Senators. Consulates & getting past the local gate keepers.

[walran 24]

So for anyone that may go through this in the future as it is fairly common in the third world that the US embassy hires locals to do the processing and paperwork details pertaining to visas. According to my friend in Senator Hatch's office it is not uncommon for those locals to be 1- jealous 2- manipulative 3- power hungry and to hold up your visa. The middle east and Asia is specifically bad.

You might ask why this is a big deal? Well it's like this, suppose you have a friend that lives or works in say Trump Tower in Manhattan and you are invited over for lunch. And there is a doorman who is low paid at say $15 an hour guarding the door and he has always wanted to go "upstairs" for lunch and is resentful of the fact that he has never been invited. You show up for you lunch appointment and he refuses you entry because he can. You ask for his supervisor and the super tells you the same thing..He too is jealous.. Now in this real case you would whip out your cell phone and call your friend who would demand that the doorman let you in or be fired.. But at the consulate it is a whole different thing altogether as you have no numbers that go anywhere really and typically pass through the local gate-keeper. They don't or won't give you their names either and you don't really know the name of the American that would let you in right away and handle your problem for you if he knew about it.

This is where a senator comes in handy..

We had the interview in March and were approved. At which time the consular officer said "in 4-7 days you can pick up your passport and visa, come in 7 days." We booked a flight out 2.5 weeks and were happy. Then when at 9 days fiance goes to pick up the visa they tell her it isn't ready and why are you here? we will call you. Waiting another four days nothing so I have a friend of a friend in Senator Hatch's office who writes to the embassy Tuesday to see what the heck is going on and to make sure that we get the visa in time for plane that leaves Friday (tomorrow actually).

I had sent this to Senator Hatch's office:

S,

Here is everything filled out. I am just afraid that the Nepali staff is less organized from our experience and we won't get her here on time.. Have had one issue with the interview date not being correct already despite having emails, letter etc. So I am just very worried here at the end.

I included the DS-160 and NOA2 as well as passport picture for her.

Her plane leaves Friday morning so we are running out of time and the US officer said 4-7 days for this..

Thank you so much!

R

Senator Hatch's office emails them requesting expedite and they receive the following:

From: “Dept Of State"
Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 9:58 PM
To: S
Subject: RE: TIME SENSTIVE: Fiance Visa: U URGENT!

S,

Thank you for contacting the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy, Kathmandu on behalf of Senator Hatch regarding immigrant the visa application of Ms. U.

The visa has been issued and ready for pick up. We tried contacting her at the contact number provided at XXXX, but she is not responding. We have sent her an additional email to:

At that same time we get an email saying to come in and pick it up today it is ready.. ( And no they never ever called, not even once).

Fiance goes in and they say " we will have your passport and visa in 5 minutes please wait". After an hour they call her and say that there is a problem with the system and her visa isn't ready and that they will call. My fiance asks is it broken for everyone or just me "just you they say, you have been talking too much". This is the Nepali person again who is the gate-keeper. And there is a lot more nonsense as well over the next 48 hours that would take up a couple more paragraphs but the Nepali ( this time) workers are stone walling, won't let her speak to American and she had the distinct impression that it was the Supervisor ( also local) that was making this woman say and do the things she was doing and lie about the visa not being ready, not hearing from the Senator etc.

This story goes on for a couple of days back and forth with embassy and then Senator Hatch's office ( Sean Firth awesome guy) says enough is enough I'm calling over there tonight ( 12 hours ahead of us) and I get this at about 10:00PM.

Dear R:

I spoke with the Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit at the US Embassy in Kathmandu regarding your fiance’s visa. It was acknowledged that there was some missteps yesterday regarding the visa pick-up (apparently in most cases the visas are not picked up at the Embassy, but rather at the bank where the visa fee was initially paid). Nevertheless, they understand that she is coming in and her name has been left with the security guards. She should proceed to the IV Unit where they have assured me that everyone is aware of the situation and will accommodate her visa issuance upon her arrival.

The Embassy is to contact me in a few hours to confirm she has her visa, however, if you would respond to this email and also let me know when she has her visa in hand I would appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Sean Firth

Office of Orrin G. Hatch

United States Senator

Great I think! We will get it now and I send her to the Embassy.. My email to Sean last night pretty much sums it up..

Sean they're not letting her pick up her visa. The security guard called some Nepali man from the visa unit i guess who says she's been talking too much and her visa is not ready. I told her to go back in and try to go to counter number 4.

It's a conspiracy among these Nepali workers. I have an American friend there with her but they Nepali security guard won't let him in.

These people never call and we need an American to deal with this because the Nepali people are blocking her.

Speaking to her and professor D they are being blocked and given lame excuses "it's not ready" ' "You have been talking entirely too much ( to your office)" "We don't give it in the morning" and my favorite "It's not ready we will call you when its ready.."

Counter IV (4) may be too general. There should be a person's name attached I feel and I think we need the name of an American who she can contact or whom the security guard can call to get this done. The Nepali workers are apparently threatened by your office, said she has been talking too much and won't let her in..

At this point I think they should be seriously scrutinized and investigated as it seems the tail is wagging the dog.

I will be awake until this is resolved. I am so disappointed in these people and question how they can retain their jobs with no respect for your office or probably even the US consular people who I am certain are unaware of what is transpiring.

Maybe you should tell them that Senator Hatch has been invited to the wedding and will be upset if it doesn't happen

We are running out of time here. I hope you can do something for us.. I will receive your call at any time.

Sincerely grateful for your help!

Sean calls back and speaks to them and I tell fiance and American friend to just go right in past the reception area to section 4 and ask for the visa and show the emails we have from them and the senators office.. We get the visa and the Nepali supervisor isn't happy.. ( hopefully nothing is missing from the packet.. as she flies out tomorrow).

Long story short, for those who say that a senator can't do anything I say baloney.. Our senator has helped me, several friends with the K1 and married visa process and when you really really need to get something done and done quickly you pull in the big guns.. This is available to anyone and every senator has people who handle problems like these.

When I spoke with Senator Hatch's office in more depth it appears that we are not the only ones who have had this exact experience. IF we had not followed up on the interview as well we would still be waiting.. I was in Nepal and had asked for an earlier interview and was told "No we only have opening on date we sent you in email" ( now prior to getting the email with the interview date that I only got because I hounded them they said they would "call" which never ever happened at any point in this process. I think that really means "you will never hear from us". When we got to the interview date the gate-keeper ( Nepali local again) said " why are you here now? your appointment was a month ago!"...sigh.. letter, email etc. all clearly stated the March date.

Persistence pays off and not being afraid to get your congressman involved who wants to help constituents anyways..

Edited April 7, 2016 by Penguin_ie

[Pitaya 2,577]

~Moved from K1 Process to General Immigration-Related Discussion~

~Commentary applicable to numerous visa processes~

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

***** Post edited to remove full names of affected parties other than politicians. For your own privacy and security, please never post full names, email or postal addresses, case or phone numbers online. *****

Thanks for this story, it is good to hear they could do something!

[walran 24]

Basically the local clerical person is like the peon doorman at Trump towers... Yes he only makes $15 an hour but if he doesn't open the door you are screwed..

[Boiler 45,516]

How many times have people been told not to book flights until they have visa in hand?

[aaron2020 11,651]

All of this could have been avoided if the OP had listed to the US Embassy's advice not to make travel arrangements until after the visa is delivered.

[walran 24]

Actually that was never said by the Embassy in person, by written communication or on their website.. Maybe yours is different. We were told the opposite.. Go ahead

And yet I got the visa far sooner than if I had waited to book the flight..Probably a month earlier and I should have had it a month before that! Also the "US" consular officer stated that we were good to go for booking at the interview..

I am not a guy that waits when it's ridiculous or unnecessary and this consular office is a mess at the local clerical level.. I will always go through the senate office in the future when time is of issue.

"They" messed up the interview dates totally and that cost us a month for "their" mistake. "Documented".

Then "they" sent out the "come get your visa" letter and didn't have it ready on time.. or for power or control reasons wouldn't produce it.

And according to the consular officer, the senator's office etc. one local person who had some kind of power play or jealousy issue was blocking her getting the visa to the end until the American said " get it done now or....". Apparently this is a problem all over Asia and the middle east where consulate's use local employees to do the clerical work according to the communication received from the Department of State..

[KierenHby 899]

According to the Dept of State:

"..The applicant should NOT make any travel arrangements, sell property, or give up employment until the US Embassy or Consulate General has issued a visa.."

Apparently this is a problem all over Asia and the middle east where consulate's use local employees to do the clerical work according to the communication received from the Department of State..

<<I wouldn't generalize it, but could be an issue at some select Consular Posts.>>

[walran 24]

We didn't see anything saying to wait to make travel arrangements on the Kathmandu Embassy/Consular site and when we asked them about it they were unable to say or point to it either.. Also I might add that we did in fact receive a letter saying the visa had been issued and to come pick it up..And when we got there.. NO VISA..

Here is the site for Nepal.. http://nepal.usembassy.gov/visas/non-immigrant-visas.html

As for the generality I am quoting what was sent to me and communicated to me via the official government channels we used which specifically said Asia & Middle East.. I worked translating for the embassy in Spain and Germany and we used locals as well. I know that not all the locals are bad or have issues that would interfere with a visa. Apparently this location and others do.. And it is common. One of my friends had a similar problem they resolved in the same way that we did with a different embassy.

On this site everyone wants to be right and put in their two cents worth.. I am not different but in the interest of clarity I can only state what is right for me and us.. And what we do and did.. And what our experience was.. You might have a different definition of how things should be done..for you.. or a different experience.. Other people going through the same embassy over the last year said they too had problems with the local Nepali staff when I contacted them.

[Boiler 45,516]

Sounds a bit racist.

[walran 24]

Sounds a bit racist.

Now that was a bit of a cheap shot I think because you didn't like my response and couldn't argue with it... I speak Spanish, my kids speak it as first language and I married a Nepali that I adore and spend most of my two months off a year working with third world charities..

And after more than 60 countries, speaking four languages and interacting with people from all over I would say when it comes to getting thing done promptly and efficiently in government that if you don't see a difference in the 3rd world then you have blinders on.. Graft, corruption, and inefficiency are ubiquitous. Not everywhere or everyone but culturally when it's common or acceptable it is an issue more often than not.

My Nepali wife felt the same..