I 100% agree!!! This was also my experience when I visited the embassy with my Egyptian husband. At that time we didn't know whether we really needed the qaid el aeli for our application, and thought it would be relatively straightforward to ask the embassy. The first time I went on my own as the embassy was closing, and I was stopped by the security guards at the front desk. I assumed they would point me to an immigration officer but instead one of the guards took all the sponsorship papers out of my hands and started rifling through them. He pulled out my marriage certificate, showed it to another guard, and told me I was "helwa." Then he handed me a tourist visa application. In my poor Arabic, I said no, I am SPONSORING my HUSBAND (which should have been obvious from the marriage certificate and various PR sponsorship forms!) and I just wanted to talk to an officer. I got my husband on the phone with them and they told us to come back the next day, early in the morning. This time I came back with my husband, and again we were stopped by security at the door. Again both people we spoke to pushed tourist visa applications on us. The woman we were speaking at the entrance kept ignoring our questions and requests, giving us the tourist visa app, and turning to other people in an extremely rude fashion (I had to start basically yelling at her, with my husband holding me back, before she took us seriously). In the end we were told that we had to call a phone number to make an appointment with an officer (don't know why the previous day's guards couldn't have told us that), BUT we were *also* told that "even if they know the answer to your question, they probably won't tell you." !!!!!!!!!!!??????????? At that point I totally gave up on the embassy. It's a waste of taxpayer's money, and a total joke. I feel very blessed that we're in a much better position that the heartbreaking stories Ana_Mo described, but still, this is ridiculous.