Friday, September 16, 2005
Whew!
Productive day...Rambling thoughts....
Ok, I found some breathing room in my day here. Got some edits to a book (more like a booklet) I'm writing for work done, and cabbed over to the Chinese Embassy at lunch to drop of my application for a visa to visit in November.
I must say that the whole process over the the Chinese Embassy is a breeze. I dropped my applications off and was in and out in like 1 minute. Same thing for other visas I've gotten in the past...pretty fast and efficient. To bad when folks try to visit the U.S.A it ain't so easy.
Unless you live in a Visa-waiver country (Europe mostly)...getting a visa to visit the U.S. is an difficult task. Post 9/11 visa applicants must set up interviews with representatives at U.S. embassies in their countries. Usually there is only one or at most a handful of staff to handle this. (Imagine if you will wanting to visit Italy, but before you could go there you had to travel to Washington DC to meet with someone at the embassy).
Anyway, you apply for a visa, pay the $140 fee and wait for an appointment to talk to an embassy staffer. If your lucky, you get the meeting, but even if you don't the results are usually the same...(especially if you are from a 'developing country').
The attitude is pretty much...well, you may have a good job here in your little country....but how can we really be sure you'll ever go back home...I mean once you see Wal-mart, or all those sprawling suburban developments that look all alike...you'll never every want to go back to your village and your beloved donkey. And your visa is denied....oh and the embassy keeps that $140 fee.
Want astounds me most though, is that despite are general craptastic (word of the week if you haven't notice-craptastic) treatment of folks who want to visit the U.S.A., other countries are generally pretty welcoming of us...which is nice. So anyway, I'll have my visa to go to China in November sometime next week....hurray!
Ok, I found some breathing room in my day here. Got some edits to a book (more like a booklet) I'm writing for work done, and cabbed over to the Chinese Embassy at lunch to drop of my application for a visa to visit in November.
I must say that the whole process over the the Chinese Embassy is a breeze. I dropped my applications off and was in and out in like 1 minute. Same thing for other visas I've gotten in the past...pretty fast and efficient. To bad when folks try to visit the U.S.A it ain't so easy.
Unless you live in a Visa-waiver country (Europe mostly)...getting a visa to visit the U.S. is an difficult task. Post 9/11 visa applicants must set up interviews with representatives at U.S. embassies in their countries. Usually there is only one or at most a handful of staff to handle this. (Imagine if you will wanting to visit Italy, but before you could go there you had to travel to Washington DC to meet with someone at the embassy).
Anyway, you apply for a visa, pay the $140 fee and wait for an appointment to talk to an embassy staffer. If your lucky, you get the meeting, but even if you don't the results are usually the same...(especially if you are from a 'developing country').
The attitude is pretty much...well, you may have a good job here in your little country....but how can we really be sure you'll ever go back home...I mean once you see Wal-mart, or all those sprawling suburban developments that look all alike...you'll never every want to go back to your village and your beloved donkey. And your visa is denied....oh and the embassy keeps that $140 fee.
Want astounds me most though, is that despite are general craptastic (word of the week if you haven't notice-craptastic) treatment of folks who want to visit the U.S.A., other countries are generally pretty welcoming of us...which is nice. So anyway, I'll have my visa to go to China in November sometime next week....hurray!
