Another type of visa fraud is committed at the corner of Ave Maximo Gomez and Ave Cesar Nicolas Penson (at the US Consulate). 400 or 500 Dominicans line up outside every day, 5 days a week, to apply for US visas, with or without a lawyer by their side.
Each has paid US$147.00 in fees to the consulate and spent 2 to 4 days chasing down the required documents for their visa appointment. They each then receive 60 to 90 seconds in front of a window with a mindless 20-something drone behind, often speaking to that applicant with great disdain, and making their decision on the spot, according to their secret criteria or their "hunches".
Think about the reverse "hunches". I have little faith that a Consulate interviewer with a degree in History, or English, or even Political Science from a third rate college with average or mediocre grades, and maybe two years experience, can make those kinds of calls and truly protect the United States.
Perhaps 5% or 10% of Dominican applicants receive a visa. (the true success rate and number of applicants are Homeland Security secrets). The majority of applicants are seeking a visa in order to go to the United States and spend their money there as a visitor, or as a student, and then return to their home in the DR.
Perhaps these policies of non-transparency on visa policies are promulgated by the State Department in order to siphon off would-be yola money from ?unsuitable applicants? by allowing them to borrow and pay it instead to the US Consulate for a visa interview which costs them more than RD$6000. Keeping them broke = fewer yolas.
The argument will be advanced that "the Consulate is the front line in protecting the United States at all costs". They will shout "Don't you know there are many bad people who want to do harm to the United States and their way of life?" or "We have to keep out the terrorists!".
They may argue "What about 9/11!". To make that argument, then first respond to the abuses and atrocities committed in the name of US security around the world. Why should the United States be allowed to violate another nation's sovereignty in the name of US security (another example yesterday of the US military invading yet another country to assassinate people believed (but not tried or convicted) of harming US interests).
My conjecture is that US practices in other countries were responsible for the 9/11 tragedies. The US ALWAYS uses a carrot and a stick approach to anything they want to get from a foreign nation. They only publicize the carrots, but it?s their non-public sticks which bother most people once they find out.
From my point of view, it is the Ugly American and their conduct which foment many Dominicans views of how ALL Americans must be. Imagine meeting Americans in such places as an interview at the US Consulate and going away thinking ?What axxholes?, or meeting a drunken tourist sitting poolside for a week at a Dominican A.I. resort, bragging about all of their material possessions back home (paid for or not) to the poor ignorant dominicano serving them, and how wonderful life in America must be...
After either type of experience, just think of the expanded stories Dominicans must tell their friends and families every night when they get home. Have American tourists or folks in the US Consulate ever given thought that their behavior in a foreign country may be a factor in creating a seed that later grows into an illegal immigrant??
Negativity kacy? Fraud begets fraud. I believe visa fraud began with the US Consulate, their policies and their personnel. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
I have no doubt that Dominicans' actions are a reaction to what they or family members have previously encountered, whether it was at the Consulate, on some beautiful beach in the DR, or after hearing the fantastic stories from someone who met a drunken American tourist with a big mouth full of stories.
It's no wonder that the Consulate staff in Santo Domingo now sees many ridiculous things on a daily basis. Why don't you publish basic criteria on your website for which a Dominican applicant will automatically be denied a visa? I don?t believe it is a matter of national security, and I also believe that what you may consider to be common sense may not make any sense at all to someone who is not American.
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