My mother-in-law died last night in Belgium. Under normal
circumstances, I would leave for Brussels tomorrow night, to
attend the funeral on Saturday morning.
Circumstances, however, are not normal. In fact, they are rather
brain-dead. Immigration Policies in the EU do not permit
long-term Visas, and I have an Indian passport, so I need a visa
for Europe, and my Schengen Visa has expired. There is no
Belgian Consulate in San Francisco where I can walk in and get a
visa today. The nearest consulate is in LA.
It made me think, how come, in this age of electronic
communication, we cannot tackle situations like this without
physical exchange of documents?
It also made me write an email to Mr. Ronald De Langhe, Consul
General and Ms. Véronique Marounek, Consul:
"Your laws, dear friends, are impractical and inhuman. In this
day and age, with electronic communication of the utmost
advanced calibre being available to us - it beats me why you
cannot accept documents like bank statements, emails from family
in Belgium confirming the news of the death, and payments by
credit card. You have issued me a visa before. You have me on
your file. Why can't you let the immigration in Belgium know
that a person with such and such passport number is to arrive on
such and such date, to attend a funeral? Why can't they check
the passport number, while you check the electronic documents on
this end? I need to take a plane tomorrow, and you don't have a
consulate in the San Francisco area ... I do not have the time
to send you the documents physically, because I will then miss
the funeral.
Your laws and systems are outdated, and obsolete. You can tell
me that the laws of no country allow for a visa to be issued
without the passport being physically available. Well, my
response to that then is that ALL immigration laws are outdated
and obsolete. You should ALL look into what you are doing with a
magnifying glass, study the progress of modern communication
technology, and make a collective decision to join the march of
human civilization."
A lady from the Consulate called me back this afternoon to offer
me condolences, and to acknowledge my letter.
Who knows, however, where the immigration reforms stand? I
wonder if they even know how to spell technology!
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