Guilty EVEN when proven innocent!!

The other day, I had to make my annual pilgrimage to get my visa sorted. I find that a simple 20 min task to get both immigration and visa sorted spans over 2 days and is bl**dy painful.

Simple changes could really make things SO efficient:

• Have one window do both the tasks- so what if they are 2 different departments?!
• Get people to book appointments so they can do other things and don’t spend hours sitting there
• Provide desks for those who want to work on the move so the productivity element can carry on
• Why have someone stand there to hand out tickets? If they are checking the documents anyway, maybe they can figure a quicker way of processing them too?
• Why not let someone be efficient by giving them a ticket while they go get a postal order- saves them time and has people out quicker- win-win!
• Why not accept credit cards and not make people waste money on getting a postal order?
• Allow the visa and registration to last longer than a year
• Make the long-term visa quicker to get so people don’t have to do this annually
• Make it possible to renew online
• Treat people with respect- if they are in the immigration office, they are either working, married to someone who is working or studying here and therefore, in all instances, they are bringing money into the economy!
• Maybe have a separate process for the different stamps or priority queues or something
• And why oh why close the office of the second step so much earlier than the first step- it means, people have to return the next day and therefore, need 2 days away for this bureaucratic sh!te!!

Worst thing is the way the people treat you in there- even if you have all the paperwork, you have everything done right, you are treated with disrespect and piece of sh!t- it’s as if you are guilty despite having been proven innocent and it’s as if you are worse than scum.

Basically, it’s a horrible experience and one I truly dislike, especially since it could be so quick, so efficient, so pleasant for all involved. Is this what I pay my taxes plus the f*cking expensive registration fees for?! I mean, I paid a HUGE amount for a green card, and then I have to pay for registration and finally for a visa- POINTLESS!!!! Do it in one go and charge me an extra 50- the saved time is well worth it or rather, don’t charge SO much every single time.