What magic did Yunus Abbey use to get the UK visa?
Jun 06, 2003
SIR— It was amazing to read Yunus Abbey’s letter in The New Vision of May 5 when he said that he managed to get his mother-in-law a UK visa in three hours
SIR— It was amazing to read Yunus Abbey’s letter in The New Vision of May 5 when he said that he managed to get his mother-in-law a UK visa in three hours!
I would like to ask Mr Abbey to tell us the magic he used to convince the entry clearance officer he mentioned to issue him with a visa in just five minutes interview. Going to the British High Commission and the American Embassy to apply for a visa is one of the most terrifying ordeals one can go through. They will always be pessimistic of your intentions of going to their countries.
The first ordeal is that you have to queue for over 12 hours just to get the chance to get through the metal barriers and hand in your papers. The queue starts from 8pm in the evening till morning when they open and take a handful of applications. You may queue for two weeks and never get the chance to see the entry clearing officer. When you get any chance of an interview, you have to wait for a horrible grilling from the clearing officers as if you are applying to go to heaven. They will ask all sorts of questions some which are just far away related to the visa application. And having spent a whole sleepless night
in the queue, tired and sick,
you are very unlikely to give meticulous answers and this may be used to deny you a visa. Besides the ordeal, there is no guarantee that you will get a visa and you will never know what result to expect even if they decide to keep your
passport and tell you to return later, however prepared you would be.
Hussein Kiingi
Jinja
I would like to ask Mr Abbey to tell us the magic he used to convince the entry clearance officer he mentioned to issue him with a visa in just five minutes interview. Going to the British High Commission and the American Embassy to apply for a visa is one of the most terrifying ordeals one can go through. They will always be pessimistic of your intentions of going to their countries.
The first ordeal is that you have to queue for over 12 hours just to get the chance to get through the metal barriers and hand in your papers. The queue starts from 8pm in the evening till morning when they open and take a handful of applications. You may queue for two weeks and never get the chance to see the entry clearing officer. When you get any chance of an interview, you have to wait for a horrible grilling from the clearing officers as if you are applying to go to heaven. They will ask all sorts of questions some which are just far away related to the visa application. And having spent a whole sleepless night
in the queue, tired and sick,
you are very unlikely to give meticulous answers and this may be used to deny you a visa. Besides the ordeal, there is no guarantee that you will get a visa and you will never know what result to expect even if they decide to keep your
passport and tell you to return later, however prepared you would be.
Hussein Kiingi
Jinja