[noflylist]

I finally talked to one former acquiantance who was born in Pakistan, he had got a visa earlier w/o problems (he wanted to try his luck in singing in Bollywood, unfortunately did not work out), he told me he had couple of letters of invitation from Bollywood people and that may be why his Visa sailed through the system!

 dzibead, on Sep 2 2007, 05:20 AM, said:

Well, in this regard, I suppose they aren't much different from bureaucrats in a lot of govt offices (including U.S. govt) - as anyone who's ever had to deal with U.S. immigration or the Social Security Administration or the Internal Revenue Service will tell you. Ask ten people the same question and you'll get ten different answers - and possibly all ten of them will be wrong.

So right, I was given an opinion by IRS person, to my surprise later I was audited about same item and when I queried, the IRS agent responce was like "I did not tell you that" and I quoted the booklet and page number (fortunately I had noted it down) to my satisfaction!

[dude1212]

Yep, iwanttogoback nails how I see it.

noflylist - if I could get a letter of invitation, I would. There is even an Indian guy I know ('know' as in we say hi to each other whenever we see each other and occasionally chat briefly) through work who I could ask but am wary of doing this lest I cross the line in our working relationship.

Anyway, I decided to quit worrying too much about it. If I can't the visa, I'll have to get over it - there's a guy on TT who claims he went to the HCI three times and still didn't get his visa, no way I'm going three times to be told 'no'. Instead I'm planning a trip to Nepal or, more likely, Tibet. I will find out about the possibility of the visa this week.

Edited by dude1212, 03 September 2007 - 02:44 PM.

[dude1212]

Well V(isa)-Day is here.

I filled out the form, took a bunch of papers down to the HCI, waited from 7:30am till I made it into the visa hall where I was called and then told I needed to speak to someone else.

Spoke to guy in charge. He looked through my papers and started questioning me (in front of gawping onlookers pretending not to be gawping) about how often I had been to Pakistan, when the last time I went was, etc, etc. He looked at my old passport and questioned why I had a new passport when my old one had three years to run. I told him I wanted a new one before the Passport Service jacked up their prices yet again. He asked how I had got my old Indian visa. I said without any of this trouble. Then the biggie - he asked if I held Pakistani citizenship. I lied - I have the NICOP, Pakistani identity card, (which I didn't bring because I thought would go against me because they'd want a letter of invitation, so lied about not having one). Yet after taking my employer's letter he said the very words I longed to hear......'we will give you a visa....but only for three months'. Did I hear that right? Yep, a visa but only for three months. He remained a little hesitant and very reticent. I hid my joy too. Then he said but it'll take five working days. I said fine, paid my fee and have in my hand my receipt.

I have to call back on Monday to find out if I actually get the damn thing. If they check with Pakistan about my NICOP they'll find out I lied so it's my own fault if I don't get it. But have everything crossed. Here's hoping, eh?