First Person: Humiliated for visas
Stepping into US consulate for visa continues to be long drawn out ordeal.
Chennai: The mad rush begins at 4 am. While visa applicants to the US can now make an online booking and arrive at the scheduled time, back in 2000 when this reporter approached the consulate for the first time, everyone had to be present by 4 am to get an entry inside the fortress.
Clad in their best formal attire, hundreds of US visa aspirants queue up on a desolate pavement outside the United States Consulate at Anna Salai even as the private security guards posted at its entrance continue to doze.
“It could take all day long, be prepared for a long haul,” warn those who have been there, done that. By around 6 am, the security guards wake from their slumber and begin their day by hurling abuses at the applicants on the pretext of maintaining order. Nervous applicants obey the security officer’s every command, as though fearing they will be sent home for even a minor dismeanour.
About an hour or so later, one is let inside the fortress by grumpy, bossy Indians working at the consulate whose manner is imperious. The documents are screened and the applicants given a token number for the interview with a consular officer.
"This is the most testing time of the entire process and could take several hours during which time all one has to do is sit and stare at a computer monitor for one’s token number to be listed. “If you do not go when your token number is listed, you will not be called again,” warn consulate staff.
When the moment arrives, the consular official sitting on the other side of a glass wall speaks into a mike. She asks if all the documents presented are genuine. Then she asks if one plans to settle in the United States. As tutored, one says ‘No’. She asks about one’s degree and the company one is going to work for. The right answer begets a nod from her.
They let us go. Three hours later, some of the applicants get their visas stamped, but almost all do get harassed.
Next: US consulate in thick of traffic
US consulate in thick of traffic
Chennai: The US embassy in Chennai not only enjoys high security and diplomacy, but is a traffic bottleneck as formally dressed visa applicants often occupy much of the space on the platforms constructed by the Chennai corporation.
Four years ago, a senior city corporation official and a senior police officer wanted to clear the area and made a proposal to decongest it by constructing a sunshade and sit-out facility along the platform, but the higher authorities at the US consulate shot down the project through diplomatic channel, recalled a Chennai corporation official, not wishing to be quoted.
The officials had only wanted to provide some shade to the visa applicants and regulate the movement of pedestrians, but the move was scrapped and it was hinted that there were some instructions from the Centre, laying down that no development work be taken up near the US consulate.
The US consulate also offers a restricted welcome to library users. “I showed my original voter ID in which the image had turned out a little dark; the staff rejected my request for entry, claiming that I was fair-skinned. I had come a long way for use of the books and made repeated requests but to no avail,” said S. Sugan Raj, a graduate.
Consulate remains impregnable fort
V. P. Raghu | DC
Chennai: Police sources say, “We even deploy men wielding self loading rifles around the US consulate located near the Anna flyover at seven points. We also keep a riot control vehicle, almost on a permanent basis, in front of the mission.”
A total of 90 policemen including senior officers are being posted 24/7 at the consulate at a time when there is a huge shortage of staff in the department.
“There was huge uproar when protesters threw stones at the US consulate in September 2012 and the government had even changed the then city police commissioner,” pointed out a senior official to stress that the government was very serious about the safety and security of the foreign diplomats in the city.
Tamil Nadu police have a sanctioned police strength of over 1.2 lakh and an actual strength of over 1.05 lakh.
Tamil Nadu has a population of over 7 crore. The Chennai police have a sanctioned strength of 23,500, but several posts are vacant and officials are struggling to take the figure to 30,000. All India statistics show that India has an average of 142 policemen for every 1 lakh people while developed countries have at least 350 policemen for every one lakh people.