365 Bloor Street East, 7th Floor,
Toronto, On M4W 3L4
Date: September 16, 2011
Dear Sir,
Please consider this letter as a complaint and at the same time suggestions for your services that are being provided at the Brampton site.
I was very disappointed to receive such unprofessional service from your workers and expected a much higher level of service from the Indian Consulate in Brampton, which is supposed to be there for the convenience in an area densely populated with Indo-Canadians. I accompanied two elderly recently, who did not speak English, or computer savvy, who needed visas to attend a funeral in India.
It was 9 am on Thursday, September 1, 2011, when we entered a packed and chaotic office. We had to stand until it was our turn to speak to the front desk. As there were no forms or written instructions around the facility I approached the lady on duty to ask for forms to apply for a visa. The frustrated lady advised me to go home and fill out the form online and bring the printout back. She was not even willing to listen to the fact that I was helping out two seniors. I had no choice but to go home, print out the forms and return to the office that same day, as there was no option to submit the application online.
We went back to the office and had to join the line again. It was over an hour’s wait to meet an official. I found the woman to be condescending and she curtly said, “Madam, the form is incorrect. You would have to refill it and bring it back.” I tried to explain my urgency and the fact that I had taken time off from work to assist my relatives, but she cut me off and said everybody comes here with urgency.
The mistake which was circled on the form by the officials Nidhi and Sushil, was that I had chosen “to meet family and relatives” from the drop-down list provided as a reason for the visit to India, instead of “tourism” and it was considered incorrect. Firstly, why was this option incorrect? Moreover, a 90-year-old senior with Alzheimer’s disease was not going to India for tourism. These two seniors who have countless health complications first requested me to help them out, then visited your office a few times which had no available chairs to sit in the waiting room, no water tank for them to wet their throats when cough troubles them, no one to talk politely, were they punished for their age, or for being computer illiterate, or Indian citizens?
We were finally able to get an emergency visa for my relatives after many moments of humiliation. We were not the only persons at the office who were abused and inconvenienced by your unprofessional staff. Many others were also forced to visit numerous times because they, too, had problems with your computerized system. First of all, if the idea was to implement computerized application, then why there is no computer in the facility, because not everyone is computer literate nor does everyone own a computer. I have not seen one Canadian office which does not have actual printed forms onsite. Now that your organization has decided to go one step ahead with technology, therefore everyone who needs services would have to seek favours from their relatives of acquaintances to get visas?
This incident has not only embarrassed me as a person by also as an Indo-Canadian. Our efforts in India are to eliminate corruption and influence rolling administration in India, and then we are we letting a new branch of such system flourish in Canada? Also, there were non-Indians in the office receiving the same bad treatment, which would have left them with a first impression of India.
I think your team needs to be retrained on the proper protocols for dealing with visitors to your Consulate.
- Please install the necessary computer equipment in the office so persons can get their forms right there rather than having to leave and print out the forms elsewhere, because not everyone has access to a computer
- Provide printed forms at the office
- Provide expert assistance to those who are computer illiterate
- Train your staff to be courteous and helpful to those, namely the elderly, who may have difficulty understanding how to fill out the forms
- Be sympathetic to people’s personal situation and reasons for wanting to visit India. Some may be grief stricken as they are returning for a funeral and do not need the added stress of dealing with a complicated visa application process.
- Seek help of some translators to post instructions around the facility in South Asian languages especially for seniors so that they do not have to depend on others to get services.
Kindly send out a secret group of visitors to observe the way Brampton office is being operated to have a feel of a real Indian office experience here in Canada. This experience left me with a thought to salute my elders who lived and dealt with such administration in India.
Expecting a swift and positive solution to this vexing problem,
Yours Truly,
Loveen Kaur Gill
loveengill@gmail.com
(Note: Copy sent to: Indian Press, Canadian Press, Citizenship and Immigration Canada)
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To read more from this blog please visit www.sonchirri.com