Waiting Time for Settlement Visa

[peterdavid]

Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 7 2005, 09:25 AM
This what worries me about calling for information:the person who aswers the phone is probably just a telephone operative, and don't actaully KNOW any hard facts. As with most asians, telling anybody that you don't know something goes against the grain, so they will often give you their opinion, or what they think the facts are, to save losing face.

When I tried to get the 'Certificate of Non Impediment' to marry my wife, I rang the embassy on three occsions, to see if the information gelled. It did: Turn up any week day between 10am and 4pm.

Nope! :blink:

I rolled in at 2pm, all the way from Angeles in a hire car, and was told, "Oh no sir, you need to come before midday. Just come back tomorrow" :P

Well, I didn't spend four hours in a car, at 3000 pesos, just to do it all again the next day, so made an official complaint there and then, spoke to a 'whitey', who was a touch obnoxious, telling me I should have called up to get the correct information.

"I did" cried I, "three bloody times", and was told to come 'tween 10 and 4

Off he went for a few minutes and came back looking a little cowed and far more friendly. It transpired he had asked the telephone operatives what time they were giving out for consular business, and, true to Filipino form, they had the wrong info.

We were allowed to lodge our request that day, and no more problems ensued.

Not right away anyway, but that's another tale :huh:

Quoted post

I had the exact same thing happen to me, like everything with the Embassy, you just have to keep fighting your ground. But everything there is a battle isn't it - even going in for what should be the simplest thing will always turn into some form of battle with them. It's a killer for the blood pressure.

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by peterdavid@Sep 8 2005, 11:00 AM
I had the exact same thing happen to me, like everything with the Embassy, you just have to keep fighting your ground. But everything there is a battle isn't it - even going in for what should be the simplest thing will always turn into some form of battle with them. It's a killer for the blood pressure.

Quoted post

You're so right.
Just collecting the wifes visa was another conflict. We rolled up at 8am, as instructed, took our turn in the queue, got served straight away, and were told to go sit down and we'd be called. Well, three hours later, 11am, and we're sat there still waiting, with the daughter, getting a bit cold and bored now as the air con was set to cryogenic. So, I went up and asked how much longer it would be?
"Oh, you have to come back at 3 o'clock to collect it"

WHAT?????

I asked her if she had actually intended we sit there for seven hours or whether she might have used her pea brain to summon the grain of intelligence necessary to tell us we could leave, then come back at 3 o'clock. The arrogant bitch still argued the toss until a white girl heard the commotion and came across, and I explained to her what had happened, and that we had our year old daughter with us, (with no pram due to security guard monkeys over diligence that we may use it as a weapon&#33.

We often day dream about going back and living in the PI, but things like this always pop up to remind us that every occasion, every operation, will so often turn into a $hit fight against ignorance and apathy.

I hope my ramblings aren't putting anybody off going through the visa process. I see it as more a warning of what to expect than a complaint. I'm sure there are guys out there who expect to arrive at the embassy and be greeted with some respect, escorted in, asked to sit down. Maybe offered tea in the greatest British tradition, and maybe have a friendly word with the embassy staff about cricket or the weather 'back home'. Then a few gentle enquiries and a visa will spring forth unhindered. bwaaahaahaaaaa

Forewarned is forearmed I reckon B)

[peterdavid]

Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 8 2005, 01:26 PM
You're so right.
Just collecting the wifes visa was another conflict. We rolled up at 8am, as instructed, took our turn in the queue, got served straight away, and were told to go sit down and we'd be called. Well, three hours later, 11am, and we're sat there still waiting, with the daughter, getting a bit cold and bored now as the air con was set to cryogenic. So, I went up and asked how much longer it would be?
"Oh, you have to come back at 3 o'clock to collect it"

WHAT?????

I asked her if she had actually intended we sit there for seven hours or whether she might have used her pea brain to summon the grain of intelligence necessary to tell us we could leave, then come back at 3 o'clock. The arrogant bitch still argued the toss until a white girl heard the commotion and came across, and I explained to her what had happened, and that we had our year old daughter with us, (with no pram due to security guard monkeys over diligence that we may use it as a weapon&#33.

Almost identical to what happened to us; and in fact it obviously happens so often to so many people you would almost tihnk they do it deliberately! We were told be there to collect it at 8am, we arrive at 8am to be looked at incredulously and told "why on earth would you come this early, you fool, you can't get it before 11am". So we stagger off, already bleary eyed and knackered (an 8am arrival time at the Embassy meant a 6am wake up time to make sure nothing goes wrong), headache now starting to pound through lack of sleep combined with the oppressive heat, return at 11am to be told "no, you should have come at 8am, like you were told, you've missed it now, you hae to come back at 3pm". Teeth now being ground almost to dust in my mouth, we actually went off to the cinema, went into some japanese horror flick (used to watch a lot of those when we were there) and basically had a couple of hours kip, returned at 3pm (having now spent 7 solid hours just waiting for the day to pass because of the Embassy), returned at 3pm, expecting to walk in, have the visa and passport handed over and walk out, and get told "yes, you just need to wait in there", along with all the normal 3pm people waiting for their visa INTERVIEW, and then have to wait a full 2 hours more, until we are finally called in, LAST, not for an interview, but just for the passport to be handed over. Couldn't they have given it to us first??? They knew we didn't need an interview, it was just a case of returning the passport, what the f@ck were the playing at?

The veins in my temple almost throbbed out of my head and exploded by the end when, at just after 5pm, 9 HOURS AFTER WE HAD BEEN TOLD TO COLLECT THE VISA, we were finally given the passport back in a process which took all of 2 minutes to confirm name, date of birth, and, oh yes, you actually match the photo in there, it must be you.

We often day dream about going back and living in the PI, but things like this always pop up to remind us that every occasion, every operation, will so often turn into a $hit fight against ignorance and apathy.

Exactly the same here. For every dreamy, lazy moment I remember lounging around Greenbelt, just enjoying doing nothing, I remember the million times a corrupt traffic **** pulled me over for no reason at all and extorted money from me. I remember queuing for hours in the SM because, despite having 500 tills, they only open about 3 during the busiest periods. I remember being manhandled by security guards pressing my shirt against my sweaty back to check I'm not carrying a gun(&#33 and forcing me to hand over shopping bags to a check in counter in the SM, in whom I wouldn't entrust the security of a beach pebble. I remember the bill payment counter, after we'd queued for half an hour, refusing to accept the CASH payment for the PLDT/Meralco/Sky Cable bill because the crappy postal system didn't bother delivering it until after the due date, meaning we had to make a pointless trip to the PLDT/Meralco/SkyCable main office just to pay a bloody bill. I remember the simplest job, or the simplest journey, taking up almost a whole day because the infrastructure is so poor and the people/processes so lazy. I could basically sort out a whole months business in the Uk over the internet in half a day, and yet it took longer than that just to pay one telephone bill in the same city in which we were living.

I also remember the sheer and utter panic when my daughter got a cold - you don't just get the sniffles over there, you get a full blown tropical fever which lasts for days and you never know if this is going to be the one with dengue, or malaria or any other of the tropical nightmares which simple aren't an issue in a clean, healthier country of the West. The absolute morons who drive with their lights off down small streets in the middle of the night, the idiot coach drivers who reduce a 5 lane road to two and a half lanes whilst they stop in the middle lane and wait for new passengers to embark from the pavement, two lanes away. The infuriating and regular confrontations with taxi drivers (like the Embassy, you know every experience will involve a battle and a pressure raising fight for just a basic service). The same type of infuriating battle when 9 out of 10 of your brand new household goods breaks down but the appliance centre refuses to exchange/refund it wthout a 2 hour argument. The depressing knowledge that, whatever you buy, it won't last because the quality will be so poor. The DSL cutting out at least once a week, for extended periods at a time, normally when you really needed to use the internet, mainly cos all the phone lines, electricity lines are strewn across the streets in a huge jumble of disorganised crap which looks like it was connected together by a blind 3 year old. The roads which look like they were never repaired since 1944 when they had the crap bombed out of them, and the filipinos, on gaining independence, just left them like they were.

But then you remember the over abundance of fit filipinas, hopelessly over staffed, squeezed in 4 to a till, all in little mini skirts, taking it in turns to press a digit each on the calculator whilst they double checked their ability for the 6th time to correctly add up three items you are purchasing. The fact you can't walk more than 2 minutes without seeing at least one stunning head turner. The fact that you never need to worry about a babysitter. The fact that all the films there come out earlier than in the UK.

Sadly, the bad outnumbers the good, and when it's bad, it's f@cking awful. And most of it is of the Philippine's own making, and they're too damn ignorant/stupid/lazy to make it better, but just expect someone else to. It's certainly no place for a child to grow up, and that is the biggest reason we won't go back, not for at least 18 years!

[walesrob]

Originally posted by peterdavid@Sep 8 2005, 03:35 PM

But then you remember the over abundance of fit filipinas, hopelessly over staffed, squeezed in 4 to a till,

Quoted post

Having worked in retailing for years in the UK, it shocked me that in the shops in Philippines there are so many staff doing absolute sod all. I remember going into a department store in Tacloban and guessing there must have 1 staff for every 3 feet of store space, not including till girls. Elsa tells me that the majority of staff in these places get paid no more than £4 a week. Even the store manager will be lucky to make £10k a year.

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by walesrob@Sep 8 2005, 06:02 PM
Having worked in retailing for years in the UK, it shocked me that in the shops in Philippines there are so many staff doing absolute sod all.

Quoted post

I remember in a small shopping mall in Angeles once, in a long queue to get served, the lone serving girl totted up the items for the snotty looking Filipino lady in front, took payment, then, as the snot bag stood watching, she started putting all the goods into plastic bags for the lazy old bitch. I waited a minute or so watching this scenario of elitism and subserviency play out, then I could wait no longer and stepped forward and tightly voiced my opinion

It was a tense moment, as the store girl was torn between the ages old master-and-slave, haves and have nots, Pilipino class war, and the towering barely controlled anger of the rather large, sunburned and well tattooed foreigner, at the front of by an equally frustrated long queue of her fellow countrymen. With a nervous look she made the decision and shoved the half filled bag at the elderly bitch (we've all met them, snobbery amongst the poor and all that) and started totting up my goods. Success :P

[Pauldo]

Originally posted by peterdavid@Sep 8 2005, 03:35 PM

....................Sadly, the bad outnumbers the good, and when it's bad, it's f@cking awful. And most of it is of the Philippine's own making, and they're too damn ignorant/stupid/lazy to make it better, but just expect someone else to. It's certainly no place for a child to grow up, and that is the biggest reason we won't go back, not for at least 18 years!

Quoted post

Oh man, you remember even more of the $hit fights than I do, and I've only been out of it properly for three years.

But the wierdest part I found was: YOU GET USED TO IT!!!!!!!! :o :( :unsure:

I actually found myself ENJOYING piloting my big yank car through five lanes of traffic on a two lane highway. Trying to pass cars coming the opposite way in my lane because they were too selfish to wait in the traffic queue in their own direction.

I actually began to enjoy going shopping on my own! Walking into stores with a stupid great $hit eating grin nailed to my face, because the slightest frown or possible look of annoyance from the 'kano' would freeze the staff into total senseless insolent robots, instead of the ever so slightly useful retards they are if you smile and grin at them like they are petulant schoolkids. Playful rejecting the household 50 amp fuse they hand you when you ask for a 5 amp automobile blade type fuse, or the can of matt green paint they hand you when you ask for gloss black, and all the time with that stupid happy grin on your face.

And should you ever raise your voice when the frustration finally gets too much??? Ohh man, that's it, enemy for life. Don't even bother thinking of going into that store again, as you're a marked man!!

We bought a vacuum cleaner from a store in Angeles City once. Took it home, tried to use it: there's no dust bag in it. So, all the way back to the store to get a dust bag. "We don't sell them sir, you have to go to Manila" Calm logical discussion followed, to try and explain that the thing they sold us does not work, so we would like a refund. Bwaaahaaahaaa. Never in a million years. It was never going to happen. They just could not understand my logic.

And therein lies the problem with the Philippines: They don't want to improve things. They are HAPPY with second best. The motto I coined when I lived there, on behalf of 'The Filipino':

SECOND BEST IS GOOD ENOUGH.