This is Google's cache of http://theconsulsfiles.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Sep 29, 2009 19:58:14 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more

Text-only version
These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: http theconsulsfiles blogspot com 2009_09_01_archive html  
The Consuls' Files: September 2009

Where U.S. consular officers can ...

... ask questions, answer questions, question answers, express frustrations, engage in debate, disagree, and tell their favorite consular stories, uncensored and anonymous.

Sensible immigration attorneys and puzzled visa applicants, petitioners, beneficiaries, and ACS cases are warmly welcomed, as well.

Quote of the Month

“At any moment of the day or night, two thirds of the world’s people are awake, and some of them are up to no good."

- Dean Rusk

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Cronkite, the Amygdala, and Consular Work

With apologies to conoffs who can't very well get away with listening to podcasts at work, this one is worth spending time with at home. It's about trust: what prompts it and what sustains it.


The most recent, classic example, of course, is Walter Cronkite who just left us for that great blue screen in the sky. Closer to home and still alive is State's Acting IG, Harry Geisel. There are a number of recorded hearings on C-Span in which he takes part, in each of which his manner of speaking, his body language, and his "Uncle Ed, the smart one in the family but he never misses a barbecue" attitude and appearance prompt trust in his interlocutors. Compare, if you can, his manner with that of any other member of a panel on which he sits. Compare the responses to them from the other side of the table. Especially by that comparison, Harry inspires absolute confidence.

Most consular officers know they'll never make it to any podcast they didn't record themselves, and hope and pray that they'll never make it to C-Span. Still, trust is a vital part of our daily work, especially in American Citizens Services. As the expert on SciFri points out, there are two parts to trust: winning it in the first place, and then not losing it.

What, in our world, inspires it in the first place?




"Hi. Can I help you?"

This is the most effective greeting by far, whether cold at the window or when you've been fetched by an LES who is weeping with fury over the way the jerk talked to her.

It is a never-fail tension cutter and stress reliever.

It portrays you as informal, open, willing, and unaffected by his having made the LES weep with fury.

It proves instantly that you are a 'real' American. This is critical for customers whose brains freeze when they have to try to communicate with other-than-native American English speakers, or who are inclined to distrust foreigners in general. They know for sure they will be understood, and will understand what you say.

Never mind if you already know chapter and verse about the case. This opening not only shows that you have not been primed to scold them or to be defensive, or that you have a canned response to trot out; it also makes the customer start with either, "Yes" or "I hope so," the mere vocalizing of which lowers his guard and cranks the stress level down. Then he will usually go on with "I'm trying to.." or "I need to..." or "I want to..." or similar entrance which forces him to articulate what he wants materially rather than encouraging him to start with an unproductive gripe about the perceived inadequacy of the service he's gotten so far.

Once you have them talking reasonably and in an organized way, all you have to do - as Sci Fri explains so eloquently - is not blow it.

And after what your long-suffering LES had to put up with, that should be a piece of cake.

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Message in the Bottle

State 097431, hot off the presses last week, is a welcome update to the FAM, and a handy reminder of what DNA testing can and can't do, what we can and should expect it to do, and what we can't, and shouldn't. Readers who can't access State cables might have to ask their usual sources, or look for a 9 FAM update at State.Gov.

DNA testing is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. It is extremely difficult to get done without error or fraud. It is absolutely certain, in many kinds of cases. But as the cable reminds us, there cases when it isn't, so let's not - as we used to sometimes when it was the hottest, sexiest new fraud detection tool in the tool box - use it indiscriminately, or in cases (such as siblings) where it won't work well enough to matter.

Madam remembers a report of birth case from years ago in which there was an elusive American father, a foreign mother, and a child. The case dragged on for months with the purported father rarely around and the mother not especially cooperative, either. Suspecting some undefined hanky-panky, a former ACS officer had eventually sent the mother and child for DNA testing. The results came back saying - guess what - that the mother was the child's mother, and the child was the mother's child. Which left the case not far from where it had started, since it was transmission of citizenship that mattered, and the father had been out of town. The father was often out of town. And a chain officers couldn't decide what to do next, and the file lay around gathering dust and shuffling from desk to desk without resolution.

The case turned out to have a classic Asian twist: one day while the newest ACS JO was shuffling through the papers, trying to make sense of prior officers' thought processes, a totally different American man walked in with the child and a long but very solid story of an on-off relationship with the woman who ran to the Other Man, Mr. Elusive, whenever they had a fight. Unlike the Other Man, this new father was happy to provide solid proof of physical presence in the country during the time the child would have been conceived. He handled the child as if it were his, the child looked as much like him as any half-foreign child possibly could without being a clone, and the child called him by the local term for 'Daddy' without affectation. There were other pieces of documentary evidence, as well, and Daddy said he'd be happy to take a DNA test if necessary. But the CROBA was issued without the test, and with the complete certainty that it was correct.

Which might go to prove that sometimes bureaucratic foot-dragging is a good thing. Not that Madam would ever openly support such behavior.

BTW, paragraph 5 of the cable is a gem. Pure poetry. Madam strongly recommends that all consular officers pay special heed to its very specific semantics.

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Problem With Being a Consular Officer

A dear friend who is trying to divest herself of a few extra dogs wrote the following:

"Someone called and was interested in my Aussie. This is the one who barks incessantly, is very territorial, and kills cats. She said she's working on getting her life better organized, and her husband would love to have a dog that likes to ride in the car with him. (The dog does love to ride in the car and loves men). Then she said she lived in a subdivision, had a small child, one on the way, and two cats. Uh, no."

Of course, Madam replied:

"Well, that will simplify her life: the dog kills the cats, she has a miscarriage and a mental breakdown from the horror, so her husband has to commit her to a place where kids aren't allowed and motors off into the sunset with the dog grinning beside him."

The friend's response?

"Egad."

See? That's the problem with being a consular officer. Madam's answer seemed perfectly reasonable. And accurate.


Some day remind Madam to tell you her answer to her small son's request for a pocket knife.

And please, especially since it's Friday, add a note to this entry with an incident that convinced you, a consular officer, that your view of human reality has similarly shifted since your commission was signed.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Rebranding Nigeria


A news item about the Nigerian government's outrage at the portrayal of its citizens in a new sci fi flick includes the priceless deadpan observation by one of the actors (who, by the way, is Malawian), "It's a story, you know."

This dust-up reminds Madam of her own experiences with Nigerian visa applicants over the years, as well as her experiences in Nigeria itself, which were equally charming and alarming. She made friends there that she retains to this day.

No amount of rebranding will reduce the number of Nigeria-based 419 scam emails that are flying around out there even now, molesting perfectly innocent electrons. But it is useful to remember two things.

First, while there is plenty of inter-ethnic squabbling in Nigeria - as there is almost everywhere in Africa and the rest of the world - the Biafran War was not followed by a vengeful bloodbath as would have happened almost everywhere else, but by rapid reconciliation. Nigeria deserves warm and continuing kudos for this.

Second, there are many ethnic groups in Nigeria. The main four are the Igbo and Yoruba in the southwest and southeast, and the Fulani and Hausa in the north. The Nigerians behind nearly all the scams, as well as those who pester US consular officers all over the world with bundles of spurious documents and in-your-face attitudes, are overwhelmingly members of one of those four groups. The other three are generally not only well-behaved, but also well-educated, sophisticated, generous, honorable, honest, or a combination of most or all of those traits.

Okay, third. The notion that people might eat aliens - or other people - to gain the victims' powers is widely recorded in human history and today. It's not news in Nigeria, in Greece, in New York or anywhere else...although the practice has been discouraged recently, and so occurs more surreptitiously. That's why it makes a good plot item for the cinema: it's viscerally familiar.

Well, four things. The NIV refusal rate in Lagos is not 100%, nor should it be. In fact, the adjusted NIV refusal rate for 2008 was 35%: lower than in many countries with less raffish reputations. Every visa applicant deserves to be heard and considered on his or her own merits. On the other hand, Madam has without hesitation refused visas to Nigerian citizens, diplomats and embassy staff in Nigeria itself and many countries overseas (the official passport holders, she has found, can be the most fraud-prone), and hopes that other consular officers will continue to do the same, as needed, just as they would for any visa applicants.

On the sci fi film, she has no opinion but is looking forward to seeing it some day.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Condemned (A Diversion)

As we all knew by the time we reached high school, George Santayana, in 1905, wrote, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Yet a September 22, 2009, headline reads, and Madam would not joke about this, "Insurgent Success in Afghanistan is Mystifying."

Although she normally steers well clear of political issues, Madam sees this as having far more to do with history and anthropology, two subjects at which she is fairly proficient and knowledgeable, and so feels she has the right to say, not in so many words but with the same intent, "WTF?"

For several thousand years, large portions of the area now called Afghanistan have consistently proven easy to get into and extremely difficult to get out of - especially those sometimes called Pashtunstan. The Persians learned this lesson, the Greeks learned it, the Mongols learned it, the British learned it - twice - the Russians learned it and even warned the US about it, with great courtesy, care and accuracy. And now the US is learning it exactly as it has been warned it would by the Russians, by the British, by history, and by every knowledgeable writer of the last several decades:

Afghanistan, by Louis Dupree


Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of The Taliban, by Stephen Tanner


Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, by Martin Ewan


Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, by Ahmed Rashid


...etcetera, etcetera. By the way, although two of these titles were written after 9/11 and so could be accused of 20-20 hindsight, even the US military juggernaut could have been refitted and steered in more productive directions at the first sign that its current direction was not working for it. But it was not. Instead we have - enjoyed is not quite the right word - this decade's equivalent of the Five O'Clock Follies.

Madam is no fan of President Bush, but he was absolutely right to observe that it didn't make sense to fire a "$2 million missile into a $10 dollar tent to hit a camel in the butt.'' And it still doesn't. And we still do it. And we are still surprised when it doesn't work, and abysmally stupid to think that it might.


Don't worry, Jamila, you're safe.

.............................

Whew. Madam doesn't feel any better, but she does feel relieved. She thanks her readers for their patience and promises that tomorrow she will go back to her regularly scheduled consular missive.

And anyone who might wonder if Madam is best at barking when she isn't challenged to bite will be relieved to learn that she has done her best to beg, reason, argue, finagle, negotiate and sneak her way into an assignment in Afghanistan with, so far, no luck. But she hasn't quite aged out yet, so still has hope.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Say "Moo," Grandma

The US senate has passed a bill that would require all visa waiver travelers to pay a $10 fee every time they renew their registration in ESTA. This money would go toward creating a new, many-legged bureaucracy "to communicate United States entry policies and otherwise promote leisure, business, and scholarly travel."

A faithful follower of this blog asked what Madam thinks of that. This, in summary, is her response:


Madam remembers the day the MRV fee began. It was $20, and then-AS Mary Ryan and her staff had to fight like Vikings to keep their hands on some of that money to use to upgrade and improve consular systems. Now consular systems are amazing, and the MRV fee has paused only momentarily at $131 on its way to the stratosphere, and on its spread to paying for all sorts of offices and programs that have little to do with visas.

Simultaneously with the fee rising, the old Best Practices (You know, the ones that had to do with customer service) fade and into this increasingly hostile mix fall 'appointment systems' that expect all applicants to show up at the same time then duke it out for a place in line exactly as they used to do when there were no appointments, and the mandatory on-line application form that has tossed our visa applicants back into the arms of the travel agencies that consular officers spent decades weaning them away from.

Into this mix shortly will fall a 'tiered' MRV fee schedule guaranteed to confound and frustrate applicants, officers, off-site collection parties, consular cashiers and travel agencies even further still. And Madam predicts that the price will continue to rise just because it can, and because the US is too cheap to consider consular work a line item - exactly the way so many low-life US states fund their educational systems through lotteries - as long as there's money to be made, while old ladies in Paris, Moscow and Uttar Pradesh pay these usurious fees and deal with unsavory characters they would never speak to under normal circumstances, to make a trip they're getting the feeling they'd rather not have to. ("If they can afford airline tickets, they can afford the MRV fee!" "Their children are paying it, and they have money" "If they want to see their kids, they'll just have to tough it out" and other such arguments are cruel as well as irrelevant. Don't even get Madam started on these. And "Secure Borders, Open Doors?" In a pig's eye, as Grandmere would spit.)

Madam believes that communicating US entry policies is something that consulates and travel agencies worldwide already seem to do pretty well - not to mention the thousands of web sites and blogs that publicize the annoyance and outrage felt by honest travelers when they meet US entry processes at their most brutal; up close and personal. This communication is also conveyed with depressing regularity by the numerous surveys conducted all over the world that rate the United States as the world's most unfriendly country for international travelers.

This news story mentions that a similar bill passed the House last year, so it's not just smoke; it's absolutely possible. And the story concludes with, 'UTA CEO Roger Dow said the legislation would help the United States "strengthen its image in the world as visitors leave with an improved perception of our country and her people."'

Sorry, Roger. You can put lipstick on a pig and call her Fifi, but she's still a pig. Madam does not believe for a single instant that picking VWP travelers' pockets for ten measly dollars will do anything to improve any of this. Nor would picking their pockets for $100 or $1000, which is, without doubt, coming down the tracks.

The only thing that could possibly do what Roger says would be the initiation of actually user-friendly processes for visa applications, VWP travel, and immigration. Right now, visitors are greeted with the equivalent of, "Who the hell are you and what the hell do you want and why the hell should I care?" and leave to, "Here's your hat, what's your hurry?" And when might this improve, no matter how much we pick travelers' pockets for?



If Roger Dow and his merry pirates, and the honorable gentlemen and ladies of the US senate, really believe that a few travel posters might improve these arrogant, debasing, humiliating and shamelessly costly circumstances, Madam can only offer a bit of advice to the world's travelers: 'Have mercy on yourselves. Visit Tahiti.'

Monday, September 21, 2009

If You Want to Feel Slim...

...Grandmere used to say, Have fat friends.

And if you feel as if you'll never get all the nuances of consular laws, rules and regulations, that immigration is a mystery, and that you feel like a dunce when the section chief sounds like he's speaking Assyrian in response to a perfectly simple question about reciprocity...

Boost your own morale; take a few minutes to help out over at Yahoo Answers. The "Immigration" and "Embassies and Consulates" portions of the "Politics and Government" heading simply swarm with jaw-dropping questions and truly off-the-wall answers. If you think that our customers can get themselves tied up in knots face-to-face, you have a real treat in store when you see how confused they can get by internet.

Even ignoring the quarrelsome, baggage-laden, protectionist, anti-immigration, racist, ranting, snotty questions that start, "Don't you agree that...", there is plenty of honest meat there for a consular officer to gnaw on. First-tour officers will be pleasantly surprised to realize all that they do know. They might be awed by the depth of knowledge and experience of Madam's friends George, Yak Rider and Curious1USA, who have fought the good fight for a long time, mostly alone. And Madam has it on the best authority that accurate answers are often appreciated and sometimes even believed by the puzzled askers.

Help out a poor confused civilian. You'll suddenly feel a whole lot smarter.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Is It Friday?



Why is it that every American who realizes on Tuesday morning that he might be getting into trouble, doesn't call the embassy until 4:15 PM on Friday?

Why is it that family reunions can only be held in the US?

Why is it that we can sometimes barely understand our own spouses of many, many years, but a grade-school-educated, minimum-wage-earning, never-traveled-past-the-Mason-Dixon-line young woman can fall head over heels in love with an Albanian pizza delivery boy in half a day because they have perfect communication in two mutually unintelligible languages?

Why is it that in every crowded NIV waiting room on earth, the most obnoxious, ill-behaved person there is an American?

Why is it that every apparent nutcase, worldwide, use the same wrinkled, lined notebook paper, blue ink, no margins and lots and lots of red underlining to write their totally unintelligible complaints?

Why is it that every other American who comes in to renounce US citizenship expects to be able to turn in his passport immediately, then go home to the US and back to work?

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Yes, Get Up and Go There

Madam is proud to repeat and re-emphasize the eloquent observation made last week by a reader.

That officer wrote, with regards to ACS work, '...Go to the scene. Night or day, go to the scene. If at work, yes, come out from behind your bulletproof glass and go to the scene. If awakened at 2 a.m., yes, get dressed and go to the scene. The only ACS problems you can resolve on the telephone are the inconsequential ones. It's a great feeling to be the one spoken of when a crime or accident victim gets spouse, mom or dad on the phone - maybe the one you handed him/her - and says "I'm OK now, Mom, the American Consul is here with me." Go. Someone needs you. There but for the grace of God go you.'

To which Madam, an atheist, pragmatist and confirmed cynic, can only say, 'Amen, Brother.'

And Madam will only add, Go there prepared: Kleenex; cash; cell phone; I'm-the-consul-and-no-fooling business cards, suit and attitude; if it's late at night or an iffy country, a veteran driver who knows what he's about (so many embassy drivers love this sort of work). Be prepared to question, threaten, be thrown up on, hold grubby hands, and more if necessary.



One of Madam's most memorable small acts - because it was both irregular and spontaneous - as an ACS officer was helping a recent arrestee blow his nose because he couldn't stop crying and his hands were tied. Another was walking the streets with an FSN investigator for weeks until they found the one living witness who could confirm an American's death, and save his family from financial ruin. Any experienced consular officer can add a dozen such incidents to this list without even stopping to think; incidents in which going there made all the difference both for the case, and for the American stuck in it.

Go there. Even if you think you don't have to, or if you don't want to, or if you're scared. You will never be criticized for doing this, but might rightly be criticized for staying in your office and trying to solve a complex, ugly problem by telephone. You'll never be sorry that you went, and will often be very, very glad.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Date To Nowhere

Some good soul in CA once went to the trouble to produce a consular calendar *- which lies buried deep within the jumbled hundreds of CA intranet pages and with no actual consular dates on it. "Hispanic Heritage Month," "Patriot Day(?)," Mother Teresa quotes, T&A submission deadlines (as if our worthy LES staff doesn't already have these engraved on their hearts) and payday (as if we all don't), but not a peep about - oh, for example - the semi-annual country fraud update and the MRV/DV/H&L year-end status report due this month. Nothing about the upcoming MRV funding request deadline, nor a reminder to make sure that ACRS re-sets to zero at the opening of the first working day in October, nor a reminder that billions of numbers will need to be crunched or made up for the new, improved annual consular package *, due in November but will take a long time to prepare. There's not even a humble little weekly reminder to run and review the ACRS Exceptions Report and Logging Activity Report for anomalies.

It would take any employee no more than a hour per month to keep this up to date. A link to it could feature prominently on the CA home page, giving harried consular managers fair warning and reminders of deadlines to come. Instead, even the best of those sometimes lose track of what is coming due until they are embarrassed by a reprimanding email from one of many CA cubicles.


Why not help these managers achieve their own success and CA's objectives through such a simple tool that already exists? The answer is probably that it was a great idea initiated by an employee who has since moved on and no one thought to take it over. So, like a fraternity pet that belongs to everyone and so no one thinks to feed it, it languishes, mindlessly wagging its tail rather than serving its noble purpose of helping get good work done on time.

In the meantime, all of these deadlines and more are listed on the right side of this blog under "Consular Requirements That We Might Miss."

Please don't miss them.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Why Judge Judy Matters

Since you don't know who Madam is, she feels free here to admit that one of her many guilty pleasures used to be Judge Judy; emphasis on used to be. That was when Judy was sharp, fair, funny, sensible, thoughtful and compassionate. Now? Now Judy uses diagnosis bias (discussed yesterday) to make snap judgements from which she cannot subsequently be moved by any argument or evidence.

She also berates, insults and yells at both plaintiffs and defendants. She orders them not to speak when they are trying to explain. She runs over and bullies them, and uses language like, "What are you, stupid?" "Put your listening ears on!" "I know when some fool is lying to me," "Let me list for you every lie you told me,"and "I'm through with you. Goodbye."


Judge Judy's customers are not, perhaps, the smartest and most articulate citizens around. But Madam found herself regularly wanting to remind the judge that the unintelligent and inarticulate also deserve fairness and justice, even if it takes a bit of patience to assure that they get those things.

Of course, Judge Judy is only entertainment, even if pretty low entertainment, and her customers choose to accept payment in exchange for being scolded and insulted.

Consular officers, on the other hand, are highly professional, carefully selected representatives of the US government, and their customers have no choice.

So why does Judge Judy matter? To serve as a bad example. Whenever we might feel the impulse to say something cheap, disrespectful and cruel to a customer, let's remember her and bite our tongues, and take the high road.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Being Swayed

Madam has mused before about pro-forma visa refusals; refusing an applicant because he was refused before, or because he loosely fits the pattern of applicants who are usually refused. Like chicks tossed into the chipper, once tagged for the refusal machine, it is just about impossible for an applicant to get out of it.

Sometimes that's not a bad thing: Madam can't find the quote now, but vaguely remembers an old, great humanitarian saying something like, "If it weren't for assumption and prejudice, I couldn't walk across the room." This means, of course, that we use our experiences of what usually happens to tell us what is most likely to happen now. It's probably related to the phenomenon that allows two people to communicate verbally with great confidence, even though they don't have a language in common, and it is an extremely efficient and effective tool for getting safely and predictably through the day.

This past weekend Madam read a nifty little book that gave a name to the psychological phenomenon that uses these assumptions and that can sometimes prompt these visa refusals. It's called "diagnosis bias."

In that book, Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman, diagnosis bias is defined as "blindness to all evidence that contradicts our initial assessment of a person or situation." It might also be defined as, "Chopping off and disregarding all the bits of the story that don't fit a familiar pattern."

Diagnosis bias is alive and well in many different places, and it works very effectively most of the time. But we do need to be careful to not let it take over our consular decisions. One of the hardest things to do is to listen to a visa applicant's story as if we haven't heard it already today. But once in a while, if we can do that, something wonderful might happen. We might suddenly realize that the pattern doesn't matter; it has no meaning beyond that which we ourselves give it. And this visa applicant really intends to do exactly as he says he's going to do.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Real ACS Plus


Love it? Copies are FINALLY available here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Until We're Born Again ...

* Inspire
* Model Integrity
* Develop the Next Generation
* Delegate Authority - but Not Responsibility
* Communicate
* Build Great Teams
* Lead by Example
* Follow Courageously
* Learn Constantly
* Practice 360-Degree Diplomacy

Madam knows that there are a few consular managers out there who might post this list on the wall, but seem unaware that these tenets apply to them. Some are a bit careless of them. Some seem to work quite hard to purposely violate all of them.

For those who work for such managers, please don't lose track of the fact that the tenets apply to all of us equally, from the most senior managers to the newest ELO. And while it is an excellent idea to follow good examples, following bad examples is a singularly bad idea.



It can be extremely difficult to practice excellence in a careless, unrewarding or even punishing atmosphere. It can be extremely easy to fall in with the dog eaters. And Madam feels great sympathy for officers who find themselves in terrible situations where the leadership tenets are posted and ignored. But those situations don't last forever. (They only feel like that at the time.)

One of the bad things about the Service can also be a good thing: at every new assignment one can feel as if - and feel one is treated as if - we were just born in the airport, with no knowledge, no skills, and no experience. That can be no end of annoying sometimes, but that blank slate can also be a clean slate - and an enormous relief for officers who have rightly felt abused and poorly led, and need a serious change of atmosphere.

Before arriving at that post where we can start over, though, we must do our best to NOT pass bad down. We must do our best to practice the tenets anyway: among one another, with other mission sections, and especially with LES. Never mind that s**t flows downhill - dam it or dodge it or ignore it. We must follow the old Girl Scout habit of leaving a campsite cleaner than we found it, never mind who else is littering. And look forward to that next airport.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Put That Away, Please

No, Madam is not referring to the occasional disturbed Amcit who believes that his personal parts are so attractive that local ladies - or gentlemen, or children - would like to admire them in public places. She is talking about consular records.

Some otherwise well-run consular sections remain cluttered after hours with files of ongoing fraud investigations, death and custody cases, immigrant visa cases, and loose documents such as photocopies of birth certificates and Social Security cards - anything and everything lying around wherever they were used last.



As you know, Madam will be the first to say so if she believes that the FAM or the consular management handbook have wandered off base. But with this issue she stands staunchly with the most conservative of our managers.

We need to remember (at least) five things:

- There are people who pass through the consular section after hours, from the MSG to painters and plumbers. An escort can only watch so many workers. These folks might be absolutely honest, but they still have no need to know about consular cases. The temptation to learn about them should be removed.

- Even within a consular section, need-to-know rules apply. No consular employee - officer or LES - should have casual access to a file or a case that he or she is not actually working with. (CMH 642.9)

- Mischief can happen.

- If there isn't enough secure space or containers to store everything as required, it is the consular chief's responsibility to get that secure space or those containers, immediately.

- A cluttered desk is NOT a sign of genius.

In a well-run consular section, every day is lockdown day. At every close of business we must make sure that all files and sensitive documents are secured; computers are logged off; foils, passports, cash, stamps and seal are locked up. And it should be the section chief himself or herself who makes it obvious that he or she is cleaning up his own work space and locking things away properly, then performing the benign but firm final sweep of the entire section. Leading, as always, by example.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Duty Calls

A commenter asked recently, "Would you be willing to post some GOOD examples of consular content for the duty book?"

Absolutely.




The ideal consular duty pages will contain no philosophy and no quotations of laws or regulations. Each page will cover a separate topic in extremely simple, large font, outline form, with lots and lots of white space.

Every post is different, and well-written instructions will take unique local conditions into account. What works or is sufficient in one place will not suit another. What is a good idea at one post (for example, allowing the duty officer to collect information from certain NIV applicants and promising to pass it to the visa chief) would be a remarkably bad idea at another. But the basic principals are always the same:

- Keep it clear

- Keep it simple

- Use lists, ticks and bullets

- Leave lots of white space

- Leave out any extraneous information

- Repeat information as necessary so that the duty officer will not have to flip back and forth between pages

- Assume that the duty officer knows nothing about consular work and does not want to be educated about it. He simply wants to survive it.

- Limit the duty officer's consular responsibilities and authority to either giving information or collecting information and passing it to a consular officer. A duty officer should never promise a passport, a visa, or an early appointment. A duty officer must never perform a consular action such as making an arrest visit, identifying the dead, or making a death call.

Here are some suggestions for a few of the pages of a well-written duty book (Please keep in mind that these are only suggestions. Local conditions will vary wildly.):

Page One

Replacing US Passports

- Expired US Passport

---- The US citizen must apply for a replacement passport in person during regular working hours, 8:30 - 16:00 Monday through Friday.

---- The citizen must bring:

------The expired passport

------ The fee of $xx in cash, or he can pay with a Visa or MasterCard

- Lost US Passport

---- The US citizen must apply for a replacement passport in person during regular working hours, 8:30 - 16:00 Monday through Friday.

---- The citizen must bring:

------ The fee of $xx in cash, or he can pay with a Visa or MasterCard

---- The citizen will have to:

------ Fill out a separate form that explains how the loss happened

- Stolen US Passport

---- The US citizen must apply for a replacement passport in person during regular working hours, 8:30 - 16:00 Monday through Friday.

---- The citizen must bring:

------ The fee of $xx either in cash, or he can pay with a Visa or MasterCard

------ A police report of the theft, which was filed at the police station nearest where he or she is living or staying. The police report must include:

---------The exact date and time the theft occurred

--------- The circumstances of the theft

--------- A list of all items that were stolen

------ If the US citizen does not know where the nearest police station is, he or she can make the report at the station nearest the embassy. The address is 4567 Cop Road, New Hamilton District, Hereabouts

---- The citizen will have to:

------ Fill out a separate form that explains how the theft happened

Passport frequently asked questions:

"I am flying home in the morning. Can you replace my passport before the flight?"

We can't promise this. You might have to postpone your flight.

"Can't I just board the flight using my US birth certificate or driver's license?"

Local immigration and the airline require that you carry a valid US passport.

"I don't have time to file a police report for a stolen passport. What can I do instead?"

We must have a police report.

"Can't I use my expired passport?"

Local immigration and the airline will not accept an expired passport.

"If I miss my flight I will lose the ticket. This will be very expensive for me."

I'm sorry this happened to you. Please come to the passport unit when it opens and we will do our best to help you.



Page Two

First-Time US Passports

A first-time applicant must present proof of citizenship and proof of identity. Since each application is different, he should call or visit the passport unit at the embassy during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:30 - 16:00 to find out what the requirements will be in his case.

Frequently asked questions:

"Can't you tell me what I'll need to bring?"

Every application is different. Some are simple, some are complicated. You really need to talk with our experts about your particular circumstances.

"I need the passport immediately because there is a family emergency in the US."

I'm sorry, but you must speak with our passport unit directly during regular business hours.



Page Three

Non-Immigrant Visas

- How To Apply

----All visa applications are accepted by appointment only. The appointment is made by calling the appointment service at 123-456-7890 or via the service's internet site at www.appointment.com.

----We cannot accept applications or issue US visas outside of regular business hours.

----If the caller has an urgent need to travel, he should call the appointment service at 123-456-7890, explain the emergency, and ask for an expedited appointment.

----If the caller is calling on behalf of someone else, has the traveler applied for the visa yet? If not, the caller or the traveler should call the appointment service at 123-456-7890, explain the emergency, and ask for an expedited appointment.

----If the duty officer believes that the applicant should be seen as soon as possible due to his or her position or special circumstances, he should get the applicant's
------- full name
------- title
------- telephone number
------- situation
----and pass this information to the non-immigrant visa unit chief at the opening of business on the next working day.

-Visa refusals
---- We cannot discuss visa refusals outside of regular business hours.


Page Four

Immigrant Visas

We cannot accept applications, answer questions, or issue immigrant visas outside of regular business hours. The applicant/petitioner/attorney should contact the immigrant visa unit 8:30 - 1600 Monday through Friday.



Page Five

Death of a US Citizen

Ask:

Who is calling? *

- Full name

- Contact number

- What is the caller's relationship with the deceased?

Who is the citizen?

--- Full name

--- Date of birth

--- Where does the deceased usually live?

Where is the body?

When did he or she die?

How did he or she die?

Is the caller a local official (policeman, coroner, doctor)?

- If not, do local authorities know about the death?

- If the caller is not a local official but local officials know about the death, who exactly knows and what is his or her name, title and telephone number?

If the caller is not the deceased's next of kin (parent, spouse, child or sibling):

- Who are the next of kin?

- Have they been contacted?

- When?

- What is the next of kin's contact telephone number?

If the body is held at a local hospital or morgue and the next of kin are aware of the death, tell the caller that you will pass all the information to the American citizen services unit at the opening of business. Someone will call them in the morning.

If the body is not at a hospital or morgue, or the next of kin have not been contacted, tell the caller that an officer will call him or her back soon. Then call the American citizen services unit chief immediately (Susan Consul, 234-567-8901. If she is not available, call John Consul 345-678-9012) and pass all of the information you were able to obtain.

..........................................

Of course, local conditions and situations will dictate exactly how and how much after-hours help can be provided, and exactly what the format the duty pages should use. But a simple, easy-to-use, well-designed duty book will save endless wear and tear on duty officers and consular section staff, and will provide the best possible service to our customers.

* It is long-standing practice to get the caller's information first, in case the connection is lost.

Friday, September 4, 2009

A Cautionary Tale

This is a true story.

Once upon a time there was a clever, cheerful, charming and extremely competent consular officer whom we will call EC. He provided American citizen services in a large and busy consular section in Europe.

Just before Christmas one year, a pair of sweet, woebegone young Americans came to him with a sad, sad tale. They had been robbed on trains twice, had lost their passports and airline tickets, had suffered blisters, flu and dietary distress, had walked miles in the rain, and just wanted it to be over, and to - if it was possible - spend Christmas in the arms of their loving families instead of in an unheated, empty hostel eating bread and cheese. Could EC help them?

Their families sent money for replacement tickets, and EC went to work. He called and called, charmed and cajoled, pulled in every favor everyone in the country owed him, and did the impossible. He snagged the very last two airline seats to the US before Christmas for his customers.

The flight was Pan Am 103.

................................................................

There is much more to this story, but let's stop here. Tell Madam why this entry is titled as it is. And if something like this happened to you in your official consular capacity, would it affect your way of working in the future?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Speak The Language, Do We?

"There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all."

It's a lovely thought, but one can't conduct a visa interview with a vocabulary of smiles. Equally, one can't handle an Amcit's emergency with a vocabulary of EU, ASEAN, disarmament, global warming and NATO.

So why, one can't help but wonder, might a consular officer - or an ELO on the way to a consular tour - spend six, twelve or twenty-four months reading, listening to, and practicing, practicing, practicing a vocabulary so unrelated to the work they will do?

Having asked herself - and been asked by weary incoming officers - this question repeatedly through the years, Madam suspects that the answer has three parts:

First, this is the way we have always taught this language.

Second, this is the way you will be tested in this language.

Third, consular vocabulary is just ordinary conversation, so you don't need to learn that. You need to learn special diplomatic language (translation: political and, to a far lesser degree, economic). If you think you want something more, you can just look up and memorize a list of words on your own. Heads of the sections of three different languages have told Madam this.

(Fourth?)

Right. So the first few weeks' lessons of good morning, how are you, where were you born, are you married, do you have children, will suffice all those months later for interviews with accountants, archaeologists, musicians, machinists, mechanics, cattle farmers, and chicken sexers. Not to mention the sensitive and urgent on-the-fly handling of airline hijackings, automobile crashes, emergency surgery, beatings by prison guards, pet murders, taxi scams, rapes, dismemberments, child abductions and lost luggage.

A very experienced consular officer of Madam's acquaintance, after several rounds of languages at FSI over the years, finally got to the end of his patience, complaining long and loudly enough that he was allowed to move from the classroom that included a DCM and two political officers (where he had been placed due to his rank) to the classroom that included an RSO and a force protection officer. That very first day the consular officer learned the words for corpse, ambulance, overturned vehicle, moonlight, headlight, innocence and guilt, and took part in lively conversations on those subjects that fixed those words and how they could be used permanently in his mind. He was (finally) content that the language he was acquiring might be up to the tasks he would demand of it.

So why - especially in language classes whose overwhelming majority membership is non-political and non-economic officers going to non-political and non-economic jobs - do the FSI language curricula drag on eternally through purely political and economic topics and vocabularies, producing officers who are well prepared to do someone else's job?

Because that's the way it's done?

Remember Madam's horses? They would have something to say about that.

Not long ago Madam turned down an extremely flattering assignment because it would have required another year of language. She loves languages, loves FSI, but simply will not do this again. If she wants to be annoyed and frustrated to the point of desperation, there are easier ways to accomplish that. After all, she has children and dogs.

"Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.”
Dave Barry

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Close the Door,They're Coming in the Windows...



(With a nod to Ebb and Klein, 1955. Madam clearly remembers learning to whistle to its catchy, ten-note tune. To the everlasting annoyance of her parents.)

Even today, with the responsibility to report on NIV backlogs weekly, consular management's response to more demand they feel they can handle is sometimes still to slam the door, reduce intake or telephone hours, or otherwise make NIV appointments hard to get. Some have even been known to - um - understate the backlog they report (Madam knows, by the way, who you are). Others are so accustomed to a five-day or 15-day or 30-day backlog that it just stays that long whatever the season, and the phone calls and the pleas for special favors become so ordinary that they are barely heard.

There are consular sections that truly believe they can only handle X number per day. There are officers who truly believe they can only interview, say, 40 applicants per day. Multiply that by the number of officers and there you are; the prescribed daily intake, never mind demand.

It reminds Madam of private-industry employer where she worked long ago, in which the sales department would meet with the production department once a month and say, "We need 1 million widgets this month." The production department would respond, "We can make 859,000 widgets this month." Then the meeting was over and everyone went back to their offices.

This company is now out of business, a fate to which the US government is unlikely to succumb for some years yet. We are in no danger of losing our customers. But still, that doesn't mean we should treat them cavalierly just because we can. After all, we are there to accept and efficiently process their applications, not to shoo them away by whatever means possible.

There is another way, of course. It is to open the door and expand the hours and increase the appointments BEFORE a crisis approaches. It is to assure NIV officers that they can interview 100 applicants per day in a language that they don't know well and still have fun and take a lunch break - then show them that this is true. It is to cut out every extra document and every extra step that you can't be arrested for skipping, then see how fast the process can go. It is to reduce every interview to its bare bones: greeting, questions if necessary, decision, what to do next, thank you so much, next. It is to convince ourselves that no one should even approach the building unless they have an appointment for which they will be admitted immediately and will be out again within half an hour, then make that so.

Finally, it is to be humane, to the applicants and to ourselves. As the time management guru Martin Addison said, "Be ruthless with time, gracious with people." And we can be both. Countless consular officers have looked around their NIV units, assessed their unique strengths and weaknesses, and figured out how to double and triple their productivity. So can we all.

How did you, or how do you, or how might you consular managers handle more applicants than you can handle?

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

How Valid is That Validation?

A validation study is an analysis of the travel to and return from the US of individuals with US NIVs. It 'validates' consular officers' decisions to issue those visas by showing how many visa holders within a certain period of time either traveled and returned home, traveled and didn't return home, or didn't travel at all. If a very large percentage of those travelers fall into the first and third categories, it is said that the consular officers made correct decisions most of the time.

How useful are validation studies? It depends on what questions we ask of the data. And we need to word those questions quite precisely. Because validation studies, even the best of them, look only at applicants who were issued. No one knows what the applicants who were refused might have done, so at no time does any study examine the whole range of the visa applicants.

A very interesting study was done a few years ago at a high-refusal South American post, in the days before 100% interviewing was mandatory. The post always divided NIV applicants into two groups when they arrived in the section: those who had had visas before were not interviewed but were only issued; those who were new to US visas were interviewed. This study looked only at the automatic re-issuances.

Part way through the statistics-gathering portion of the study, the officers conducting it were so alarmed by the percentage of supposed 'good' travelers who had not come home (20% or thereabouts), that it stopped issuing without interview; it dumped everyone into the same pool and required interviews of all.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is wrong: The section had a vestigial idea of what its 'good' issuances were up to. It had no idea what its interviewed issuances were doing. And, of course, it had no idea what the refusals would have done, because we can't very well call them up and ask them to 'fess up and admit if they had really planned to stay in the US. So we have here a huge lack of knowledge.

What if the stay-in-the-US rate for the interviewed applicants had been 40%? That would have taught the officers something interesting, and might have deterred them from dumping the previous travelers in with them. But they didn't pursue this and did not learn.

Does this mean that validation studies are useless? Not at all. While this particular study is worth writing about because of its well-intentioned but enormous flaws, there are many done - especially more recently, now that more data is available from DHS - that are quite carefully crafted. But even the best of these usually tell us far less than we would like them to - and sometimes far less than we believe they do.

In short, it appears that we must be very careful how we word the questions we would ask of such data, and listen very carefully to the answers.