Times of India - Ahmedabad , Sep 18 , 2006

VISA BLUES

Uncle Sam plays home breaker

A spate of terror attacks has only made it further difficult for Indians to get a visa to the US. But that hasn’t deterred parents, who’ve found a novel way out — they are now meeting their US based children in third destinations like Canada and Australia!
SURBHI GUPTA Times News Network


Ahmedabad based Nitin Shah and his wife Sonal are in Canada for a month. And no, the Shahs will not be sight-seeing. Instead, they will be meeting their daughter and son — both of whom live next door in the US.
Wonder why Canada? Well, certainly not because
they have been to the US before. But because they’ve been rejected from meeting their children — literally!
Recalling their ordeal, Nitin’s sister Nirali says, “They were denied visas to the US. Thankfully, they managed to get visas to Canada, where their children will be able to join them from the US.”
“Such cases come to us everyday,” informs Vishal Patel, branch manager of a leading travel agency in Ahmedabad. And while some resort to it keeping convenience in mind, for others it doubles up as a vacation.
“US visa interview dates, most often than not, are given six months after applying for it. So in case of an emergency, the US option is anyway out,” adds Patel.
A dejected Payal Jain tells her tale: “We went to Australia to meet our daughter when we weren’t granted a US visa. All our papers were in order. Yet they (Visa officers) asked us irrelevant questions like, ‘When you went to Europe, what all did you
see in each country?’ They deny permission to parents like us and grant 10-year multipleentry visas to other people. They should at least give us a reason for our rejection.”
However, experts say there is nothing one can do, for Gujarat especially, has had a trend of parents following their kids to the US and not coming back. “All you can do is to ensure that your financial papers are in order and that there is proof of your involvement in community activities here,” suggests Dr Arun C Vakil, a Mumbai based US visa expert.
Nevertheless, “the number of visas given to Indians has gone up in the last couple of years,” maintains David Kennedy, US embassy’s spokesperson in Delhi. “There is no discrimination, no criterion, no policy. Each case is different. And as per the information made available by the applicant at that particular time, the visa officers take a call,” he says. But is that enough to convince the parents? Obviously not, as Jain says, “Meeting our children in a third country will never be the same as staying in their own home, in their own city.”