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Utterly staggering incompetence
Planning on going to India? Well, forget about it.
I have spent the last week fighting with the mind-bogglingly incompetent company to whom the Indian government outsources their visa processing, BLS International. Never in my life have I had so much difficulty in getting a visa, or indeed dealing with a particular company at all.
Here's the score: back in about 2006, the Indian government started outsourcing their visa processing. This is a departure, because the usual procedure with most countries is that one completes whatever visa paperwork is needed, then submits it to either the local consulate of that country or the embassy in Washington, and they process the visa and send you back your passport. A visa is, after all, a government document, so it rather makes sense to have government officials handling it. Well, not so in the case of India now. Instead they have hired a private company to do this. Now, when this first started, that company was Travisa, who have been in business for ages and though they've had problems here and there, they were generally efficient and handled routine matters relatively quickly. Effective July 1 of this year, though, the Indian government awarded the contract for processing visas worldwide to BLS International, an Indian company based out of Delhi. And it's an unmitigated disaster.
As usual, I called ahead to make sure that there was plenty of time to process the visa before submitting it. I was told no more than 5-7 days processing time, so off the paperwork went. For those who don't know, when one applies for a visa, in almost every circumstance, you have to send in your actual passport, along with application forms, a processing fee, and depending upon which country it is, sometimes some proof of things like yellow fever vaccination and/or a travel itinerary showing when and how you will enter and leave the country. The point, from the issuing country's perspective, is that they want to make sure that you're not going to turn up there and then later become a ward of the state, sucking up social services (crazy thought, right?). Well, such is the case with India and BLS: there is detailed paperwork, a passport-style picture, and a travel itinerary required. I always enclose a cover letter with detailed information ("Mr. Smith plans to leave the country on November 16, so I will need the passports back no later than November 13 in order to get them to him on time," etc.).
So I have a client who has been planning a five-month tour around Asia since this summer. Now, most countries around Asia require a visa for U.S. citizens, and each country has different requirements and validity periods. So, for example, if Vietnam has a visa validity period of 90 days from the date of issue, you need to make sure that you submit that application timed in such a way that the visa won't expire before planning to leave Vietnam. In total, I had to get about nine visas for these folks, timed carefully so that there would be adequate validity for each portion of the trip. To that end, I have been repeatedly FedExing out their passports to different embassies and consulates, getting them back, and then sending them out to the next embassy/consulate in line. India was the last one I had to get. So, off the paperwork went in FedEx, as normal, received by the Atlanta office of BLS International, delivered there and signed for more than two weeks ago. After a few days, I called to check on the visas, and I was told that they were processed and on their way back to me. Great! Everything will come together nicely and I'll have all of this ready to go a week or so before they leave on the 15th, as in today.
The next day, my FedEx airbill did not show processed into the system with FedEx, so I called again. Where are my passports? No one knows. For two days, they denied ever even receiving the passports in the first place, even after I showed them their own signature receiving them from FedEx. Three more days of back-and-forth trying to reach someone yielded no results. The only number that was answered is a call center whose sole purpose in life is to tell people to go look it up on the website. The website had utterly no information about the passports. I had someone "escalate" the request, and they e-mailed me back a day and a half later to say that ... the website will be updated when they have finished processing the visas. More and more urgent requests and demands back and forth got nowhere. I got in contact with several different people at the Atlanta consulate, and each of them has asked for someone at BLS to actually respond to me, which has only resulted in more e-mails telling me that the website will be updated when they have processed the visa.
By this past Friday, we had given up hope of actually getting an Indian visa, and we just wanted the passports back. So, I started demanding that they just return the passports, and to Hell with the visa. The response? The website will be updated when we have processed your visa. At least ten different e-mails later, each one explaining that I don't want the damned visa now, these people are still telling me that they'll update the website when the visa is processed.
With ever-increasing desperation, I contacted a company located in Atlanta who is a visa facilitator (we use a company in Washington most of the time, but India requires that people submit their application in the jurisdiction where someone lives, and they have to prove residency to that end; for Tennessee residents, Atlanta is that jurisdiction). He had frequent dealings with BLS, and he was physically at their office on a daily basis. His description was just appalling. This is a three-room office in an office park in Sandy Springs. He said that on any given day, one could walk into that office and there are stacks and stacks of unopened FedEx and UPS packages that have been sitting there for WEEKS. The place is staffed by a bunch of teenagers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing, and they don't care. His particular description: "I've seen homes on TV shows about hoarders that are vastly more organized than this place." His trips there invariably take hours (whereas with other consulates he's in and out in minutes), and he never knows when he'll get something back from them. Some days, he brings in an application and it is ready the following afternoon. Other times, he'll bring in an application and it will be 10-12 days of him asking about it every day before they finally return the passports.
When I started delving into this even more, I've discovered that my situation is neither unique nor unusual, nor is this restricted to the Atlanta office. This has apparently grown into a global problem, as BLS is now contracted to handle visa applications in the Middle East, Canada, and God knows where else. If anyone is interested in seeing a whole lot of horror stories, feel free to go here, here, here, and here. Numerous stories of people waiting MONTHS to get their passports back from these utterly incompetent fools.
So, long story short: if you're planning to go to India, whether for business or pleasure, don't. It's not worth the headache or the risk to try to get an Indian visa. If you absolutely must go to India, make sure that you can use a reputable visa facilitating service in your jurisdiction, but as noted by the fellow in Atlanta, even that is not really safe, because once these characters get your passport in their hands, there's no telling when or even if you'll ever get it back.
I have spent the last week fighting with the mind-bogglingly incompetent company to whom the Indian government outsources their visa processing, BLS International. Never in my life have I had so much difficulty in getting a visa, or indeed dealing with a particular company at all.
Here's the score: back in about 2006, the Indian government started outsourcing their visa processing. This is a departure, because the usual procedure with most countries is that one completes whatever visa paperwork is needed, then submits it to either the local consulate of that country or the embassy in Washington, and they process the visa and send you back your passport. A visa is, after all, a government document, so it rather makes sense to have government officials handling it. Well, not so in the case of India now. Instead they have hired a private company to do this. Now, when this first started, that company was Travisa, who have been in business for ages and though they've had problems here and there, they were generally efficient and handled routine matters relatively quickly. Effective July 1 of this year, though, the Indian government awarded the contract for processing visas worldwide to BLS International, an Indian company based out of Delhi. And it's an unmitigated disaster.
As usual, I called ahead to make sure that there was plenty of time to process the visa before submitting it. I was told no more than 5-7 days processing time, so off the paperwork went. For those who don't know, when one applies for a visa, in almost every circumstance, you have to send in your actual passport, along with application forms, a processing fee, and depending upon which country it is, sometimes some proof of things like yellow fever vaccination and/or a travel itinerary showing when and how you will enter and leave the country. The point, from the issuing country's perspective, is that they want to make sure that you're not going to turn up there and then later become a ward of the state, sucking up social services (crazy thought, right?). Well, such is the case with India and BLS: there is detailed paperwork, a passport-style picture, and a travel itinerary required. I always enclose a cover letter with detailed information ("Mr. Smith plans to leave the country on November 16, so I will need the passports back no later than November 13 in order to get them to him on time," etc.).
So I have a client who has been planning a five-month tour around Asia since this summer. Now, most countries around Asia require a visa for U.S. citizens, and each country has different requirements and validity periods. So, for example, if Vietnam has a visa validity period of 90 days from the date of issue, you need to make sure that you submit that application timed in such a way that the visa won't expire before planning to leave Vietnam. In total, I had to get about nine visas for these folks, timed carefully so that there would be adequate validity for each portion of the trip. To that end, I have been repeatedly FedExing out their passports to different embassies and consulates, getting them back, and then sending them out to the next embassy/consulate in line. India was the last one I had to get. So, off the paperwork went in FedEx, as normal, received by the Atlanta office of BLS International, delivered there and signed for more than two weeks ago. After a few days, I called to check on the visas, and I was told that they were processed and on their way back to me. Great! Everything will come together nicely and I'll have all of this ready to go a week or so before they leave on the 15th, as in today.
The next day, my FedEx airbill did not show processed into the system with FedEx, so I called again. Where are my passports? No one knows. For two days, they denied ever even receiving the passports in the first place, even after I showed them their own signature receiving them from FedEx. Three more days of back-and-forth trying to reach someone yielded no results. The only number that was answered is a call center whose sole purpose in life is to tell people to go look it up on the website. The website had utterly no information about the passports. I had someone "escalate" the request, and they e-mailed me back a day and a half later to say that ... the website will be updated when they have finished processing the visas. More and more urgent requests and demands back and forth got nowhere. I got in contact with several different people at the Atlanta consulate, and each of them has asked for someone at BLS to actually respond to me, which has only resulted in more e-mails telling me that the website will be updated when they have processed the visa.
By this past Friday, we had given up hope of actually getting an Indian visa, and we just wanted the passports back. So, I started demanding that they just return the passports, and to Hell with the visa. The response? The website will be updated when we have processed your visa. At least ten different e-mails later, each one explaining that I don't want the damned visa now, these people are still telling me that they'll update the website when the visa is processed.
With ever-increasing desperation, I contacted a company located in Atlanta who is a visa facilitator (we use a company in Washington most of the time, but India requires that people submit their application in the jurisdiction where someone lives, and they have to prove residency to that end; for Tennessee residents, Atlanta is that jurisdiction). He had frequent dealings with BLS, and he was physically at their office on a daily basis. His description was just appalling. This is a three-room office in an office park in Sandy Springs. He said that on any given day, one could walk into that office and there are stacks and stacks of unopened FedEx and UPS packages that have been sitting there for WEEKS. The place is staffed by a bunch of teenagers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing, and they don't care. His particular description: "I've seen homes on TV shows about hoarders that are vastly more organized than this place." His trips there invariably take hours (whereas with other consulates he's in and out in minutes), and he never knows when he'll get something back from them. Some days, he brings in an application and it is ready the following afternoon. Other times, he'll bring in an application and it will be 10-12 days of him asking about it every day before they finally return the passports.
When I started delving into this even more, I've discovered that my situation is neither unique nor unusual, nor is this restricted to the Atlanta office. This has apparently grown into a global problem, as BLS is now contracted to handle visa applications in the Middle East, Canada, and God knows where else. If anyone is interested in seeing a whole lot of horror stories, feel free to go here, here, here, and here. Numerous stories of people waiting MONTHS to get their passports back from these utterly incompetent fools.
So, long story short: if you're planning to go to India, whether for business or pleasure, don't. It's not worth the headache or the risk to try to get an Indian visa. If you absolutely must go to India, make sure that you can use a reputable visa facilitating service in your jurisdiction, but as noted by the fellow in Atlanta, even that is not really safe, because once these characters get your passport in their hands, there's no telling when or even if you'll ever get it back.
Just what I need, after all of this.
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