Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 6 2005, 07:56 AM
Luckily we never had any of that grief, as we were married for three years before we applied, we had a daughter and we'd lived together in the PI for seven years already. BUT, the reason we didn't apply for any visas sooner was that we knew the sort of crap that the embassy throws at people. I couldn't bring myself to face the sh1t you mentioned, without possibly tearing some arrogant little embassy pricks throat out.

It was still fairly pathetic though, queuing up overnight at the Brit embassy with a huge pile of papers, to try and justify why my wife should be allowed to grovel her way into the UK. I blaggarded my way in with my daughter as soon as the doors opened, as we are both Brit citizens, but my wife still had to queue up in the sun while the security guards picked and chose who could come in. They even took my daughters pushchair away, so we had to sit with her in our laps for the three hours we spent inside.
We too were together, and had lived together, for several years in the Philippines before we applied for the visa to come here - and similarly, we had a daughter. But the attititude of Embassy staff I found to be completely abhorrent - not just the treatment you describe, such as when they force applicants to queue in the heat outside for hours on end, but also the general attitude of Embassy staff to filipinos in general - sitting inside hearing other filipinos being interviewed (they weren't allowed privacy, but were forced to undergo their ordeal in full view and hearing of the whole waiting room), and more importantly, the manner and disrespecful tone they were harangued with, it honestly made me ashamed to be British, with MY tax-funded repsresentatives speaking so disdainfully and scornfully to these people, as if they were criminals trying to beg for their own parole, which they didn't deserve. It was disgusting. As an advert for this country, it is despicable - my wife was so shocked at the manner and tone that her view changed to one of "if that's how they treat filipinos there, I don't want any part of it". Entirely understandable, and I had to spend some time convincing her that the behaviour of Embassy staff was in NO WAY representative of the people of the UK.

There is simply no need for this treatment. The interview process and examination of the evidence/eligiblity of the applicant, if undertaken by suitably qualified, professional and educated/civilised people, can be perfectly well undertaken without the need to resort to the sort of questionning techniques and subject humiliation more befitting of a remote police station in deep south alabama.

Whilst our particular interviewer (I was deigned entry to part of the interview), once he'd realised the nature of our relationship (together for several years, living in PI, etc) was relatively civil from that point on, until he'd actually read the papers he did start off fairly hostile (up until he admitted he was more than satisfied our relationship was genuine, and then became fairly normal). But the treatment from OTHER Embassy staff, who hadn't had the luxury of looking at our application and just saw a british/filipina relationship, was, for the most part, dreadful. The rudeness they employed, not just to my wife, but also to myself, was shocking, and for the most part was in response to simple information requests or queries as to when we might hear of a date, etc. On several occasions during my time there I had reason to need to visit the consular section - whilst largely an improvement over the visa section, they, too, could at times be quite rude - conveniently forgetting that they exist to assist me, as a British national, and not the other way around.

I am wholly convinced that the way visa applicants/Embassy visitors in the UK Embassy in Washington is in no way comparable to the disgusting way they are treated in Manila. If so, this means the behaviour of Embassy staff towards Asian applicants in Manila is, quite frankly, racist; the differing treatment arising solely as a result of the race of the applicant applying.

And it's after this that it then sticks in the gut to find that these LEGAL settlement visa applicants are then denied the ability to properly settle/educate themselves, etc etc, not because that is the general rule on newcomers to the UK, but simply because they came here LEGALLY, and that the rule is waived for asylum seekers. I cannot understand the distinction, and, like I said, it's like the final kick in the face from the UK system which pretty much disgusted me from the first time I had the misfortune to step inside a British embassy on foreign soil and witness, first hand, how badly and disrespectfully they treat foreign nationals simply wishing to visit the UK.