My tryst with the French Visa and more!

Last May, I visited Paris and had a wonderful holiday. A sojourn I thoroughly enjoyed, once I landed there. But till then....

It all began from the time I decided to make the trip and the tickets were booked. This was going to be my first trip abroad and I really didn't want to take any chances. My brother took care of the stay and tickets, so all I had to do was get my visa and board the flight. As easy as it sounds it was no less than a nightmare!

I was traveling alone from India and I was to meet my brother in Paris, spend a week and get back. The first debate at home was whether to apply to the French visa or take a German one as the French one is considered to be a hassle filled one. I decided to go with the French as I was flying Turkish airways and was going no place close to Germany. More than that I didn't want to lie, what with all the stories I'd read and heard about international travel. All I thought was how hard was it going to be. I just need a visa for a week and I have my return tickets. I was so wrong and you'll know why!

Then I think I'll take professional help so I don't have to worry about documents and there is no way anything can go wrong. So I go to Thomas Cook and lo behold, I am informed there are no visa appointments for any single day before my date of travel and this being three weeks prior to my travel date. That's when I started to panic. I so desperately wanted to make this trip and hence determined to do anything. I am suggested by the "professionals" to pay them some extra money so they will try and get me an appointment on a convenient date. But nothing is guaranteed. I just ditch the whole plan and go back home. The next day I try to get an appointment myself and I get one, well within the dates I wanted. What a sigh of relief that was!

Now since I was doing it on my own , I started putting all documents in place. I had asked Thomas Cook about this and they had mentioned that apart from all the docs mentioned on the website, I'll need to carry a letter from my husband which would state that he permits me to go to Paris! Both Roshin (my husband) and me thought that was crazy and that we don't live in some backward country that denies women their basic rights! So anyway, I got all the other documents in place but I have to mention this. My passport had our address in Mangalore because that's where I got it. We had just moved to Hyderabad and I was to carry Roshin's financial documents for the previous six months. The address on the earlier months' docs were of Bangalore and that of the last two months of Hyderabad. All in all, everything was in place.

My appointment is in Mumbai so I go there and the procedure is to submit the docs the day before and have the interview the next day. I go on the scheduled day to submit my documents and the guy at the counter checks everything and confirms I am travelling alone. And guess what he says! Since I'm married and traveling alone, I should have carried the letter of permission from my husband and that too on a Rs.20 stamp paper!! He then says, otherwise everything is fine. I totally go berserk and just gape at him! How in the world can I get that in time as my appointment is at 11 am the next day and even if Roshin couriers it across I won't get it in time. I even think of forging his signature and stuff but again I stick to being true and decide to take the chance as this doc is not mentioned on the visa site.

So I go for the interview the next day, full of apprehensions. It is my turn and I must say I never met a more hostile man! So it starts off okay , I tell him I am going on a holiday for a week and this is my first trip abroad. He then asks me why is it I'm travelling alone for which I say that this was not a really planned vacation and my husband was not in a position to make this trip due to his work commitments. He then asks me the same question THRICE, pressing whether my husband really didn't object to my travel!! Holy! I tell him the same thing asking him if he wants to talk to my husband or if he should send a mail to him and also tell him I'll be meeting my brother who will be coming from the United States and we will be staying together. Now it so happened that my brother had booked an apartment and not a hotel room. I had the lease agreement bearing my name too as proof. I guess that made him even more suspicious and he started inquiring as to why was I staying in an apartment and not a hotel. I explain it is for financial reasons. He is not convinced and then he says my docs are not very clear because they have addresses of three cities, Mangalore, Bangalore and Hyderabad. I explain why it is so but he is still not happy! And guess what his next demand is...

He wants to see my brother's visa confirming that he is coming to Paris too! It is 12 pm in India, my brother who lived in LA must have been fast asleep since it was 12 am for him. I explain this and tell the guy that I don't know if I can reach him and how difficult it is to fulfill his wish! So pat came the reply, " better hope that your brother is awake and at home, so he can fax his visa copy to the shop that's next to this office. You collect it from there and bring it to me." That was the first time I felt like punching his face! But I have no choice and I have to do everything quick because the office is open only till 5 and they have an hour's lunch break. So if I don't get the document in time, I was sure he would reject my visa. I rush out to the shop with the fax machine and he says it is not working :( I call my brother, first time no one picks, second time, no one picks. Then when I am just about to think of an a alternative, my brother calls the booth. I pick up as I am standing next to the phone and the booth guy yells at me asking me to cut the call as he doesn't allow calls to be received!! I finally manage to tell my bro I'll call him and then explain the situation to him. He has no access to a fax machine so he says he can take a picture of his visa and email it to me of which I can take a print out. I ask him to do that. And then I'm told there is no cybercafe in the vicinity. I have to take a cab and go about 3 kms to find a cafe where I get the mail and take the print out. It is 1 pm now and lunch time at the visa office! I have never felt so desperate, anxious and furious, all at one time!

I go back, wait till 3pm when the jerk decides to call me back. I show him the print out and looks like he is convinced. He asks me to pose for the picture, takes the picture looks at it and then my passport and asks if I am the same girl!! Imagine what I must have felt. The picture in my passport was taken when I was in 10th grade or something, obviously I look different!! And how do I convince him I am the same girl! I don't know what came over him, he finally stamped my passport. Whew!! What a day!! I was exhilarated and exhausted after all that. So treated myself to chat and ice cream :)

I think, now nothing can go wrong. I can legally enter France and no one can stop me. But...on the day of my flight. I go to emigration and this guy at the counter takes my passport and ticket, checks everything and is about to stamp it when a higher official passes by and stops him! It was as dramatic as a Bollywood movie, now that I think! This higher official asks me if I am traveling alone and confirms I'm married!! I think, oh no not again!! Same question, why am I traveling alone??!!! Same explanation, not convinced, I'm taken into a room for interrogation. All the movies I watched and read about terrorists comes haunting back to me. The look on each officer was telling me they think I'm some kind of threat and mean harm to the world. The guy in the room asks me again the same thing, I tell the same thing. Then he asks if I am from Tamilnadu and speak Tamil. I deny, he is not convinced. Asks me my name, where I am from, what have I studied, why am I going to Paris, why am I travelling Turkish and not Luftansa (?!) and reconfirms I can't speak Tamil or understand Tamil (?!) I am sitting on tenterhooks and after 10 minutes he asks me to go, just like that. It felt like someone gave back my life to me :)

I was then finally on the flight and the next thing I know, in Paris :D!!