Single entry only
Categorizing this post was difficult. What does this fall under? Human rights violation? Racism? Slavery? I’m thinking of the fact that I am stuck out here in the bitter cold of Nowheresville, only able to go home once a year. But I have agency here. If I could afford to go home more, I would. I’m thinking also of what I went through to get here. Queues! Waking up at the crack of dawn countless times, to get to the American embassy in the capital, to be subjected to hunger, to rain and wind and abusive Ghanaian security guards who can only bully to relieve their sense of powerlessness. But again, I always had at least one of my parents with me…they would miss work for this. And I didn’t have to hustle with public transport, we had a driver.
I’m thinking about visas because I wanted to go to London this spring break. My friends are all jetting off to exotic places but I have to get a visa for many of these places. I let slip to my friend that I can’t go to London with her because the British require me to have a visa, although they didn’t need one when they were coming to colonize my country. She asked me if I was bitter. Ha! Do I sound bitter?
I am also thinking about visas because I just heard about an Iraqi student in my school who was lucky enough to obtain a 4-year student visa to come and study at the number one liberal arts college in this land of the brave and the FREE. The only thing is that the best they could offer him was a single-entry visa. So this is the price he is being asked to pay for his education. He cannot go home…he cannot go anywhere…he cannot leave. Well, technically he can, but good luck in getting back in. So here the idea of a country’s borders takes on a new meaning. Borders become living stretches of barbed wire actively hemming people in, barring them from the rest of the world. I wonder if any of the US marines who “liberated” and are still “liberating” Iraq needed visas. But of course sovereignty means nothing if you own the world. Except in cases where backward Africans are hacking each other to death and there is nothing in it for you. Then you can hide behind the word sovereignty and still sleep at night….
But hey, even this Iraqi kid has agency right? It was his choice to come here in the first place. Unless you consider where power is concentrated in this world. Consider the set up of this global village, with some places as the village center and others as its septic tank. How much choice does he really have?
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Hey, Sunshine, let me see if I get your logic.
1. The Brits should not ask for a visa from you
2. Not because visas are bad but they owe you because, in the past, Britain colonized your birth country.
3. So visas are good but special consideration should be given to people from colonized countries.
4. The US is at fault for being a good place. Iraq would be a good place if it was not being sabotaged. Is that it?
5. Iraq isn’t a crappy place because its own problems.
6. The US should have given this kid a better deal regarding his visa? Why did he get single entry? You didn’t explain.
Gibson, I find your addressing me as “Sunshine” interesting (and not in a pleasant way). As such, it’s taken a bit of contemplation for me to respond. But here I go:
I do not purport to be a great thinker, or even a good writer, what I am, however, is a careful writer. First of all, trying to find “my logic” is something I would discourage. I rarely present arguments in which one thread of “logic” must be followed. Mainly because I am of the “death and insanity are the only answers to our world” school of thought. More often, you will find me putting out my thoughts. Thinking through my keyboard, if you will. To me, logic and stream of consciousness do not go together. I would at this point caution against you concluding that I am therefore “illogical.” It’s not the same thing.
Now to the thread you are trying to weave through my post. I see you doing what most people do: making value jusdgements. And in doing so, you use all the words I was careful not to use or even imply because value judgements are not my concern. I do not say anyone “owes” me, nor do I say visas are “good” or the US is at “fault.” It’s not for lack of familiarity with these words that I avoid them. In fact, it’s because I know very well what they mean, the way they can enhance or distort ideas, and the weight of judgement they impose on both writer and reader.
As to why this kid got a single entry visa for a 4 year stay, I don’t know. Perhaps he is one of the lucky ones because he was let in in the first place. What I am trying to understand is how you tell someone they can’t leave…
Annie we Kenyans go through the same treatment neginning from the guards at the Embassy onwards. I do think that many of these British countries should be more accomodating when it comes visas especially if the applicant has a visa for another first world country.
I mean if I have a valid visa for the States the odds of me absonding in Britain are pretty low esp if I have been in the States for sometime.
Well as for the kid with the single entry visa I do think that they Embassy thought that he had no reason to go back.
Really powerful, heartfelt post.
There has to be someone, who can be bribed.
A friend of mine visited me from Nigeria and went through the usual crap at the Spanish embassy. Eventually she managed to get in and again the usual snooty interviewer received her with disdain. My friend had had enough, and said look you know what, I dont really want to go to Spain so just give me my papers and passport back so I can leave. The woman then started to apologise etc etc. In the end she was given the visa but (and work this out) to bring photos of her trip to the embassy to prove that she had actually been in Spain!
What kind of nonsense request is that? She should spend time and money going back to the embassy to show some random woman how she spent x number of days of her life? Do these people think we have nothing better to do than to continuously “prove” that we deserve or have properly used what they deign to give us? I am irritated.
Annie@ Absolute crap really. Of course we took loads of photos as one does but she certainly isnt going to sweat through Lagos traffic, make endless phone calls, get harassed by the door men etc etc just to show photos. And so what – she has the proof she went there from the stamp in her passport – Crazy! Next time we meet in London and oh it took her nearly 5 years to get a visa to UK despite the fact that she runs her own successful business and has all the accounts to show for it, has two daughters who live there with British passports and her sister who is married to an English guy. 5 years of trying and now finally she has one of those “multiple entry” visas!