通過(guò)我父母的簽證所感：
1，—————
背景：
我博士畢業(yè)，已經(jīng)OPT在作博士后，邀請(qǐng)爸媽參加畢業(yè)典禮。獨(dú)生子，2000來(lái)美，回國(guó)
兩次。爸媽分別被拒3次，兩次，分別是2003，2005（媽單獨(dú)簽），2007年四月9日。
過(guò)了一個(gè)月再簽，5月7號(hào)星期一簽過(guò)了。

特殊點(diǎn)(highlight?)：
4月9號(hào)沒(méi)簽過(guò)后，想趕著再簽一次，給使館發(fā)傳真，說(shuō)父母年歲大了，并且要趕著來(lái)參
加畢業(yè)典禮，希望再簽?zāi)軌蚣s早一點(diǎn)。使館傳真到美國(guó)回復(fù)說(shuō)不是人命關(guān)天就不給特別
辦理。
4月13號(hào)開(kāi)始和議員聯(lián)系，后來(lái)4月23號(hào)拿到了支持信。他們也傳真給使館了。使館還給議員辦公室回信了。議員辦公室又給我來(lái)信把使館的回復(fù)告訴我（可惜這封信沒(méi)有來(lái)得及給我爸
媽帶去，不過(guò)還好他們簽過(guò)了）。我爸媽說(shuō)給簽證官看了議員的信。
4月17號(hào)網(wǎng)上和北京使館簽證官網(wǎng)聊，質(zhì)疑他們的簽證程序，覺(jué)得有這個(gè)溝通管道還是進(jìn)步多了。
5月7號(hào)，在黑人女簽證官那里通過(guò)，仔細(xì)看了我的申訴信，議員支持信等等。
目前，已經(jīng)起草了一封要求他們改進(jìn)父母簽證過(guò)程的信，準(zhǔn)備在這里咨詢意見(jiàn)后發(fā)給使館以及議員。

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2，

一些詳細(xì)過(guò)程：
給本州的兩個(gè)senator和附近的一個(gè)congresswoman (實(shí)驗(yàn)室美國(guó)同學(xué)說(shuō)此人比較熱心且liberal,而且house rep. 管轄的人少,所有可能有希望會(huì)幫忙)發(fā)了電子郵件,看會(huì)不會(huì)回.
回家后給老爸老媽旅館打電話,說(shuō)前兩天傳真了兩次他們應(yīng)該收到了,不過(guò)目前還沒(méi)有北京大使館的消息,那邊等得急躁得很,說(shuō)到底能不能提前,不能他們就先回去了,于是安慰他們說(shuō)再打電話問(wèn)問(wèn).
買卡給簽證預(yù)約處打電話,開(kāi)始是說(shuō)中文的,又告訴我這種情況只能夠傳真去appeal or request an emergency appointment. 說(shuō)如果他們看了同意了就可以提前預(yù)約時(shí)間,如果不同意就不會(huì)有任何回復(fù).我問(wèn)有沒(méi)有其他方式聯(lián)系他們,來(lái)確定他們收到了看了傳真.他說(shuō)沒(méi)有.我說(shuō)這不是太不透明了么,怎么complain,他說(shuō)就只有傳真給這個(gè)號(hào)碼.這個(gè)不是自己監(jiān)督自己的模式么? 我有些郁悶,就問(wèn)他是中國(guó)人美國(guó)人,說(shuō)是中國(guó)人,我想他也的確沒(méi)有辦法,就謝謝再見(jiàn)了.
過(guò)了一會(huì),想會(huì)不會(huì)說(shuō)英文的知道的多一些,就又打電話,結(jié)果都聯(lián)上了,說(shuō)排在第一位,突然說(shuō)人走了,請(qǐng)下次再打(估計(jì)方便去了?),作罷.
查使館網(wǎng)頁(yè),contact us, 給BeijingWebmaster@state.gov 發(fā)email, complain
lacking of communication and transparency. 雖然也知道發(fā)這個(gè)email估計(jì)不是地方,可是他們也的確沒(méi)有提供一個(gè)可以溝通的方式.
一段時(shí)間以前(不記得多久了),當(dāng)時(shí)剛開(kāi)始要購(gòu)買電話卡預(yù)約,我也complain過(guò)說(shuō)網(wǎng)上寫(xiě)的不清楚,國(guó)內(nèi)用什么電話,國(guó)外用什么電話,區(qū)號(hào)什么的很不intuitive. 當(dāng)時(shí)也沒(méi)有回我的信. 后來(lái)不知道什么時(shí)候,再看就清楚了很多.也許是許多人都complain了,或者他們自己有所改變.
好的制度都是慢慢摸索摩擦出來(lái)的,總有利益沖突.
我后來(lái)也回國(guó)了一次,沒(méi)有見(jiàn)記我仇:).其實(shí),就算不讓我出來(lái)也沒(méi)有什么,君子天行健.何況現(xiàn)在也有博士學(xué)位了.只是老爸老媽還是覺(jué)得能夠辦了綠卡再考慮回國(guó)比較好.
當(dāng)然這次complain的東西, 也是不太可能在短期內(nèi)可以改變的. 不過(guò)作了自己也覺(jué)得盡力了.當(dāng)然信里我還是注意一些語(yǔ)氣的,不希望有反效果. 末尾只是說(shuō),作為世界上號(hào)稱最大的民主國(guó)家,這樣的黑箱操作似乎不符合美國(guó)的形象.
發(fā)了信后,又接著打電話,因?yàn)榘謰屨f(shuō)使館他們下午就不上班了. 這回接通一個(gè)說(shuō)英文的女的,不過(guò)聽(tīng)口音好像還是中國(guó)人(大概這樣辛苦的接線員工作都是聘中國(guó)人吧),又說(shuō)了一邊,得到的也是類似答復(fù). 不過(guò),重要的一點(diǎn)是她宣稱使館會(huì)在一個(gè)禮拜之內(nèi)答復(fù),不管要求提前簽證時(shí)間能不能得到批準(zhǔn). 這個(gè)和剛才說(shuō)中文的男士的答復(fù)不一樣,他是說(shuō)如果不批準(zhǔn)就沒(méi)有任何回復(fù). 另外,我說(shuō)我在國(guó)外,他們回傳真到國(guó)外嗎,還是email.她說(shuō)如果我給的聯(lián)系方式里由國(guó)內(nèi)的,可能會(huì)用國(guó)內(nèi)的. 我雖然讓老爸老媽配了手機(jī),還專門辦了漫游(外地來(lái)北京),可是還是希望他們能夠聯(lián)系我,比較兩老年紀(jì)太大,手機(jī)使用也不熟. 希望能夠在下周得到回復(fù),否則讓老人一直在北京住旅館他們也難受,電話里向我抱怨好多次了.
anyway,老婆說(shuō)可能得要去拜拜佛什么的,我想我就寫(xiě)點(diǎn)我們的經(jīng)歷,希望有點(diǎn)用,也算積
累RP求祝福的一種吧.

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3，爸媽簽證過(guò)程：

約的是5月7日早上7點(diǎn)半，被分到黑人女簽證官那里。一組7人，包括我爸媽，最后過(guò)了三個(gè)，就是說(shuō)除我爸媽外過(guò)了一個(gè)，據(jù)了4個(gè)。有一個(gè)老先生比我爸年齡還大（我爸69），沒(méi)過(guò)。一對(duì)湖北夫婦，去過(guò)4次，最近連據(jù)兩次。這一組簽證官看的比較仔細(xì)，所以簽的慢，其他簽證官可能已經(jīng)簽完3組了。
一開(kāi)始她也不怎么看材料，我媽趕緊從文件夾里遞上我的申訴信，議員的信，材料清單（上次簽什么都沒(méi)看），而且他們說(shuō)跟別人學(xué)的是倒著遞進(jìn)去方便簽證官看。問(wèn)了很多問(wèn)題，包括我的情況，還有問(wèn)兒子以后怎么發(fā)展，我媽說(shuō)我會(huì)根據(jù)情況來(lái)定。好像比較喜歡看我媽他們老年人跳舞的照片。我媽還指給她看她過(guò)60歲生日時(shí)候很多親戚的照片。
最后有驚無(wú)險(xiǎn)，還是通過(guò)了。

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4，

計(jì)劃：覺(jué)得爸媽簽證太辛苦了，不確定性因素也太多，想著能夠改變一下制度，大致先寫(xiě)了一些建議準(zhǔn)備提給大使館以及議員（覺(jué)得美國(guó)的制度還是可以逐漸完善的，有相對(duì)及時(shí)的
反饋，國(guó)內(nèi)要是也這樣就好了），大家有其他建議的請(qǐng)?zhí)�，完了再�?qǐng)人proofread一下。

The purpose of this letter is to suggest change of the current visa interview procedure for elderly parents visiting their sons/daughter.
First I would like to list the reasons that why the changes are necessary:

1.    Current visa application procedure is not efficient for both the applicants and the visa officers. The applicants spend a lot time and money to prepare their materials and come to the embassy, but very often their applications get rejected in a few minutes. The visa officers also have to check a lot of materials provided by the applicants and try to make sure everything is correct, the responsibility to prevent any illegal immigrants gives them a lot of pressure.
2.    Current visa application procedure is not fair.
a)    The law places the burden of proof on the applicant. Some elderly person are not good at xpressing their ideas clearly and directly, or sometimes their dialect is hard to understand, in these cases the visa officers can not get the information they wanted in a few minutes and this might have some negative influences to the application.
b)    There are no clear criteria for how to demonstrate the strong tie to their home country. Sometimes the visa officers may decide the case by just examining the DS-156 and DS-157 forms, and they do not even check other，documents the applicants prepared (since there is no burden to read the proof); other times we were told the visa officers couldn’t make decisions just based on the documents, they need to talk to the applicants and the applicants are expected to answer questions clearly and directly (unfair for  some people, see the above paragraph). Many people got confused and got
an impression that whether they can get the visa or not is just pure luck and depends on what mood the visa officer is in. Also, they felt the procedure is not transparent and one purpose of the rejection might be to collect more visa application fee. Second I would like to suggest some changes:

1.    The Department of State can apply some penalty to those who break their promise, i.e., some monetary fee if the parents stay longer than specified in DS-156, or some penalty to their sponsor. Usually the parents do not want to cause any trouble to their son/daughter so this should be very effective. This way, it also saves the visa officers time to carefully examine all the materials, and reduce their working pressures.
2.    Depending on the law system of the applicants’ home country, the Department of Sate can also seek collaboration with the local government,no only to verify the materials the applicants provided, also to make sure the applicant will return to the home country. In fact the China government has its own database to verify all the information the applicant provides and has been strict to the lawbreakers.
At last, I would suggest a statistics be conducted to verify what is the percentage that the parents visiting their children would not return to
their home country on time, and adjust the visa application procedure based on that statistics.

來(lái)源：未名空間（www.mitbbs.cn）