All posted on Philippine Living Island Paradise Yahoo Forum
As a retired US Government Official who has worked WITH US Embassies, I continue
to find that there is a great lack of proficiency and professionalism among
American Consulate Staffs.
These Staffs are composed for the most part by either young or elderly D-
college graduates, and retirees, or spouses of same, who can't get a decent job
any other place, and are looking for a place to make an easy living, or other
reasons (some illicit).
They do not retain any training they receive, or have the knowledge, especially
as to Immigration, to perform their duties, nor do they have the background
experiences to know what's going on in the
world, especially as it all pertains to the American law, lifestyle and
philosophy, nor do they care. (In other words they are duds).
After all, they have a secure government job.
The worst US Government employees (including local security personnel, who are
quite active at night) in the Consulates are the "Naturalized US Citizens",
(foreigners), who bring to the job all their foreign mores and folkways,
prejudices, discriminations, and family connections in the foreign country.
These people comprise approximately 75% of the Consulate Staff, as they are
cheap to keep, and usually submissive and "friendly".
The American Staff, usually supervisors, "appear" to be oblivious to the
wholesale corruption going on around them by these "foreign" staff members, such
as bribes for total visas (the word on the street has been $6,500- for a Tourist
Visa at Manila, and $9,600- for the same at Kuala Lumpur (includes Malaysian
Passport), for advancing applications, for approvals, and other special
treatment.
It is these personnel who handle most of the paperwork OF SPOUSES AND CHILDREN
of NATIVE AMERICAN CITIZENS!
I don't know about you, but as a native American Citizens I do not want. nor
will I submit, after paying US Taxes and Expensive Immigration Fees, to having
ignorant "foreign" Consulate Staff making life decisions regarding My Life and
Family!
When a native American Citizen
submits an Application to the Immigration Service, and to an American
Consulate, on behalf of HIS FAMILY, and Pays High FEES, the entire process MUST
BE by Native American Staff Personnel, AND EXPEDITED!
The "Foreign" Staff Personnel should have NO PART in ANY Decision Making in
these cases. (Yes, the American Supervisor must sign off on the papers,
obviously without proper consideration or oversight!). (The Interviewers
themselves only have 3 minutes allowed for each case). The "Foreign" employees
Do Not know American Immigration Law! (Nor does the American Staff). The SPOUSE
of an American Citizen must be treated LIKE AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, not subjected
to verbal abuse, mistreatment, discrimination, and plain BS, because the
"Foreign" Tagalog or Korean staff think that they are Better than her!
Take the case of an American
who filed for HIS WIFE of a number of years, with the K3 Visa Application, and
it appears the "Foreign" employee had never heard of a K3 Visa, so went ahead
and processed the case as a K1 Application (Fiancé'), and also for another case
of a woman with the same (Maiden) name, living in a
different place! This other woman was Denied, but the Denial was sent to the
American's Spouse, (in BOTH NAMES), which Law Cited Does Not EVEN APPLY TO
SPOUSES OR CHILDREN OF American Citizen's! The
lack of proper processing procedure, (that the CASE NUMBER will be used), and
the STUPIDITY of it all, caused great confusion, anxiety, personal and family
problems, not to mention expenses, for this American Citizen and His Family!
This is a "thumbnail" statement of fact as to what goes on in the
Immigration/Visa Process, especially in the American Consulate in Manila. I
advise any Visa Applicant to retain an experienced Immigration Attorney, and
always have a Good Witness, and Copies Of ALL Documents.
The American Consulate on the Website advises that you Do Not retain an Attorney! BS! Is this for your benefit? NO, it is for the Consulate's benefit! So that they Do Not have to spend the extra time dealing with your Attorney, and can "Brow Beat" You!
The Visa Process at the
American Consulate in Manila has bordered on "Inhumane Treatment to Mankind", as
defined by the UN Charter!
The Breaking up and Bending of Family Bonds, Abuse and Mistreatment, the
Discrimination, Plain Stupidity, and Charging of Excessive Fees (Rip-Off!), (You
can even LEGALLY BRIBE the US State Department
$1,000- for "Special" Processing of your Case!), not only Against Philippine
Citizens (and ALL), but also Against Their Own American Citizens! After all,
these Consulate people are "Civil Servants", and work for US! (Don't They?)
****************************************************************************************
I had some issues with idiots at the Manila U.S. Embassy earlier in the year
while going through the K3 process with my wife. She had spent enough time in
the Netherlands to need police clearance. The workers at the Manila Embassy
insisted that she needed to get this on her own, which is true for police
clearance from most countries, but NOT the Netherlands. The Netherlands will
only give it directly to an embassy requesting it. It even says this on the
Manila Embassy website, but we could just not get that through the thick skulls
of the Manila Embassy employees.
I ended up contacting the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands, having them send me
an official letter explaining what I had been trying to say all along, which I
then faxed to the U.S. Embassy in Manila. After
the letter was faxed, I made a phone call to the Embassy in Manila and it
sounded like everything was going to be taken care of.
Some months later my wife flies from Cebu to Manila for her interview.
Everything seems to go fine during the interview, except at the end they ask her
once again for her Netherlands police clearance. She tries to explain the
previous situation to them, but nobody believes her. Somebody at a windows gave
her information about how to get police clearance from Netherlands Antilles
Islands in the Caribbean, won't listen when she tries to explain that there is a
huge difference between the Netherlands in Europe and the Netherlands Antilles
in the Caribbean, then sends her home to Cebu frustrated and crying.
I called the Manila Embassy the next day, tried to explain the situation, told
them about the earlier fax from the Netherlands U.S. Embassy, but nobody seemed
to know anything about it. They requested me to send the fax once again then
call them back. I drove to the nearest Kinko's, faxed the document, then as soon
as I called them back my wife's police clearance suddenly "just arrived, sir". I
am very doubtful that it just arrived while I was driving to Kinko's and back,
it was probably sitting around there the entire time that they were making my
wife cry while trying to send her on wild goose chases to contact the
governments of
random Caribbean islands that she has never visited, but whatever.
She then had to make another
flight back to Manila to fill out some crap and pay the delbros visa delivery
fee. After that we had to wait another 2+ weeks for "final approval" from a
Consular Officer while people that interviewed after her were approved within
days.
Everything worked out in the end, but it was a very big pain in the ass. They
should at least hire people that know their own rules and procedures regarding
police clearance for specific countries, as well as the difference between the
Netherlands in Europe and the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean.
*****************************************************************************************
I also ran into issues because of the "International Marriage Broker Act" which
was new at the time. It was passed in January 2006 and enacted in March or the
same year. It required 3 new "Yes or No" to be answered on all K1 and K3
applications.
One would assume that if the law is enacted in March, USCIS would have the 3 new
questions on their forms by March, but USCIS did not update their forms with the
new questions until May. So the 10,000+ people that filed between March and May
including myself, had to sit around for months waiting for USCIS
to mail out separate pieces of paper containing the 3 new questions for us to
answer, sign, then return to them.
People that filed 3-4 months after me, had application approvals before me
because of this screw up on their side. It should not take 5 months to add 3
questions to a PDF file.
****************************************************************************************
We also ran into snag, but patience works, we had to do the forms 3 times for
the {cherry blossoms act } even though we were married ahead of the law and did
not meet by any group or company .
We did the process last year, she been here in USA with me since Oct. .
We had a fun trip i-130 i129f
apps, we had to return to where we were married and then I took one day to get
her visa and be on the plane. (We went from manila which ranks dead last in time
it takes to get a visa and leave the Philippines, to the # 1 ranked Embassy in
the world for United States ,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, average processing time for
visa 1 biz day }and we arrived Sept 15th 2006 from Manila saw Dani at the US
Embassy at 3pm ,she gave us two forms to do doctor's and immunizations ,she
called got us an appt.
at Chinese Doctor's association for 345 pm we went the doctor certified the form
sealed it in the Embassy envelope and gave to to us we dropped it off to Dani on
way by the US Embassy, 10 am we had our appt.. We had the embassy meeting with
Dani {gal of Indian orgin } then the councilor guy took over, visa was ready at
3pm and we left for Japan and America that night .
Final total costs of her i-130 and i-129f {still waiting for her change of
status to be finalized and her green card to come {fees just tripled on July 30,
2007. Change of status went from 325 USD to 1,010 USD other fees also tripled in
cost}.
I suppose if we had done it in Manila she still probably would have had a year
wait to come here .
We think the cherry blossom law is silly but it is the law .
We finally got a letter saying sorry that it didn't pertain to us - 6 months
after the fact .
(WRITER'S NAME DELETED)
Tags: American, American Embassy, discrimination, Foreign Service, Manila,
Philippines, State Department
------------------------------------------------------------
I spent 20 years of my life in the Army defending America’s freedom and the
freedom of it's people to live without fear of arbitrary decisions made by
Government Bureaucrats without recourse or review. Then I spent an additional 21
years working as a U.S. Government Employee.
I truly believed that America and Americans believed in the Rights of
Individuals and people were innocent until proven guilty.
Little did I know at the time that our government had built a bureaucracy that allows Civil Servants to make decisions based on their "feelings", "intuition" or their perception of what the law should be and have the right to refuse to allow people to say anything in their defense.
But because of these Civil
Servants I now live in exile with my wife (xxx) in the Philippines.
Here is our story.
About two years before I met (xxx) she got involved with a false visa.
Filipino families are very close and she grew up and went to school with a cousin that obtained a degree in nursing; (xxx) got her degree in Biology. After graduation her cousin obtained a job in the US and through it got a visa. After she had been there for about a year she became lonely and wanted (xxx) to come to visit her.
She also felt that once (xxx) was there she might be able to find a job as a caregiver and convert her tourist visa. She knew it was difficult for Filipinos to obtain tourist visas but she met two women that had gotten tourist visas with the help of a man in Manila that they said assisted them with the paper work and documents.
Neither one of them had any problem with using their visas. So she felt that everything was fine and suggested to (xxx) that she should use the same guy and offered to send the money to help pay for his services.
(xxx) had never tried to obtain a visa before and had no idea what the requirements were so she agreed.
(xxx)'s mother was suspicious of the guy so she went with (xxx) the first time and asked him if the visas were real or false. He assured her mother that they were real. Then (xxx) started making the payments to him.
She did this by making deposits into his bank account and she kept all the receipts.
He talked to her and obtained information to complete the applications. He then gave her the applications to sign and forwarded them to the embassy. When she went for her interview the interviewer looked at her, asked her how old she was and why she wanted the visa, and then told her it was denied.
The entire process took less than one minute. She went back to the man and told him she had been denied and told him she was upset that she had spent the money and he had assured her that there would be no problems.
He then told her he would reapply but this time hand carry the documents himself. He also said she would have to pay him for the additional application fee. (He had told her previously that he was able to get visas approved because he knew many people that worked at the embassy.
It is common practice in the Philippines to get things done based on who you know so this didn’t seem strange to (xxx).) He said he would talk to the embassy staff and asked for her passport, which she gave him.
About six weeks later he returned the passport with a visa attached. (I was working with a man who has been assisting guys with their paperwork to bring their fiancée or wife to the states for more than ten years.
He told me that about the time (xxx) got her false visa there had been a problem at the embassy where a local national employee was selling blank visa documents out the back door so to speak. The people that got them then completed them and they looked completely valid. He said there were many Filipinos that came to the US using these until the staff discovered what was happening.)
(xxx) then bought her plane ticket to the US and a few weeks later went to the airport in Manila to board her plane. When she was passing through Philippine Immigration they looked at her visa and then called the Embassy to confirm that she had a visa. The Embassy told them that she did not have a visa.
At that point she was arrested
by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), taken to their office and held
where they told her she would be prosecuted. She called her family and an uncle
of hers that is an attorney and held a position within the Department of Justice
came to see her. He is now retired.
He asked them to release her and helped her prepare a lengthy sworn statement
about the circumstances of her visa. In it she detailed what happened, dates and
times of meetings, conversations and provided the payment information, name and
address of the man she was dealing with and states that he is the one that
should be prosecuted.
After providing the statement and some discussion between her uncle and the NBI she was told she was free to go and there would be no charges brought against her and she would not have a record at the NBI.
They kept her passport and
suggested to her that she report it lost so she could obtain a new one. She said
that later she got a call from the man, who was upset with her because he said
the NBI was trying to find and arrest him and insisted that her visa was valid.
Two years later I came along and early on she told me about the false visa and
said there might be a problem with her getting a visa. As I indicated before, I
spoke to a man that helped guys get visas who said that many women had gotten
into this situation before and most of them were allowed to obtain a fiancée or
spousal visa.
He said she should never volunteer anything to them but be truthful when they asked questions and to always deny that she had any knowledge that it was false.
So I applied for a fiancée visa and after a number of months I received the notice that it was approved and being sent to Manila. At that point she called and obtained a packet of forms. One of the forms had a convoluted question that asked about willingly obtaining a visa through fraud, attending school between different dates and other questions mixed into one sentence.
After much discussion it was decided that she should not answer yes to the question since it seemed to indicate that the false visa was obtained willingly, which it was not. I suggested that she mention it to them at her interview but again the majority said to volunteer nothing and only answer questions.
She came to Manila and underwent her physical. Two days later she waited in line for an interview. The woman she saw seemed to be nice, reviewed her papers, asked if she had told me (name), my step-daughter, was mine and told her that they had received the documents from the states for her fiancée visa.
Her NBI clearance came back clean showing no record. They took their passports and she was told that they would be mailed back to her with the visas in a few weeks. Nothing else was asked and nothing volunteered.
After waiting three weeks and finding out that others seen on the same day were getting their visas in the mail I called and spoke to a woman, local national, that I had been told could check on the status.
She checked and told me it was being processed and the staff would finish with it that afternoon and it should be in the mail the next day.
The next day (xxx) got a call from the embassy and they asked her what happened to her previous passport. She told them it had been lost, as she told her government when she applied for a new one and as instructed by the NBI.
She was later notified to report for another interview. (We both believed it was about the false visa.) She was quite afraid and I felt she might not be able to explain it to them if she was too afraid to talk. So I took a quick four-day leave and flew to Manila to be with her for the interview. I tried to keep her calm and told her that America considered people innocent until proven guilty and she would be given a chance to defend herself. I told her to just be truthful.
(Of course the staff later
informed me that our government recognizes no rights for non-Americans and at
Embassies even Americans have limited rights.)
The next day we went into the room where we were directed and in a short time a
woman appeared behind the window and yelled at me to leave the room. I was
surprised at the obvious anger in her voice and asked if she was talking to me
and she yelled again, "I told you to leave the room, I won't tell you again".
When I left and stood at the door she ordered me to leave again, this time telling me she would have me removed from the Embassy. I went across the hall but was in a position to see both of them through the door. I saw her say something to (xxx).
Later (xxx) told me she yelled at her saying that they were aware of her false visa and her visa was denied.
After the women spoke I saw (xxx) say something and the women replied at which time (xxx) left the room and came to me. The "interview" took less than a minute. (xxx) said she asked if she could speak to them about it and was told to shut up and leave. (She was also told to wait to be called to a window to pick up her passport.)
When they returned her passport they gave her a piece of paper that said she had obtained a visa by fraud and her visa was denied. On the bottom of the form there were instructions on how to request a waiver and it was checked but then was crossed out so hard that the pen cut the paper.
When I asked the Filipino employee at the window if we could apply for a waiver she said no because the consular had crossed it out after they had marked it that we could.
I told them I wanted to speak to the consular that crossed it out.
When the woman appeared she told me it was none of my business what they did with my wife and to leave.
I later learned that the vice
consul that I asked to see sent a local national to present herself as the vice
consul. (It appeared to me that this woman had already made up her mind and this
was not an interview to obtain all the facts. She also appeared very agitated
from the look of almost hate on her face and her constant yelling.)
At this point we left the embassy. After some crying on (xxx)'s part we
discussed our options and I said that I would first try to see if I could get
her another interview with someone with a more open mind where she could explain
what happened and if that failed I would just take an early retirement in about
a year and move.
Once I returned to Arizona I contacted Senator McCain's office and they told me to forget working with the Embassy in the Philippines. They said they were the worst Embassy in the world to deal with and suggested we contact the State Department. I agreed but also sent a FedEx letter to the Ambassador asking that she be given another interview where she would be allowed to defend herself.
The letter to the State Department went unanswered for about five months even after five requests from the Senator's staff for an interim response. In the mean time (xxx) received a letter from the Embassy telling her to return for another interview.
The Senator's office of course took credit for this and she returned at my expense. She was very apprehensive and vomited for two days pending the interview. Once she arrived she was told she really didn't have an interview but to report to window X.
When she did she was given forms to request a wavier. Of course the angry woman had crossed out the option to request a wavier on the first form. (I had already checked out the wavier option with two lawyers when I returned home and was told that few are approved. Another lawyer suggested I get her a job as a maid in Hong Kong and after six months apply for another visa through the Embassy there. He said we could hope they would not check with the Manila Embassy.)
I was quite upset with the false interview letter so I tried to call the government employee that signed the letter to her telling her she had another interview. After two late nights and about 30 calls to the Embassy he finally made the mistake of answering his phone. (The first 29 or so calls resulted in getting his voice mail or his assistant who said he was not available but to call back in 30 minutes.)
When he answered he told me he was sorry he had not answered my calls but he was avoiding another guy from the states that was upset because they had barred his wife. Duh, I wonder why. I explained to him what happened at (xxx)'s interview and asked why he sent her a letter telling her to report for another interview only to be told to pick up some forms.
He explained that during a routine audit, yea right, he discovered that the woman had inadvertently forgotten to check the block that (xxx) could ask for a waiver. (I knew he was lying since the block was checked and she scratched it out and we asked the local national at the counter about it and she said she didn't know why the woman scratched it out.)
I asked him why the letter told her to report for another interview and when she got there was told to pick up some forms. He told me that was standard practice.
I told him I knew that was not true since they sent forms to most applicants in the mail.
He kept telling me it was our "Right" to request a waiver.
The funny thing is that in both the letter to the ambassador and the State Department I indicated that we had a right by law to request a waiver. I mentioned that I had sent a letter to the Ambassador and he told me it was a mistake to do that because he, Ricciardone, was to stupid to know what to do with it and would throw it in the trash. (Of course after more than three years I have not received a response but got a receipt where his secretary signed for it.)
I then mentioned my Congressional to the State Department and he said he had no knowledge of it but said that it was a mistake to involve Senators in issues at the Embassy because it would only serve to piss them off and nothing would change.
He kept insisting it was my right to request a waiver. When I asked him what the chances of it being approved he said none.
I asked him if he had ever known of one that was approved and he said no. So I asked him why I should request a waiver and again he said, "Because it is your right". I then tried to discuss the issues surrounding (xxx)'s false visa.
He told me she was a liar and not to believe anything she said. He went on to tell me that all Filipinos were liars and could not be trusted. He said "All Filipinos know how to obtain a valid visa or a false visa from BIRTH”.
He went on to say if they obtain a false visa it is always with their full knowledge and consent. (The law says that the person must have obtained the false visa with their full knowledge and consent for it to apply.)
When I mentioned she had not been allowed to speak at her interview and should have the right to defend herself he told me that our government doesn't recognize any rights for non-citizens and only limited rights for Americans at Embassies.
He then told me that they were the silent Army defending America against a massive invasion of Filipinos and nobody understood that.
When I didn't agree with him he became angry. He suggested I just forget about her and move on.
(I have to wonder what reality these people live in when they speak to someone that has had their fiancée denied a visa and expects them to sympathize with them for not wanting to talk to someone else who's wife was denied a visa and then to expect them to sympathize with their plight as "the silent Army" that nobody understands.)
In both the letter to the
Ambassador and the State Department I asked that she be given another interview
where someone would impartially listen to her side of the story.
Initially I waited three months for a response from the State Department. The
Senator's office called and faxed them five times over this period but never got
anything back.
(In the request I went into great detail about the circumstances surrounding her false visa and included a copy of her sworn statement that was given to the NBI as well as copies of the payment receipts.)
So at this point I decided that nothing was going to come of the letter and flew back over and we got married.
That was August 2003.
A couple of months after returning to the US I received a response from the State Department. The response was filled will outright lies stating that they had contacted me with a solution and since I had failed to respond they would at that point contact my wife.
The truth is they never contacted me, that was a completely fabricated story, and since September 2003 we are still waiting for them to contact her but it was good fodder for a Senator and his staff to read.
I worked long enough for the government to recognize a cover-up or a self-serving group of employees huddled in defense of each other so it became apparent to me that given the current laws, that let them do pretty much what they want, nobody could intervene with an Embassy like the one in Manila so about a year later, when I was able to retire, I sold, gave or threw away everything I owned and moved to the Philippines to join my wife and daughter.
(I believe from their
prospective they had a record of the phone call from Philippine Immigration.
Then when she appeared with a new passport and told them the other one had been
lost and knowing that all Filipinos are born with the knowledge of how to obtain
a valid visa and a false visa they made the assumption that she had obtained it
on purpose and was trying to cover her tracks. Discussing it with her and seeing
the statement to the NBI might have cleared up much of their misperceptions but
of course they don't operate that way since, as they told me, Filipinos have no
rights and are all liars.
Also given that they know that she was born with full knowledge of how to obtain
a visa or false visa then the only conclusion they can draw is that she did it
knowingly and willingly.)
However this did not give them the right to totally disregard the law and deliberately deny us our right under the law to request a waiver and then to intentionally lie and cover up their illegal acts.
Since this happened to us I
have talked to a number of others that have had a similar experience, some also
moved here while others left their wife or fiancée to fend for themselves,
mostly because they did not have the resources to move.
The thing all this taught me was to not trust
my own country or it's claim
to the ideals of democracy, freedom of speech and basic human rights.
I doubt I will ever return to the US as long as my family is not welcome and I have a very bitter taste in my mouth towards the US, a country I spent 20 years defending in the military, only to find that they would stab me in the back and any other American for that matter that gets in their way.
I can no longer say I am proud to be an American when institutions like this are allowed to flourish.
Institutions made up of government civil servants that are allowed to routinely make decisions based on personal opinion and whim in a system entirely void of standard checks and balances where all decisions are final and cannot be challenged in court should not be allowed in a democracy. My journey to this point in my life was difficult for me and I had to change much of what I perceived America to be.
But now I believe I have a
much more realistic view of what America really is, not what she wants her
citizens and the rest of the world to believe.
After we were married my wife told me that secretly she never really wanted to
move to the US but believed that if she married an American she would have no
other choice.
So now she believes she has the best of both worlds. This maybe a rationalization on her part.
However I am happy also with my decision to move here and we have a good life and I keep busier than when I was working full time. I have a large family with lawyers, teachers, government employees, elected officials including two mayors in nearby towns and a couple of businessmen and they all make it their business to look out for me.
I find that we have to set
priorities because there are not enough hours in the day to do everything we
want to do. We have plans to explore, on a wider scale, the Philippines, take a
cruise but of course one that does not touch the USA, and visit other Asian
countries.
Tags: living abroad, exile,
American Embassy, Visa denial
-----------------------------------------------------------
XXXX in Cagayan de Oro and others working on getting citizenship for their
adopted kids should read this carefully and be prepared.
I recently received my letter from USCIS giving me an appointment to take my
adopted daughter there for her citizenship.
The appointment is scheduled for two months from the date of the letter. I went through the normal process of obtaining an appointment time and paying for the visa as prescribed on the US embassy web page.
(Of note is the fact that it will cost you more than the stated amount of $131 since you will have to convert your dollars into pesos and then give adequate pesos to BPI to convert them back to dollars for the embassy. They refuse to take US dollars. My cost was about $140.)
My appointment was for 2:00 PM 8 Feb and the appointment document instructed me to report at least one hour ahead of the appointment.
I chose to report one and a half hours in advance. That was my first problem as I was told I was to early and instructed to wait until 1:00 PM.
The next issue was I was told I would not be allowed to enter the non-immigrant visa area or be present during the visa interview.
I pointed out that the visa was for my daughter age 5 but that didn't seem to make difference.
After I told them I wanted to speak to a supervisor they decided to let me in.
The interview process did not go well. I ran into lots of problems. When called I and my daughter proceeded to the window where they asked for the forms and her passport and I was asked why we wanted the visa.
Being dumb I showed them the letter from USCIS Guam and that was the end of the interview. I was told that they would not issue a visa for a child to go to Guam for an appointment with USCIS as it was illegal and I would have to apply for an immigration visa.
I pointed out to them that that would require me to move back to the US and I lived here plus it would require more than a year and USCIS had given me only eight weeks to obtain a visa for her and come to the appointment.
He said he was sorry but he could not give me a visa and started to complete the rejection form.
I stopped him and asked him if maybe he wasn't aware of the law that allowed me to do this and wasn't it odd that USCIS, the very people I would have to submit the initial application for an immigrant visa, gave me only eight weeks to get a visa and report to their office.
He just looked at me and said sorry and continued to complete the rejection notice.
I decided I was not going to put up with their crap any longer and told him I was fed up with their inability to do their job properly and their obvious lack of understanding of their job and lack of proper training or knowledge of the laws they were being charged to enforce.
I told him if I didn't get a visa I would write every Senator and Congressman in the US as well as every newspaper I could find and then told him I wasn't leaving until I had a visa or was physically thrown out which I would report as well and I wanted to speak to his supervisor.
Well as is par for them his supervisor would not speak to me but I was told he reviewed the case and agreed with his subordinate that a tourist visa should not be issued and that the only way to obtain citizenship for my daughter was to apply for and meet the requirements for an immigrant visa.
This just showed me that he also lacked any real knowledge of the laws he was charged to enforce.
So I then demanded that I speak to the supervisor's supervisor and again pointed out that something was seriously wrong with the Embassy staff, training and processes when they didn't even know the laws they were charged to enforce and again pointed out the instructions on the N-600K document that said I could apply for citizenship using the process I was using.
I asked him if he thought I made up all the documents and forms from USCIS.
He only looked at me and said I'm on your side but there is nothing I can do.
I replied I was no longer going to put up with their arrogance and stupidity and again demanded to speak to his supervisor's supervisor.
Well once again the supervisor felt she was to good to talk to a mere American but he returned after about 30 minutes and I was told she did seem to recall that there was some "obscure" law that might allow an exception so that my daughter could get a visa to go to Guam for her appointment but I would have to provide some specific documents and information.
Then they asked me to provide them with the original adoption document, revised birth certificate, statement from the court as to the original date of filing for the adoption, a copy of the Philippine law on adoption and a copy of the N-600K form and instructions for completion.
Fortunately I brought everything I had with me and was able to provide them the documents although none of this was asked for in the instructions they provide. After sometime the guy returned again and told me that if I answered all of his questions properly he would issue a visa.
The questions were pretty much along the lines of the requirements to qualify for using the N-600K form which I obviously had already qualified for as we had the appointment.
After answering the questions he said he would issue a limited visa good for three months and only to Guam and only for the purpose of going to USCIS and immediately returning here.
He then went on to say I was the first case they had ever had using this process and it was very rare and I was fortunate that the director of the branch was so smart; to bad she failed to properly educate her staff.
I asked him if there was a reference I might give to others in the same situation that might save them all the crap I had just gone through; it cost me over two hours time and lots of stress.
He initially said just to tell people to have the vice consul discuss it with the division chief as she would be here for two more years. I guess they had no plans to educate the staff and hoped nobody would come after she left.
I then asked if he could give me a reference people could quote and he finally agreed but than said I shouldn't advertise the process to anyone since they didn't want people to be aware of it and use it instead of the "normal" immigration process.
So it appears they once again
feel they have the right to force people to do things their way rather than
according to the law.
The only positive comment was that the young guy did stick with me. He could
have done as the one did with my wife and refuse to talk and walk away and
threaten me with physical removal as happened when I questioned her deliberate
violation of the law when she removed the option of requesting a waiver.
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE OLD TEXKANO: Citizens beware. The Amendments and the Constitution itself has no bearing on you. You no longer have rights - ESPECIALLY if you are dealing with Government, US State Department, or US Embassy's around the world. You are nothing. You voted and this is your result.
Your "rights" as Americans have slowly, but consistently been eroded, hidden and blatantly taken away.
The 2nd Amendment was written by Thomas Jefferson for this vary purpose, "When government becomes to large and stops being "of the people" it's time for the PEOPLE to take America back".
And for me, just me personal, shoot every damn liberal I ever see. They started it.
The ACLU would not help this man because it involves a legal process trying to be done legally, but they will defend, with your tax dollar, every illegal alien swimming, wading, walking across the Rio Grand because, they are already IN America.
I too left the US, a country that guarantees more rights to a criminal than to the victims.
I served, broke my back, ruined my knees for you, the American, to have the right to be an idiot.
Go forth and multiply. I live in paradise and will not come back to the land of the criminally insane, ever.
TexKano.