30 applications an hour.

The day before yesterday, I took my ticket back to the consulate to pick up the passports with the visas. Again, it was standing room only. This time, there were no tickets, just a long queue the snaked about the entire room in a completely haphazard manner. All we were doing was picking up our passports and leaving but it was going very slowly. There were people who were panicking because they didn’t get their visa and their flight left the next day. There was only one lady to take care of everybody and she was completely overwhelmed.

I guess I cannot complain too much about my experience – at least we got our visas! But I cannot help thinking about the family that needed their visas and their flight left the next day. The overwhelmed clerk just sighed and said, “There is nothing we can do.” We could have been that family just as easily.

We will be leaving in one week. After we leave, there will be no blogging for the rest of December. (Well, I’ll try to sneak in a post somehow).