4 years ago my mother-in-law applied for a TRV to Canada. I looked on the embassy web site, got a list of documents that she needed, helped her prepare them, she took them to the embassy, went through them with the FS professional, explained her situation, turned them in, received her visa the next day. "Well," I said to my wife with a certain amount of vicarious pride, "that's how a well-run civil service works."
Yesterday my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law applied for a TRV to Canada. I looked on the embassy web site, got a list of documents that they needed, helped them to prepare them. They printed them out and went to the embassy. They waited there for a long time. Finally a woman came out and told them that the embassy no longer processes TRVs and that this is now done by a private company (information that was not on the Internet). So they cross Bangkok to a different place and are told that they need an entirely different set of information, all of it in English (information that was not on the Internet). There is an extra fee of ~$40 that goes to the company. There is no discussion of their reasons for applying. The person receiving the information is a teenager. After paying extra to have all the information translated, they are told that they will know in 12 days if they receive a visa or not.
"Well," I said to my wife with a large amount of disgust, "that's what happens when a government starts imitating the United States and contracting out basic services to for-profit companies." At least that's my theory -- any others?
Yesterday my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law applied for a TRV to Canada. I looked on the embassy web site, got a list of documents that they needed, helped them to prepare them. They printed them out and went to the embassy. They waited there for a long time. Finally a woman came out and told them that the embassy no longer processes TRVs and that this is now done by a private company (information that was not on the Internet). So they cross Bangkok to a different place and are told that they need an entirely different set of information, all of it in English (information that was not on the Internet). There is an extra fee of ~$40 that goes to the company. There is no discussion of their reasons for applying. The person receiving the information is a teenager. After paying extra to have all the information translated, they are told that they will know in 12 days if they receive a visa or not.
"Well," I said to my wife with a large amount of disgust, "that's what happens when a government starts imitating the United States and contracting out basic services to for-profit companies." At least that's my theory -- any others?
