Originally posted by peterdavid@Sep 6 2005, 01:02 PM
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.

I honestly pity any Filipino trying to battle through the fiasco of getting a visa on their own. My wife tried several times calling the embassy, befroe we moved out, and was treated as you say, like a flamin' criminal. This was by her fellow country men too!

I called a few times trying to sort things out, always got a Filipino on the other end, ignorant, aggresive uselss replies. They even put me on hold a few times, waited five minutes, then hung up.

And they will NEVER give you their name, so you can't complain about their shabby attitude. It is absolutly infuriating trying to deal with the embassy by phone, for visa purposes.

I pity my mum in law, as she is preparing to go through it herself soon, at the age of 63. My wife may fly out to help her, but A, it is not cheap to fly there, B, there is no guarantee she will even be allowed into the embassy to help anyway.

At the end of the day though, Filipinos have but themselves to blame, to a certain degree. An old drinking friend of mine, who once worked in the US embassy in Manila, told me that at one stage, about 10 years ago, there was a 60% 'failure to return rate' on Filipinos going to the USA on tourist visas. Hence the massive crackdown. I can imagine the UK is/was somewhat similar. And the Manila Embassy obstacle course is designed to weed out the serious and diligent from the weak opportunists and scum bags.