Talked with Consular Affairs

[Robert S.]

Just now I called, as Mark has suggested, and wanting to express my own frustration, and was greatly reassured by the hard-working attitude and degree of focus of the person I spoke to. The situation in Guangzhou is very much on the minds of the CA staff. I asked him about our letter to Secretary Powell and he said the response is going to be sent out today. I complained to him that the process is bogged down again by the visa printing machine not working. He found it hard to believe that they only have one machine for this purpose. I said, however many they have, they need more. He said that was the responsibility of the consulate to see that they have enough machines in proper working order. When I told him we had heard the machine is not going to be fixed until sometime on Monday I could hear the dismay in his voice when he said he understood how we could be so frustrated by something like that. He thanked me and all of us for our patience and they really appreciate our patience and they in Washington and in Guangzhou are working as hard as they possibly can to improve this situation. He said they are going to keep sending clearances to the consulate which will force them to figure out how to deal with it.

 

- Robert Shelton

[vince]

thanks for the info., Robert!

Did you, by any chance, ask how many clearances have been sent to GZ so far?

[markimwaiting]

This all fine well and good you acually spoke to someone in CA.

But, when he said it is up to GZ to have the visas processed, did you ask him who is is in charge of makeing sure sure GZ is doing things correct and efficient?

I think you may have gotten the form letter answers.

When making these calls to CA, we need to ask certain questions.

Statement: we are working hard to fix the problem.

Question: who is we? what is being done? is it true they have ony 1 machine? what is the backup plan if the machine is broken?

Statement: it is the responsibility of the consulate to make sure bla bla bla

Question: who is in charge of the GZ consulate? what is CA doing to help them clear the back logs? what is the plan to clear them?

 

I dont want to discourage anyone from calling and I'll never pick on anyone. We just need to ask the right questions and recieve answers.

 

If they can get by with a "fluff" answer and satisfy us then there is no problem, so why get it fixed.

 

It seems like everyone want to put this problem on someone else, he did it , no she did it , it not our department, we're doing all we can.

This doesnt get our visas.

 

GZ works under CA

CA works under Powell

Powell works under Bush

 

OH, PS, thanks for the info, also it does good to let them know we will be calling.

I guess my Sherlock side just came out.

[dayfood]

Thank Robert.

 

How do you know CA controls GZ? If it is true, is calling CA same as calling GZ?

 

The reason I ask this, because calling DoS is not as same as calling GZ. DoS can tell you not-clear in a day, but GZ can tell you it is cleared in a same day. or other way around. I have proof for this. Maybe computer servers are differentt, or maybe time is different. Who knows.

[Robert S.]

Mark, your deductive Sherlockian mind is working overtime I can see. I am sorry that you think I did not ask the "right" questions and am such a pushover that I am satisfied with form letter type "fluff" answers. But I will try to answer each of your questions.

I did not ask him who is in charge of making sure GZ is doing things correctly and efficiently. I got the impression that the consulates are expected to perform well, from his statement that these things are the consulate's responsibility. It is my opinion that they do not have a top-down management style. This staffer I talked to did not know how many machines they have, he thought there would be more than one, but if the machine is broken he said he was sure the consulate would be getting it fixed as soon as possible. When I told him it would not be fixed until Monday he was disappointed to hear that: conclusion, CA expects the consulate to take care of these things. If there is any backup plan it would be up to the consulate. The CA plan for the backlogs is to keep sending more clearances so the consulate can figure out how to handle them. Apparently CA does not have a specific plan to deal with our particular backlog problem, they leave it up to the consulate to issue the visas as best they can. He told me GZ is working very hard to issue visas and in my fluffy, marshmallow-eating mind I believed him.

[Taoistpanda]

I called CA today as well, at the insistance of my wife.

 

I got the run around basically. My wife had her interview on Aug 26th, and so far, it appears her name was not sent across in the batch of 5000 (the CA told me 2000). I complained about some people having interviews in Oct and Nov, and they are getting the letters to get their visas. But my wife who had it in Aug still has not been approved (the DOS says her case was not one of the thousands, and that it is not a matter of GZ just needing to enter it in the computer).

 

HI got some story about how the unlucky people who had interviews in Aug fell into a bad slot. Basically, the august people's visas are very screwed up. Some people from Aug may be included in the current wave of releases, but many of them have tow ait additional time while everything is caught up.

 

Not fair at all...

[tonado]

Robert,

 

You did a fine job.

[tonado]

I called CA today as well, at the insistance of my wife.

 

I got the run around basically. My wife had her interview on Aug 26th, and so far, it appears her name was not sent across in the batch of 5000 (the CA told me 2000). I complained about some people having interviews in Oct and Nov, and they are getting the letters to get their visas. But my wife who had it in Aug still has not been approved (the DOS says her case was not one of the thousands, and that it is not a matter of GZ just needing to enter it in the computer).

 

HI got some story about how the unlucky people who had interviews in Aug fell into a bad slot. Basically, the august people's visas are very screwed up. Some people from Aug may be included in the current wave of releases,  but many of them have tow ait additional time while everything is caught up.

 

Not fair at all...           

Not only from interview dates in August, but also people from September's interviews as well. JJWaiting's fiancee was on August 1st (his posted in this forum) and the visa was cleared. I haven't heard one from September interview yet.

[Ying&Vin]

I called CA today as well, at the insistance of my wife.

 

I got the run around basically. My wife had her interview on Aug 26th, and so far, it appears her name was not sent across in the batch of 5000 (the CA told me 2000). I complained about some people having interviews in Oct and Nov, and they are getting the letters to get their visas. But my wife who had it in Aug still has not been approved (the DOS says her case was not one of the thousands, and that it is not a matter of GZ just needing to enter it in the computer).

 

HI got some story about how the unlucky people who had interviews in Aug fell into a bad slot. Basically, the august people's visas are very screwed up. Some people from Aug may be included in the current wave of releases,  but many of them have tow ait additional time while everything is caught up.

 

Not fair at all...           

Did DOS told you that your fiance's name was on the list? I called a couple times already, and they never told me anything beside "your case is still pending". I hope that my lover's name is on the list! Good luck to all of us!

[markimwaiting]

Great job Robert

 

Yes Consulate affairs is in charge of all consulates around the world.

Hense the office of cousulate affairs.

This is my point exactly, CA says they have no idea what GZ is doing and it is up to the consulate to make things happen. Another pass the buck answer.

If CA is not in charge of the consulates, who is?

I was told CA is in fact in charge of all counsulates.

Now, this being the case, CA would have to have some authority to guide the consulates and get things done.

And if CA is unable to do this DOS (Powell's office) is in charge if CA

Its like anywhere else, there is a boss somewhere.

 

I wasn't trying to pick on you in any mannor, I just see so much run around and have gotten the run around its getting old.

My only intent is to help and try to get this thing fixed and keep everyone informed on how this whole thing works.

If for any reason I offended you, I am sorry.

 

Now that they admitted the problem with the August group, I would like to know the spacifics of the bandaid

[Robert S.]

Great job Robert

 

Yes Consulate affairs is in charge of all consulates around the world.

Hense the office of cousulate affairs.

This is my point exactly, CA says they have no idea what GZ is doing and it is up to the consulate to make things happen. Another pass the buck answer.

If CA is not in charge of the consulates, who is?

I was told CA is in fact in charge of all counsulates.

Now, this being the case, CA would have to have some authority to guide the consulates and get things done.

And if CA is unable to do this DOS (Powell's office) is in charge if CA

Its like anywhere else, there is a boss somewhere.

 

I wasn't trying to pick on you in any mannor, I just see so much run around and have gotten the run around its getting old.

My only intent is to help and try to get this thing fixed and keep everyone informed on how this whole thing works.

If for any reason I offended you, I am sorry.

 

Now that they admitted the problem with the August group, I would like to know the spacifics of the bandaid

Okay, Mark, good deal. And there can be no doubt that your main point is well taken and so glaringly obvious that we have a duty to use it as a tool for a new group letter to Powell, the point being, it seems to me, that the headquarters of the Department of State is giving too much control to the consulate, and WE feel that Washington is, in effect, shirking their own responsibility by delegating too much authority to a lower level. How about that?

 

We can go on and expand from there making a lot of other points. I will be compiling a list.

 

- Robert

[JoeLiyan]

Great job Robert

 

Yes Consulate affairs is in charge of all consulates around the world.

Hense the office of cousulate affairs.

This is my point exactly, CA says they have no idea what GZ is doing and it is up to the consulate to make things happen. Another pass the buck answer.

If CA is not in charge of the consulates, who is?

I was told CA is in fact in charge of all counsulates.

Now, this being the case, CA would have to have some authority to guide the consulates and get things done.

And if CA is unable to do this DOS (Powell's office) is in charge if CA

Its like anywhere else, there is a boss somewhere.

 

I wasn't trying to pick on you in any mannor, I just see so much run around and have gotten the run around its getting old.

My only intent is to help and try to get this thing fixed and keep everyone informed on how this whole thing works.

If for any reason I offended you, I am sorry.

 

Now that they admitted the problem with the August group, I would like to know the spacifics of the bandaid

Okay, Mark, good deal. And there can be no doubt that your main point is well taken and so glaringly obvious that we have a duty to use it as a tool for a new group letter to Powell, the point being, it seems to me, that the headquarters of the Department of State is giving too much control to the consulate, and WE feel that Washington is, in effect, shirking their own responsibility by delegating too much authority to a lower level. How about that?

 

We can go on and expand from there making a lot of other points. I will be compiling a list.

 

- Robert

Exactly!! Right there in your court...put my name on that list when it's compiled, letter formulated, etc.

 

Email me with info please! This thread is REALLY discouraging, especially that August interviews fell into some black hole - "holy" crap!

[Robert S.]

Mark and Robert,

 

Point well taken. We tried, in our last letter, to get more help to clear up the backlog. Perhaps by adding horror stories from GZ, like I have been reading, we can go back and say we told you so and it continues. >Jim

Yes, Jim, very good, I am getting excited about it. Right now I am going to send an email to the guy who posted on G7 the horror story of his fiancee being told the machine was broken yesterday.

 

Well! Just now I went back to G7 and it turns out the original poster of the story about the broken printer has gone back in there and posted a correction and more complete story of what the problem was. Turns out that the machine is not broken, it was just shut off.

 

But you know the complaint in our letter was a lack of sufficient staffing and that still stands. So we do need to write a new letter. - R

[Robert S.]

Over the next few days will be a good time to kick around ideas for what points to include on the new letter. I will be watching for ideas being posted and already have several main points noted down. Or if anyone wants to email with suggestions I will put them in the folder for ideas.

[Eric&Yuhui]

Over the next few days will be a good time to kick around ideas for what points to include on the new letter.<snip>

what new letter?? huh??