I will write here about a few of my encounters with these human beings, the bureaucrats. When I first applied for a US visa as a student, the agent denied it. I had the acceptance letter from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). A document number, granting the University of California the right to invite foreign students, was missing. After a few phone calls more, and a few dollars less, the nice lady at the other side of the line, at the UCSB Foreign Students Office could not figure out what I meant. Many foreign students from all over the world had gone through with the same document, without the alleged required number, apparently without problems. The lady at the consulate in Mexico City, granted me a tourist visa. When I was in California, for a fine of $75 US Cy., for entering the country on a tourist visa, instead of a student visa, I was finally granted the visa.
I married in the US to a woman I met at UCSB. We came to Mexico to live. As a foreigner she did not have permission to leave Mexico for extended periods of time. I was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My plan was to stay two years in Cambridge. We went to the Justice Department in Mexico to request a waiver on the stay requirement in Mexico. The director of my department wrote a nice memo expressing the interest of the University in my work abroad. He believed, he wrote, that the academic activities of the department will greatly benefit from my stay at MIT. After several trips to the Justice Department, the government agent finnaly gave us a document in legalese. I thought we had succeeded. Unfortunatley I could only stay one year at MIT. Great was my surprise when on my birthday, back in the Mexico City airport, I was informed that my wife never received any such permit, and they kept her immigration papers, after keepeing us for more than an hour in their offices, while my Mexican family waited outside. Eventually we went to the Justice Department, actually the office in charge of foreigners is called, Secretaría de Gobernación, which corresponds to the Interior Departement in the US. At "Gobernación" they told us that we were a few days short of the days she could use with no consequences. I went to the office of the nice gentleman that did not give us permission to go and asked why he did not agree with my boss on the benefit to Mexico, and the school, of my experience abroad. He answered that he only saw benefit to my reputation, but not to Mexico.
Now I come to the interaction with this group of our brothers and sisters, in charge of procedures and proper paper work, today. The University of Guerrero, where I want to work, does not recognize the Ph.D. Diploma from UCSB that I showed them. They need the "stamp of approval" of the Secretary of the State of California. This procedure entails the physical handling of my Diploma by US officials in California. I decided over two months ago, to hire a company to do this for me. I paid their services already, and I haven´t received my "Certified Diploma" yet. My email inquire was answerd today. The agent in charge of my case, told me that the number they sent me more than ten days ago for the FedExp delivery is correct. I have been using that number to request information on my package, and all I get is the automatic response that the information about my Diploma was sent to them more than ten days ago. There is no information on: Where is the Diploma, at FedEx, or at the Company in charge of the case?. Obviously it is not in my hands.
You got to love them, we are in their hands. Their good will is essential to a successful case!
Today I received my Diploma. At the end bureaucrats come through. As I said, you gotta lov´em.
I married in the US to a woman I met at UCSB. We came to Mexico to live. As a foreigner she did not have permission to leave Mexico for extended periods of time. I was accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My plan was to stay two years in Cambridge. We went to the Justice Department in Mexico to request a waiver on the stay requirement in Mexico. The director of my department wrote a nice memo expressing the interest of the University in my work abroad. He believed, he wrote, that the academic activities of the department will greatly benefit from my stay at MIT. After several trips to the Justice Department, the government agent finnaly gave us a document in legalese. I thought we had succeeded. Unfortunatley I could only stay one year at MIT. Great was my surprise when on my birthday, back in the Mexico City airport, I was informed that my wife never received any such permit, and they kept her immigration papers, after keepeing us for more than an hour in their offices, while my Mexican family waited outside. Eventually we went to the Justice Department, actually the office in charge of foreigners is called, Secretaría de Gobernación, which corresponds to the Interior Departement in the US. At "Gobernación" they told us that we were a few days short of the days she could use with no consequences. I went to the office of the nice gentleman that did not give us permission to go and asked why he did not agree with my boss on the benefit to Mexico, and the school, of my experience abroad. He answered that he only saw benefit to my reputation, but not to Mexico.
Now I come to the interaction with this group of our brothers and sisters, in charge of procedures and proper paper work, today. The University of Guerrero, where I want to work, does not recognize the Ph.D. Diploma from UCSB that I showed them. They need the "stamp of approval" of the Secretary of the State of California. This procedure entails the physical handling of my Diploma by US officials in California. I decided over two months ago, to hire a company to do this for me. I paid their services already, and I haven´t received my "Certified Diploma" yet. My email inquire was answerd today. The agent in charge of my case, told me that the number they sent me more than ten days ago for the FedExp delivery is correct. I have been using that number to request information on my package, and all I get is the automatic response that the information about my Diploma was sent to them more than ten days ago. There is no information on: Where is the Diploma, at FedEx, or at the Company in charge of the case?. Obviously it is not in my hands.
You got to love them, we are in their hands. Their good will is essential to a successful case!
Today I received my Diploma. At the end bureaucrats come through. As I said, you gotta lov´em.
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