Many years ago I lived in a large South American city in a large South American country (I am being vague on purpose). I had a girlfriend there who I kept together with when I left the country. The next Christmas, I decided that rathet than fly down there, she should come upo to the US (I was in the UK at the time). She had a respectable job, blah blah blah.

BTW most illegals in the US dont bother to even try to get visas. Personally, I don't mind if someone who comes to the US to study works for a year or two. Our schools are expensive and they generally dont grab actuar
y and managerial employment.
To make a long story short, she was not only refused a visa, but made to feel particularly sh*tty by the agent involved. I tried to intervene from the UK, but could get no one on the phone (the consular officials only took calls one hour a day). I decided to go to SA via the US in order to sort this out for the future.

Once agin, without getting into specifics, I contacted a friend of mine who is/was an aide to someone high-ranking on the Senate Foreign relations committee. He was pissed at what happened and promised me that a fiance visa would be rushed through State and she woulf have it within three weeks. Too late, but she'd have it for the next trip. While down there I decided to visit the consulate, where I was treated by crap by everyone from the security guard, to the marines to the people inside. I was handed a copy of regulation 212B (I believe) which basically stated that any consular official could deny anyone a visa for any reason they wanted and there was no appeal unless new evidence was presented. As this girl had presented them with every manageable document, and that was not good enough, I asked what else they could want.

I was then basically told that the main reason why they wouldn't grant the visa was because she was too young and would probably stay in the US. I explained that this was not the case. The official then, believe it or not GAVE ME THE FINGER!!

I immediately told her to go to hell and stormed over to the main consulate building to talk with the Consul. He agreed to meet with me, however on second thought sent his secretary down to tell me that' "although he was willing to speak with youand intervene on your behalf, however he has just spoken to the woman who you insulted (the go to hell remark)and therefore will not help you.

A month later when the fiance visa came through, they sat on it for several months and refused to issue it even though the order came from State. By that time, we were no longer together.

At the end of the day, I can say just this. The Senator involved and his aides were very pissed at this. Two years later the consul general in question was up to become an ambassador to another Latin American country. The Senate did not confirm him by several votes, and he was subsequently demoted to a lower position in the same country. His career was basically ended, the Senator did not like being snubbed, and State did not like headaches like this.

The reason I write this is to demonstrate how small many of these people are, and even in the case where you go through channels and elected officials, things still do not go as they should.

Another time I was in a US consulate in Europe and overheard, "*******, they use Green passports, we always deny Green passports the first time, theyre usually from Muslim countries."