Jim, my colleague at a US Embassy in Central America, was the toughest consular officer when it came to granting visas to local citizens. Their pleas to visit relatives or to study in an American college, he told the other officers, were spurious: all these “brown people” really wanted was to get into the US and stay there to make money.
Jim enjoyed his reputation as a difficult officer to get by, and he reveled in rejecting the majority of the applicants he interviewed. Over coffee he would recount how he had uncovered their scams and saved our country from intruders. Once, he told me of the local surgeon who had fed him an unconvincing story of wanting to travel to the US to learn a new surgical procedure. What he really wanted, Jim said, was to earn an American surgeon’s large salary. He had denied the man a visa.
Jim enjoyed his reputation as a difficult officer to get by, and he reveled in rejecting the majority of the applicants he interviewed. Over coffee he would recount how he had uncovered their scams and saved our country from intruders. Once, he told me of the local surgeon who had fed him an unconvincing story of wanting to travel to the US to learn a new surgical procedure. What he really wanted, Jim said, was to earn an American surgeon’s large salary. He had denied the man a visa.
One night the next week Jim’s three year old son developed a respiratory problem. By morning he was in a critical state. The nurse practitioner at the embassy’s medical center began calling local doctors, who suggested that the child be taken to a nearby teaching hospital, where a surgeon had treated similar cases. Desperate, Jim and his wife rushed their son to the hospital. The specialist was the young surgeon Jim had denied a visa the previous week. The hurried surgery was a success, and Jim was able to take his son home after a few days.
A week after the surgery, Jim reversed his decision to deny the surgeon a visa.
He also stopped narrating his endless bitter stories of scams uncovered, which was a great personal relief to me.
A week after the surgery, Jim reversed his decision to deny the surgeon a visa.
He also stopped narrating his endless bitter stories of scams uncovered, which was a great personal relief to me.
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