A Visa Story

My brother will be visiting me soon. I am very excited and really looking forward to see him here. His visit will last only 10 days but I arranged a tiny country tour for him. We will go to see the London, York, Edinburgh and a few local museums. Finally a happy end...

Why I said this 'a happy end' thing? Because, his visa application process was rather upseting, in fact annoying. The country I am coming from is not a member of the EU. So, whoever from my family and friends wants to visit me, has to go through this visa application process which is something that puts people off at the beginning. They have to prepare lots of documents that takes ages and costs fortunes before they buy their flight tickets. Plus, they have to speak a very good English to fill the forms that arranged in English by the British Counsulate and also have to prepare all the documents (from the bank, from the employer, from the local authority) in English. In another word, If they can't speak English they have to pay to a translator to fill their forms or I have to do it from here which is very time consuming.

First of all, my logic says that if a consulate registered in a country, they have to have interpreters and translators that translates the paperworks of the applicants of that country's, instead of forcing the people to speak English. It shouldn't be the applicant's responsibility.

Anyway, to avoid all the possible delays and rejections, I had to prepare most of the documents here, including the ones that I had to sent him as a proof of my financial situation to persuade the consulate that he can stay with me and I can efford it. There was questions like 'how much money you will have for your food', 'who will pay your travel expenses' and etc...

My brother and I had to have a lot of long telephone and MSN conversations after the work to fill the visa application form. When we finished it and completed the rest of the documents, he applied. A nervous waiting time took a start.

After a couple of the weeks of the application, while my brother was at work, his boss received a phone call from the British Consulate. They were questining the boss that 'why his employee wants to go to England? How long he was going to stay there? Who he was going to visit?' As if, my brother's boss wasn't his boss but his owner. As if, all the documents I sent from here wasn't existing, as if my brother was a liar...

First of all, any people in a western country (even an unemployee) can buy a ticket and fly to my country (and to the all developing and third world countries) with no trouble. No stressful visa applications and no patronising and belittling phone calls from the consulates.

Secondly, while western countries trying everything to stop these people to come to the their country, they can invade and destroy these people's countries as if it's their backyard.

I am aware of the politics and the state of the world of course. But, it doesn't stop me that I hate injustice and double standard.

That's why I said 'a happy end'. Aren't I right?...