Is this the visiting card India wants foreigners to get?

Dear Team DNA,

My family and I are from Brazil and we have lived in Bangalore for the past three years. I can see myself fitting into the situation described by Angela in her blog published in DNA on
June 6, 2011.

I would like to highlight a common experience for expatriates who live in Bangalore and who have to go through the nightmare of submitting their documents at the Foreign Registration Regional Office (FRRO) here.

My family and I visited the office on May 30, May 31 and June 1. We have been visiting the FRRO office for the past three years — at least, twice every year — and every time, it’s like going to a torture camp — be it the wait to get a token in the morning or the waiting room experience until the token number is called out.

Then there is another line. It’s the first time the documents — at least 200 pages — get checked. By the end of this process, it’s already afternoon and lunch has been forfeited due to the fear that we may miss out on the appointment. Meanwhile, nobody informs you that the officers have a one-hour lunch time anyway!

Then comes the second counter, which is even worse because there is no queue here. People push and squeeze past each other to reach this officer who ‘checks’ 200 pages in the file and suddenly finds out that some document is missing! This happens despite preparing the documents according to the checklist provided.

If you are lucky enough to pass the second check-counter, and after yet another queue, you go inside a tiny room where another officer signs your papers. Adding to all this is the fact that the children are bored to death and they have to miss school. What’s worse, they have to stand for at least a couple of hours and more often than not, they go without eating.

By the time you reach the final counter it’s already evening and the officials are rude and treat you as if they are doing you a favour of issuing your documents. When you communicate with them, there is no smile on their faces. Also, many officials do not know basic English and applicants are left to watch helplessly as officials inspect the same bunch of papers, again, and hold your passports while making file notings.

Needless to say, computers or hi-tech gadgets are not used because that would definitely mean two or three employees would be out of work.

To make things worse, Indians are not allowed to accompany applicants unless they get a visitors’ pass. Very often, foreigners who cannot speak English are left struggling to explain themselves even as the officials shout and point fingers. One is left thinking: “What am I doing wrong now?”

Even if an Indian is helping you out, they are humiliated and questioned by officials in an offensive manner. Some applicants have been asked to give FRRO officers some money for a smoother ride.

After going through this process — being treated with no respect, questioned as if we are breaking the law, being pushed to stay at the FRRO for eight hours a day, and coming back the next day to collect the passports — many times, it is really hard to take this country seriously.

This is not a one-time or a single-family experience. I have some of these moments captured on video and I was planning to post it on my blog. But I can do something else to help people who have to experience this farce, and that’s the reason I’m writing to DNA.

There are no ethics or commonsense inside those walls. After such a harrowing experience, there is no way one can believe India is prepared to deal with expatriates and their companies in a serious manner. Foreign companies are coming to India to invest. I wonder if this is the kind of visiting card foreigners receive.

— Giliane Busato