Visa difficulties

My son, who planned to visit an Italian company for business purposes, went to the Italian Embassy on Jl. Diponegoro to obtain a visa, as advised by the travel bureau. He failed to get the visa two days running.

On Sept. 4 at 7 a.m. he came to the embassy and all the visa applicants (at least 20 persons) had to wait outside the fence of the Embassy's premises; naturally there were no chairs available. The cars have to be parked about 100 to 200 meters away.

At 12 o'clock, after four or five persons' visas had been processed, suddenly an Embassy official announced that the office was closed and all the applicants were advised to come back the following day, even though all had received a running number.

Needless to say, all the waiting applicants were unhappy with the embassy's behavior.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta