Embassies' arrogance
We often hear about the American and Australian embassies asking for visa fees -- which are several hundred thousands of rupiah -- to be paid in advance, and then refusing to grant the visa or return the money. They defend themselves by saying that it is written that the money is nonrefundable. This is exactly the point!
Why is the money nonrefundable when we do not get the visa for which we paid? This is not legal. It is fraud in my opinion! At other embassies, officers look over your papers beforehand and tell you what is missing. Sometimes people have to go home for additional papers and come back to the embassy the next day. When all is clear -- not before -- they ask for payment and you can get your passport and visa the next day.
Other embassies let you pay after you get your passport and visa. If they do not want to give you a visa, you don't have to pay. But the Australian and American embassies are really too much! How many millions of rupiah do they get from us every day since there are at least 50 to 100 people each day trying to get a visa. They can run their embassies on our money!
They look at your papers in the "in" line, ask one or two questions, make you wait for hours and then give you back your passport, having flimsy, subjective reasons for not giving you a visa. All your arguments and willingness to bring additional papers or guarantees are lost on these officials.
They in fact don't even want to hear or see anything more on the principle that they have already said "no" -- stamping the last page of the passport in the back room, unseen by unsuspecting passport owners, until they get home and take another look at the document. If they do not want to grant a visa that is their right, but to keep our money is downright fraud!
They should be ordered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop this practice. They should also refrain from stamping Indonesian passports with their discriminating code "seen on date...". If someone takes this passport to a different embassy, officials will wonder why this stamp, which means no visa was granted, is there and they might also refuse to grant a visa, thinking that something is wrong with the owner of the passport.
I have also seen an American visa for an Indonesian woman which said: personal/domestic servant of alien nonimmigrant Mr. So-and-so, like she was a dog attached to a person. How embarrassing for this woman if she wanted to take a trip to Singapore on her own and people saw that entry in her passport! She might not work for that Mr. So-and-so anymore and she might have even opened a shop and be self-employed.
Embassies should not write in "code" in the passports of the host country's people unless a visa is given. I hope this "nonrefundable-money-paid-in-advance" practice will be eliminated and people will be asked for money only when they get a visa.
MRS. SUHARTO
Jakarta