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Hello all Medavoers,

I recently had to go to the Indian Consulate office in NY to renew my passport and also apply for 10 year visa to India for Parth. I did not wish to send my passport by the USPS mail so I decided to take the trip down to the city myself. The area around the consulate office is quiet and beautiful. I thought I was early when I reached the consulate office but guess what I was 65th in line for the passport and 60th in line for the visa application. (there were many more to come after me). One sad part about the consulate office is that there are hundreds of people applying everyday but there are just 2 small rooms to accomadate all of them with 90% of the people standing.

However I must say that the staff of the consulate office were one of the most courteous and helpful (inspite of the total number of people applying and the confusion with so many elderly people who were there alone, not being able to understand most of the paperwork). The security person directed people properly, never shouting. The people behind the desk accepting applications were sure to check everything (this reminded me of the indian people working in our dollar stores–they are so fast in the christmas season in taking customers as compared to the non-Indians who take things at their own pace) They however were also helpful in providing information on how to make the application better–for example she made sure that I entered priti’s name in the passport so that now i do not have to carry my marriage certificate at all times. I did not have 25 cents to make a copy of the marriage certificate, and she took it out from her desk and gave it to me. Overall they were always smiling (a contrasting experience when i went to get my green card at the hartford office when i first came to this country)

The most annoying thing was when I went to collect the passport and visa back in the evening. I collected my passport very easily and the lady even remembered me when i went to get my passport. however on the visa side the line was not moving. I stepped forward to find out and there was an Indian American (naturalized american citizen) who was holding the line. For some reason his visa was not ready yet, so the lady at the window was telling him to wait for a few minutes. she said that she would call his name when the visa would be ready. he wanted the receipt back with him. however the lady said that there were a few number of people whose visas were not ready and the receipts had their names on it so as soon as they came she would call for them. The receipts would help her identify them fast. However this gentleman for some reason was not ready to leave without the receipt. later i overheard him saying, i dont trust them, what if they loose my receipt.
This to me was so shocking, the country where you have been raised and have lived more years than being in this country–you dont trust those people.

Anyways above all the day was tiring, but rewarding as i was happy to see how India can be so productive and the best. The amount of work could be handled only by these people.

Jai Hind