Tough and frustrating only because you are Lebanese!
I have a business trip to Amsterdam in May and since I have only one nationality which is “Lebanese”, I have to go through the whole visa application process. I’ve lived in Dubai for 2 years where I applied for many schengen visas from different embassies (german, Swiss, etc…) and I started having my visa extended to,I think, 1 year utmost but since I came back again to Lebanon and canceled my Dubai residence visa, the consulates in Leb disregarded my previous visas if they were issued from a different country, so that was my first shock when I came back. In JAN 2010, I had to go to Amsterdam (on a business trip) and my Lebanese friends kept telling me:
“ l safara l elmaniye a7san men l hollandiye w ahyan, rou7e addme 3endon w ba3den fike trou7e wein ma baddik w ma32oul ya3touke yeha for 3 months” so I went for it…and guess what , they gave it to me for 2 weeks only!”
Today again, I had to apply for a schengen visa since I am going to Amsterdam in May and I said to myself, let’s not play it the Lebanese way and I will apply legally at the same embassy even though I’ve heard that they are very strict and tough. After preparing a deck of documents (which took me almost 2 weeks to request), and of course after taking an appointment, I drove today all the way from Seheile to Sofil and passed through all kinds of Monday morning traffic. It was a hell of an experience!!
1- No place to park (and then the policeman came and told me: soffe honik w sakkre 3al parking la2anno ba3ed ma fata7 )
2- The security in the building checked all my papers and told me that I have to pay in L.L and that no one can exchange my dollars…so I went out to an ATM machine and withdrew L.L
3- He took my bag and phones and I went up to the 9th floor where this lady took all my papers and started asking me all kind of questions (which, honestly, made me a bit nervous) (things like: why last time you went to Amsterdam you didn’t apply from our embassy and what do you exactly have there….)
4- She noticed that one paper is missing so she asked me to bring it back, she also wanted me to pay 121,500L.L and I had 125000L.L and since she didn’t have change for 5000 L.L , she sent me back to the bank to get change for the 5000LL (and I waited 15 minutes in the queue)
5- After struggling with the documents and papers I went back to the office in sin el fil and passed through the traffic again (I reached at 11h30am) and then I sent a colleague at work to drop her the missing document: the register circular
6- In the afternoon she called me back saying that on one of the documents, the person who signed (which was my boss) is not the same person as the one of the register circular so I have to again pass by and drop her the letter signed by the eligible person!
Even writing all this now, frustrates me again as this is really unfair for a Lebanese to go through all these procedures and especially that I had many schengen visas before (from Dubai, which was so much easier to apply for). After all, we always say: proud to be Lebanese but if you really think about these frustrating things, I sometime think, what are we proud about?
Nency,
The problem with the Netherlands goes back to the assassination of a prominent right-wing sort of Anti-Arab Anti-Muslim politician (Pim Fortyun) that led to the rise of right-wing politicians and they’ve been making it hard for all arabs to go there now ..
But going to another embassy like the German is definitly not the alternative .. all Shenghen visas are similar.
As for your embassy trip,
You can park anywhere on the side of the road, just make sure to have coins for the park meter. If there are no places, go to the Church St.Nicolas parking and tell them u r going to Audi Bank. They will let u park.
Also, you can get change from Supermarket Dfouni right next to the embassy building , no need to go to the bank and wait in queue.
Finally, on ur way back to Sin el Fil, i assume you are taking the road from inside Achrafieh that gets you to the long bridge all the time to Dekwaneh.If not, lemme know and i ll show u how to go there.
Bleh are you kidding? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE PROUD OF? Dudeee.. You live in a beautiful, resilient country that is currently experiencing an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity,,
So what if you have to deal with a little inconvenience every now and again..Would you trade all that you have here for a little bit of efficiency?
All that being said..I had to go to the General Security office before a flight to Kuwait last month..I was mistaken in thinking that I could get in and out of there in time to make it to my flight..
Yesss..I left getting my exit visa until TWO HOURS before my flight..stupid stupid stupid..
Well.. I ended up missing my flight..and the experience was supppppppppppppper frustrating and inefficient, not to mention expensive..
But hell, if I have to put up with that every now and again, in exchange for everything else Lebanon is..I think its a prettttty fair exchange!
Don’t you?
She’s a dudette not a dude Danielle :-)
Try getting a student visa from France! I went so many times to the embassy I hate getting near that street now. I should write a post about it now that it’s over! (Oh and I am still in Leb :D)
Sorry! I used dude for both guys and girls..
My bad.
I stand corrected…dudettteeee. :)
what were you doing in Kuwait??
Work trip..nothing that exciting..
Oh and I wanted to be able to say that I had eaten in Kuwait. You know, since that’s like Kuwait’s national pastime… ;)
first thanks Najib for the tips but I hope i won’t have to pass by the same thing again and i hope that they will give a 1 year visa since i applied for a multiple entry :) CROSS FINGERS!
Second, Danielle, Of course it’s frustrating and demotivating when everytime you need to travel, you need to pass by a similar and unpleasant procedure. why do you think lebanese people do not travel a lot, beside the economical fact which plays a big role, it is also because its very discouraging and demotivating to go through the whole thing (not to forget that my trip is a business one which makes things even easier). Anyway, of course i am proud to be lebanese :) but honestly yesterday got on my nerves ;)
Honestly, i feel your every pain.
i have to complete a 6 month internship in Tahiti (which is a french territory) and applied for the long stay visa a month ago. The embassy told me id get my 3 month visa in like 15-20 and then id have to nenew it in Tahiti after 3 months). Ive done the exact same procedure for an internship in france last year and i got my visa the exact day before i had to travel (they love keeping you waiting on your nerves.) anyways.. last yeat i had a pretty rough experience with the french embassy for theyve sent me back and forth wanting different papers every day of the week, sometimes more tan once a day. i forgot about how badly i was treated last year and applied for my second internship now(a month ago). so the first day i go there with the papers they ask for other missing papers which i had to go bak nd forth for. i literally went back and forth to the embassy and the consulate 14 times in 13 days. and since i hate driving in lebanon i took a double cab every day to go there.. so that was over a 100 thoug just t ogo there. fine, as long as ill get my visa. so i was supposed to start my internship 2 weeks ago, but the french embassy does not give a damn about that, and when you call to ask about your visa all they say is i cant tell u, im busy, i cant tell you, call back later, wrong number and all those nonsense lies they make up just to keep you busy calling other numbers. (not to mention they told me to go to campus france nd when i went there they said i have to call to go there so i went back home nd called nd then they said y r u calling u just have to come here with no appointment nd when i went there they just said the sane bullshit all over again. i swear i hate the french embassyso much. so anyways its been a month since i applied nd i have a frkn contract to start my internship already nd its getting frustrating that i have to send out emails to my hotel(where im gonna work) every couple of days saying that i have to change my arrival dates, they probably think im playing them nd that i m not a serious person by now)
so as you know us lebanese have connections, i thought i could get things goin faster like that, but all i knew after using the help of this person was that my application folder was still not even worked on, they had it at the bottom of the application list nd they didnt even start working on the case.
that was a very smart move of them.
o nd what the hell is up with the new decision that lebanese moms dont get to pass their passport to their children? well im not married yet but im sure if i do ever get children the last thing id want to give them is the lebanese passport, but still i think that every mother should have the right to give a passport to her children. nd yes i do want another passport, id even give up the lebanese one for it, afterall, who needs one?