Barbara Walters (And I) Rant About The US Embassy in Jamaica
I was watching The View on ABC yesterday and got really intrigued when Barbara Walters started explaining how she was trying to help a friend of a friend, whose green card had expired by calling the US Embassy in Jamaica and what a nightmare it was. I raised an eyebrow and smirked as I listened to her explain how she called for 3 hours straight and was repeatedly hung up on, left messages, sent faxes, and never even got a call back. I said to myself, “welcome to the world of those of us who have dealt with the embassy in Jamaica”! Now I’m going to be very upfront and say that I am very biased on this issue and I have little, if anything good to say about the US Embassy in Jamaica…period, and I get pissed off whenever I think about it. Why might you ask?? Well, I personally have called on a multitude of occasions and experienced the same unprofessional behavior that Barbara Walters did and worse, I’ve had my paperwork lost, shoved back at me by rude workers, and even been told to provide additional documentation that was never stated anywhere as a requirement.I just can’t stand the system and the way people are dealt with like cattle instead of human beings.
I have been to the Embassy twice on personal business and I hated every minute of all of my experiences. I know people who have been repeatedly screwed for no reason other than they are poor, un-informed or mis-informed (a lot of times by the people at the embassy), and/or got in the wrong line on the wrong day. When you combine that with the rude and non-chalant behavior of a majority of the workers there, it’s enough to set anyone off. The US embassy in Jamaica (when it comes to immigration anyway)…is a money making machine, plain and simple and a lot of pockets get filled in the process and the people get robbed. How else do you justify having people repeatedly pay for photos, immunizations, physicals, DNA tests, and all the other documents they require on a whim, just to ultimately tell people year after year, “you don’t have enough ties to the country”, or just plain “no”, with no further explanation? If there is a standard it should be explicitly spelled out beforehand and adhered to by the embassy and I personally don’t think they do that at all. It’s a travesty to have people struggling and saving to go apply for something that is never going to be approved. The really tragic part of it all is that if you aren’t granted a visa you lose all the money and time you have invested in trying, and many people try year after year, money that could have been spent on their families and expenses instead of being flushed down the proverbial “visa toilet”.
Technorati Tags: the view, TV, Jamaica, immigration
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