Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Border control needs to change

I need to travel to Poland for work. By being an Indian citizen, I automatically belong to the list of citizens who need a visa to visit almost every country on this planet. Due to unreliable visa processing agencies (for Polish visa), I had to go to London myself to get a visa and I can't quantify the trouble that I (and my countrymen) have to go through to get visa for some of these countries. I had to stand in a very illogical queue for a loong time in the hot sun on a working day when I have so many things to do at work. Upon my turn I was told that I will only be given a single-entry visa which holds good only for the planned number of days for the meeting and a single entry only! Having a UK work permit, a long term US visa, a Schengen visa does not provide any advantage either. Its time we re-think on border control. Maybe not for all cases but decisions for visa shouldn't be categorical, rather on a case-by-case basis.

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