Oru Cup Coffee

Recently, I had applied for Indian Visa for my daughter at BLS Visa Center in San Francisco. BLS was the service provider contracted by Indian Consulate in San Francisco. After the application, I got a mail that visa was approved and I could collect it. I had to travel out of the country on a trip and when I got back I went to BLS to pick up my daughter's passport. Things like this are never simple I guess. Here is a story of how Indian consulate has botched up the visa processing for people when they decided to change the service providers.

The door had this sign at the BLS office in San Francisco. It said that they are no longer the service provider and we need to apply through new service provider. And the new service provider starts on May 21st 2014.

 

No mention of who the new service provider is. I wish I had gotten a mail and I would've saved this trip. And I was not alone. There were few other people that came by the door and were shocked to see this sign. So, I went to BLS website and again it gave some information on new service provider and no information on what to do.

I went to the Indian Consulate website. Indian Consulate Office, please make your website mobile friendly. At the consulate site, there was some useful information that the service has been changed to Cox & Kings Global Services on Bush St. I picked the address and got a taxi to Bush st. I also found their phone number and called them. I was put on hold until I reached Bush st and I disconnected. I saw people lining out of Cox office doors and the line stretching down the block. As all Indians would predictably do, I joined the line. After a while, the people in the line started sharing their stories and hoped that they would get their passports today. People had come from San Ramon, Half Moon bay and Tracy. One of the Cox representative walks out and says that their computers are offline and they cannot do much. But they can collect applications and provide written receipt. When I asked about collecting passports, she pulled all the people that had come to collect passport and wanted to have a separate discussion. At that time, I did not feel any good about this at all. The story was getting only worse.

She told us that our documents are not with Cox and Kings (CK). It is still with BLS and BLS is refusing to give it to them. She said that CK are helpless and are waiting for BLS to give back the documents (aka Passport). Also, CK was ready to sue BLS if they do not provide documents soon. Now, the last thing we wanted to hear was a fight brewing between BLS and CK. And most important of all, they have my daughter's passport that I needed back. We asked to talk to the manager of the place. BTW, all this is happening on the curbside of Bush st. 

Now, the manager comes out and he apologizes for this mess. He did seem genuine, but he repeated the same story. He could not guarantee when we will get our passports, but wanted to check back in 3 to 4 days. When asked about talking to the consulate, he mentioned that they do not have any such facility to talk to the Consular offices. It did not make any sense at all. 

There were other people that had paid for express processing because they are going to India this weekend, but do not have their passports. They were amazed at the inefficiencies and the callous attitude of the service providers and inept handling of the transition by Indian Consulate. 

Here is the video of a woman explaining her situation to Cox & Kings Manager.

All this was embarrassing and I hope Indian Consulate will find a solution to all those people who are caught between two service providers.