Visa Woes

A recent telephone chat with a much travelled and very well-known couple had them speaking on the travails suffered in getting visas to travel to Britain, something they have done many times before. The crux of their latest visa woe was how difficult things are made for applicants. Going into the website it was said the visa office was open from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm, so to submit their applications with, I presume, reams of accompanying documents and health report; and to have their biometrics taken and registered. They went to the office at 9.30 am. Stood outside in a queue in the blazing sun (better than roaring downpour, the wife said). At 10.00 am, a loud announcement came through: office opens for receipt of documents at 11.00 am. “What happens to people who have come from far? We returned to our vehicle to wait. Some kept standing the entire time.”

Once the wife received her passport with the visa stamped; not the husband though submission with all requirements had been handed in together. On inquiring (with difficulty to get connected, I suppose) about the problem, the answer was that an email had been sent to the husband to come get his passport. She searched all the ‘boxes’ in his computer but no email from the visa office was found.

This has happened to quite a few; one spouse getting the visa and not the other. Once a husband and wife went separately to the US embassy from their workplaces. Husband was questioned as to why he did not accompany his wife. He was sponsored by a US Ivy League professor. No clout in this; he was refused a visa, while his wife got hers.

But the couple I spoke with were both emphatic in saying that Sri Lankans found it more difficult to get visas to travel to UK, Australia and the Schengen countries due to our own fault. Sri Lankans have earned notoriety for the ruses they resort to, to circumvent travel restrictions of foreign countries. You may remember the time when in many airports, even of countries in West Asia, the passports of Sri Lankans in transit were confiscated (I use this term deliberately) and handed back when the travellers were boarding their next flight to reach their destinations. This was utterly shaming for those who travelled then since the Sri Lankan passport seemed to be considered of pariah status. I do hope it is different now.

I asked a friend who was on holiday in Australia fairly recently whether she had any trouble getting her visa. What she said was that once you submit all health records etc and proof of being insured, no problem arose. She added that one had better apply early since often the granting of a visa takes time. She had gone to Australia just before the Covid lockdown. She had to apply monthly for extensions to her visa, though it was obvious she could not travel in the circumstances, and that meant paying a considerable amount each month.

Another friend travelled recently to holiday with her daughter in the US. No problem met, she said, on applying for a visa as long as your bona fides are clear and especially if you had been to the US earlier and returned before expiry of that visa. I presume the US still grants five year visas which is such a boon if you travel often to be with your children. My friend said that what is most pertinent is the applicant’s financial stability over here and the bona fides of the sponsor in the States. S/He has to submit a certification from her/his employer along with the sponsorship letter. Fair enough.

I well remember going to the American Embassy on Galle Road, Kollupitiya, at 3.00 am one morning to be sure to get a front place in the queue. I was second in line. At 7.00 am my son took my place as he was the visa seeker.

While many complaints are forthcoming about visa officers who are not of the diplomatic staff of an embassy, I have heard said that their noses are sharp, sometime too sharp and extra suspicious. But they do detect premeditated fraud. My sister once went for a British visa when the office was right here in Colombo. A person she knew came with her, also seeking to visit Britain. She had plans to stay over illegally. My sister was given her visa, not the other woman.

Another factor discerned or merely felt is that visa officers often are unwelcoming and convey the impression they do not want you visiting their country. This was not the case before the rush of Sri Lankans began for emigration or visit-travel; also before certain travellers brought disgrace to our country. I remember in the 1970s my sister being led to the door of the visa officer’s room with the visa officer’s arm across her shoulders wishing her a good stay with her sons in Britain.

I omnce had a taste of sheer rudeness. I was in the UK on a scholarship. My husband was employed in Kuwait. A visit to him was planned on my return home. I went to the Kuwaiti embassy in London and was treated most shabbily. The woman visa officer was not British but I felt could not be Kuwaiti either since then women of that country were hardly even allowed higher education. She asked me with obvious suspicion why I was in Britain, husband in Kuwait and children in Sri Lanka. My detailed explanation did not satisfy her.

Her reluctance to give me a visa to visit so recently developed Kuwait got my goat. I left the place disheartened. The only person who was not treating me as subhuman was the Brit guard at the entrance. Husband insisted I come over and that he would get his company to give me an invitation which would be at the airport. He warned severely to make sure I took the designated flight for if I arrived in Kuwait on a different flight, I would risk being sent away on the very next flight – even if it was to Timbuktu. At the Kuwait airport too I was treated like dirt, kept standing for long wondering whether I could join my husband seen waiting for me anxiously, or sent away.

Global Passport Ranking

A person who globe trots happily having dual citizenship and travelling on his US passport asked me to Google Henley Passport Index which I did. Here is what I found.

“With historical data spanning 18 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. Updated quarterly, (it) is considered the standard reference tool for global citizens and sovereign states when assessing where a passport ranks on the global mobility spectrum. This index ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.”

The list is very long, naturally, listing countries of the world. It is topped by Singapore ranked number one with visa free access to 193 countries. That means the Singapore passport allows holders visa-free entry to 193 destinations out of 227 in the world. Japan follows with its passport holders allowed visa free entry to 191 countries. Sri Lanka is just 13 from the bottom close to North Korea, ranked 98 with 41 countries being visitable without a visa. Right at the bottom is Afghanistan with rank of 106 with only 27 countries open visa-free to passport holders.

Latest news from Colombo is that in bid to increase tourism revenue, we have allowed visa free travel for visitors from seven countries. They are Malaysia, Thailand, India, China, Japan and Indonesia until March 31, 2024. Let’s hope this concession is reciprocated.