A piece of India in San Francisco

Last month I got an opportunity to visit the Indian Consulate in San Francisco.  I was accompanying my son who had to get some document apostilled (Read here more about apostil.)   It is a tall building in a not-so-posh area of San Francisco.  The Tricolour flying high on its rooftop made a pretty sight.  The only parking available to the visitors is alongside the road.  Fortunately, we found an empty slot.

We were ushered in by the security guard, took a token from a dispensing machine and waited in the customer area.  We could see a split AC on the other side of the counters, i.e., in the office area but none in the customer lounge.  That was not a problem given the normally chilly weather in San Francisco.

The lady at the counter for accepting documents was having a break.  She soon returned and and a little later our token number was called out.  The lady didn't sound too friendly and said that we needed to get a photocopy of the document to be apostilled.  My son's objection that this requirement was not listed on the Consulate's website was curtly brushed aside.  His enquiry whether the photocopy could be done in the office on payment of charges met with a vigorous no.  We were told that there was a shop nearby and given general directions.  It seems that this confusion was a routine one and later we discovered a notice in the customer lounge stating the requirement of photocopies.

It was close to the closing time (the window opens only from 9 am to 12 noon.)  I accompanied my son as he nearly ran to the Office Supply shop down and across the road.  Some other harassed looking visitors, some of whom we had seen in the consulate earlier, were also there hurriedly making photocopies on self-service machines.  My son made copies and we ran back to the consulate where we were asked to get a fresh token.  We were able to deposit the documents in time and moved to the payment window.

The payment window was manned by a very courteous woman.  A notice was prominently displayed saying that Cash / Debit & Credit Cards / Personal cheques were NOT allowed and that all payments had to be made only through a Bankers' Cheques.  She first pointed out that the Bankers' Cheque (more about it later) was for two USD more than what was required.  The prospect of having to get it cancelled and another BC issued made us very uncomfortable, but the lady said that if it was okay with us the extra $2 could go to Indian Community Welfare Fund.  We readily agreed with a sigh of relief.

While the requirement of having an apostilled document countersigned by the consulate itself is superfluous as pointed out in my earlier post for which a link appears in the first para, there are a few questions as follows:

1. Why are debit and credit cards not accepted?
2. In a country where even a barber who doesn't know you is willing to accept a personal cheque, why is the consulate averse to doing so?  Their insistence on a Bankers' Cheque for petty amounts is a harassment to customers who are forced to visit their Bank.
3. Why does the consulate want a photocopy of the document for its records?  They can very well scan the original and store the digital copy or ask the customer to upload scanned image  online.
4. If they must have a photocopy why can't they do it on their office machine and add the charges to the fee payable?

The questions point towards towards import of bureaucratic practices from India even though these do not fit into the milieu abroad.  The consulate needs to look into these practices.

LKO to SFO: US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi

My wife and I travel to USA each year for spending some time with our grandsons.  Though Lucknow boasts of an international terminal, the only international flights available are those to destinations in the Middle East.  We often wondered why did they not offer flights onwards from there to other destinations, but could not find an answer.  In the absence of such connecting onward booking, the only option for us was to travel from Delhi.  Airlines operating between Lucknow and Delhi do not allow any extra baggage allowance to passengers connecting to or from international sectors.  In view of this and also double the normal baggage allowance for USA bound passengers, we used to travel to Delhi by train.  This often meant a prefix interval of 24 hours from the time we left home at Lucknow to the time we boarded the international flight at New Delhi.  The travel time from New Delhi to San Francisco being 24 hours, this train travel doubled the total travel time.

So we were very happy when we learnt that Jet Airways was likely to start bookings for the sector LKO-SFO.  Finally, when my son made the booking, we discovered that the itinerary was a collaboration between three airlines.  For our outward journey from Lucknow, the first flight from Lucknow to Abu Dhabi was operated by Jet.  The next flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, 16 hours of flight time, was an Etihad airways flight. The third airline is Air Berlin on the return leg which doesn't trace back the outward journey.  But the most unusual thing was US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi.  Pre-clearance simply means completing US immigration and customs check at Abu Dhabi itself.  And this means that you exit on arrival in USA as if you had traveled domestically!  Though, as we discovered, this has one disadvantage too: you have to pay for the luggage cart!  Regular international travelers get the cart free.  Another side effect is that the admission date stamped on your passport is the date in Abu Dhabi at the time of clearance.  Thus though I actually entered the USA on 11th June 2016, the date stamped on my passport is 10th June 2016!

It seems that all US bound passengers at Abu Dhabi board their flight through gate no. 59.  It also seems that this gate opens only after boarding for an US bound flight is announced.  Passengers have to wait in the waiting areas of the adjoining gates.

The way to pre-clearance facility is through a door across the corridor from gate number 59.  You descend a flight of stairs into the pre-clearance area and then ascend a flight of stairs to get back to gate number 58 adjoining 59.  The whole process starts 3 hours before departure.   About an hour before this starting time we were asked to vacate the seating area at gate number 58 so that the area could be sanitized: sanitized as in security and not in hygiene.  Upon inquiry we were told to return to that place after an hour.  The customs clearance form was also provided.

At the appointed time the queue started forming in the corridor which had been blocked near gate 59.  Passengers were directed towards the pre-clearance area.  The boarding pass and the passport were checked by the airlines staff.  Then there was a thorough security check.  After the check we went for the proper immigration process.  It was exactly as done in USA on arrival.  Usual questions were asked and biometric impressions were taken.  The only difference was that a picture of all our checked-in bags appeared on a computer screen in the immigration officer's cabin.  I may add that the luggage had been accepted at Lucknow under through check-in and we were NOT required to take possession of the luggage at Abu Dhabi for custom clearance.

After the immigration formalities were over, we exited and went one flight of stairs up to gate number 58.  At around the time of boarding all economy class passengers were requested to move to the waiting area of gate number 60 and wait for the boarding call.  The boarding was in the usual zone-wise manner.