Visa, Revisited

I wanted to update you all on our visa nightmare. As you might remember from an earlier post that I wrote in August, Eric and I are in the midst of trying to deal with our visas for the coming year. I applied for my extension in August with the promise that it would be ready in a month and a half, at which point we could then apply for Eric’s extension which would take an additional month and a half, leaving us a month and a half before we were scheduled to leave India for our visit to the US for the holidays in December. The only wrinkle in this is that of course, you can’t take an Indian civil servant at his word. Knowing this, we made a contingency plan. We booked a flight to Bangkok, Thailand and a hotel room near the Indian Embassy so that we could simply apply for new visas for both of us in case my visa didn’t come on time. Good thing we did, it has been over two and a half months, and surprise, surprise, no visa.



One of the most irritating aspects of this debacle has been actually trying to convince the head NCBS administrator that this is indeed a debacle. He has, since August, stubbornly refused to believe that the visa will not arrive in time despite all evidence suggesting that it will probably never come at all. As soon as we booked our flights and hotels in Thailand, he suggested that perhaps it wouldn’t be necessary that we go, that my visa should arrive before that time. I replied that no one would be happier than me if my visa did arrive before we left as I had gone through a considerable amount of trouble to apply for it, and also since I had already paid for it. I continued that regardless of this, Eric’s visa also needs to be renewed and that certainly wouldn’t happen before our December cut-off. The administrator assured me that we needn’t leave to renew Eric’s visa, as long as my visa was renewed, his renewal is automatic. First of all, in India, nothing is automatic. Second of all, that is complete rubbish, actually it is insane to suggest that you could just hold up your spouse’s visa and claim that you are somehow covered by it. Even as late as last week when I was gathering the paperwork for our visa renewal in Bangkok, this same fellow suggested once again that maybe we wouldn’t need to go, that my visa could arrive any day now. I can only assume that this guy is a mindless ignoramus. First of all, my visa IS NOT here, we have absolutely no assurances that it will be here, secondly, what about Eric’s, and thirdly, even if there was some sort of divine intervention and we opened our passports to find that we had new visas for both of us, we have already booked our flights (one to Bangkok and another to Phuket), and we have booked our hotels in both locations as well and there is no refunds when you cancel. This guy is either ignorant or unimpressed with all of these things, and it makes me crazy. He also was responsible for writing a letter to the Indian embassy in Bangkok on my behalf for our visa extension basically stating that I have a job at the NCBS, blah, blah. In it, he outright lied about why it was necessary that we go to Bangkok for our visas. He refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem with the Indian government’s ability to take care of business. I rewrote the letter, there is no way that we are going to shoulder any part of the blame for this thing, and we have followed the rules to the letter. When December rolls around and my visa still hasn’t arrived from Delhi, I am looking forward to going into this guy’s office and informing him that I was absolutely correct to be concerned about the arrival of my visa, and that he should never again regard someone’s affairs with so little care.



Though this guy has been a royal pain, I have been encouraged by the support of a few key individuals. My lab-mates have always offered a sympathetic ear when I needed to vent and comforted me when I returned from my disastrous visits to the Foreign Registry Office. My boss has completely thrown her support behind me and has acknowledged the necessity of our trip to Bangkok and has helped me whenever I have asked. Most surprisingly, the head of the institute approached me a few weeks ago and mentioned that he had heard of my troubles (I tend to make a lot of noise) and that he would have the institute pay for airfare since we had no choice but to attend to this issue out of country. I have not seen a rupee yet, but I was heartened to learn that the people that mattered knew the situation and wanted to help in any way that they could.



Anyway, I have again assembled all of the paperwork required for our visa application, tonight I will pack our bathing suits and sunscreen, and we depart for Bangkok tomorrow morning at 3:30. We are crossing our fingers that everything will go well for us at the embassy, if not, we will have no choice but to get on a flight coming back to the US because our visas will be expired. Wish us luck! Thailand, here we come!