William Hindman
wdhindman at bellsouth.net
Fri Mar 7 17:42:04 CST 2003
...first ...my apologies for the previous blank posts ...my new superfast system w/OE6 seems most adept at replying before I've managed to make any entry :( ...as for the situation with visas, you have my full sympathies ...I traveled quite a bit of the world during my prior career and seldom without some sort of problem ...it would seem that corruption in the immigration/visa sections of every government I've known is endemic, even that of my beloved America ...in fact, it was the American Embassy in Bangkok that finally drove me to the ultimate frustration of actually paying someone off to expedite the travel documents required to bring my family back to the US with me ...hours upon hours waiting only to be told to come back the next day ...or to wait in another line ...or that the person that handled "that" wasn't in today ...or why had I not hired an "expeditor" to handle these "matters" ...and after days of this tactic at my own embassy ...all with my wife and 3 year old daughter in hand, I finally gave in and paid someone "recommended" to me by an American consular officer ...and lo!!!!! ...I had the necessary documents all complete and in my hands within 3 hours ...which sucks more than any other bureaucratic FUBAR I've experienced before or since ...having to bribe my own embassy runs so much against everything I believe in that you have no idea how hard it was for me to concede to do it. ...no help here I know, Shamil ...but you're not alone in your frustration with the thieves :( William Hindman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shamil Salakhetdinov" <shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru> To: "AccessD" <AccessD at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 6:13 PM Subject: [AccessD] OT: "Chevaux de frise" of free world... > Hi All, > > I'm sorry I'm writing about that here - I just went very crazy today about > what they - Western Embassies and Consulates here and their bosses in Den > Haage (Netherlands) are doing... > > Here is a fresh story: > > - I applied for business Visum (15 days of staying, one entry) several days > ago for me and my two children(15 and 17 years old) (IMPORTANT NOTE: here > in Consualate General they ACCEPTED this application for BUSINESS visum and > they checked all the docs carefully) - to make that I prepared all the > needed paperwork, get original invitation from my partner from Netherlands > (DHL, second day delivery = rather expensive), even changed the passports to > make them fresh new (some more bucks) because at first they said that the > ones I had aren't good, PAID for their "services"(not that much but should > be enough for a rather good dinner for three I think) and I started to > wait... > And BTW I spent quite some time on all that prepations and quite some > bucks in total... > > Do you know what answer I've got today? (in fact my Netherland's partner was > called from Den Haage - Ministry of Foreign Affairs) - they said I should > have applied for TOURISTIC not BUSINESS visum because I plan to go with my > kids but as I mentioned above here they CHECKED all the docs and ACCEPTED > them... > > Should I fight with them looking for truth with the risk to be written in > their "black lists" forever? > Or should I give up and accept the "rules" of their game? - there is a whole > business around them here - and one (including any kinds of criminals etc.) > can buy for money any kind of Visum and freely enter West Europe or States > or Canada... > > I wanted to make it direct and according to all the laws and I didn't want > to pay to the "shadow business around them" any extra money - and I've got > NOTHING - or I'd better say I and my partner in Netherlands got real > mockery... And they were harsh not only with me - they were that hostile > with my Netherland's partner too - how it comes? > > Shamil > > P.S. I know, probably Russian Embassies do something like that there in West > Europe - but should it justify what they are doing here these ambassadors of > "civilized" free world? > > -- > e-mail: shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru > Web: http://www.smsconsulting.spb.ru/shamil_s > > > _______________________________________________ > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com