The Visa as a Ticket to a Better Life
Filed under people, personal stories
One of the unlikely places to hear about the dreams and aspirations of random strangers is at the US embassy. There’s this lounge where you wait for the visa interview. On one side of the room is a line of booths where the consuls are. The consuls decide whether you can enter the United States. People try to look their best and arm themselves with the best English they have.
When your number is called, you go to a window, and then the consul grills you on the purpose of your visit, how long you would be staying there, when are you coming back. They also ask you details about your family, your properties, your finances, even your plans for the future.
Because the place is packed, and because sometimes the consuls probe that deep, visa applicants give details of their plans 40 years into the future. One woman the other day said she would manage a restaurant when she gets there, and hopes that that would be her financial investment. Another woman, who I understand is a social studies teacher, said she will share her knowledge when about different cultures, and said some things that an ambassador or a Miss Universe contestant would say.
You’ll know if someone’s application is about to be denied because voices rise a decibel higher and the interview takes longer than usual. You’ll know for sure when you see them wear this forlorn look on their faces when they exit the room. I think the woman who plans to manage a restaurant was about to cry. She was stomping her heels on her way out.
Honestly, I am not comfortable hearing the dreams and aspirations and state of finances of strangers. Dreams, to me, are sacred. I don’t want a stranger hearing my dreams either. And finances and properties are confidential. I block out the conversations I hear whenever I am at the embassy but sometimes the voices are just too loud.
My colleague and I finished at around noon even though we were already in line before 8 a.m., and that’s considering that the embassy opens before the crack of business day five times a week. It’s sad how many of us want to leave this country. I have nothing against America; I think it’s a beautiful place. It just makes me sad that the yearning for a better life pushes people to beg foreigners, and even sell their dreams so they could have material comfort.
I thought of the same thing when I went out for a movie last weekend with a high school friend who was in Cebu for a visit. My friend took up nursing, like more than half of my batchmates. She is now a registered nurse, thanks to her sweat and her extended family’s savings. We were catching up when I asked her if she was happy doing what she is doing, if she thought she would be in it for the long haul. She couldn’t answer.
In my young mind seven years ago, she was to become an eloquent lawyer. I couldn’t imagine her wiping a foreigner’s ass, not then, not now. I know it’s a noble job, but I know she could be doing something else, something she is more inclined in.
If we ask the thousands of nursing graduates if that is really want they want to do, I wonder what their answers would be.
Comments
yeah, it’s a sad reality..
why were you there tho?
i applied for a business visa.
nice.. sama mo kame! =P no, i didn’t get the script. =( i took one look at the site and ran away ^^ it looked too technical to me.. =P care to help?
kung kasya ka sa suitcase ko eh, bakit hindi?
i’ll look it up for you.
@jacq
check this:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex11/noright.htm
let me know if you don’t know where to put it in your blog.
From my born-American perspective, I gotta wonder whether it’s really worth the hassle… It’s not like there are loads of good jobs around here anymore either. The rare person here who ever had anything to call a dream generally gives up on it in their late teens. There’s a reason Despair Inc. (www.despair.com) is popular.
(A no-right-click script? You can disable those in Firefox Java settings, and everything you can do with a right click can be done some other way the script can’t block anyway…)
that’s what i learned when i visited your country. i realized that life there is not in any way easier. i think it’s harder there, even. the work environment is more harsh, and people are not as nice.
on the script: that’s what i thought. i was even thinking of adding a disable-select-text script, but i realized i have this feedflare “e-mail this” link at the bottom of my posts, so that defeats the purpose of the script. i might remove the script. i’m thinking about it.
yeah i know… the harsh realities happening in our country. most nursing grads i know have dreams far from being a nurse but financial considerations have pushed them to do it… only to realize after all the trouble they went through, getting a nursing job as well nowadays isn’t that easy. sad ‘no to give up your dream for something you think might give you a better life? in the end, a lot of sacrifices were made to probably ease the financial burdens yet in other aspects of your life, di ka rin naman masaya
yeah. i heard the US, Canada, and Europe are limiting their slots for nurses because of the visa retrogression. Middle East and Australia na lang daw hope nila. many of my batchmates who are RNs already still have no jobs.
@7thstranger: Those realities aren’t just in one country, I think they’re everywhere. In a way, there’s probably no way around it–who would clean bathrooms or haul trash as a dream job? But it’s still sad, yeah. For some people, that’s the best they can get.
Hospitals are constantly complaining in the news that there’s not enough nurses to fill their open jobs, but they won’t try to sponsor more visas, and the public here has some stupid idea that “foreigners are trying to take my job.”. Also won’t raise nurses pay to even half what the rich doctors make, but even now hospital costs here are already more for an hour than most people make in a month.
A US citizen RN can find work easy, but the job’s hard, the hours are long, and the pay is relatively low.
(BTW if there’s any restricting scripts active on this page, I can’t find them… I have them disabled by default, but couldn’t find anything in the source either. In any case, the page source gets sent to everybody who visits as a locally saved temp file, so if somebody wants to copy something there’s nothing to prevent it.)
really? people here say nurses are paid well there. why are you running out of nurses there?
re script: i added it on the main page only. another file controls this page. i’ve removed it, though.
RN pay is relatively low? In San Francisco, a nurse was earning $400,000 a year, that’s the highest paid employee for that year. the entry level nursing job is $42/hr + overtime (1.5 x hourly rates). There’s a shortage of nurses because (just my opinion):
1. noone wants to be a nurse, tough hours
2. there aren’t enough schools encouraging the profession
3. the US school system can’t produce nurses, engineers, and other professionals… yes, public school system sucks and a lot of kids drop out, especially the low income families.
It’s tough being a nurse, they make you work overtime because there’s a shortage. And they burn out people in the process, so nurses leave the practice. The shortage continues. It’s a bad cycle.
But i do agree, the US is so scared after 9/11 that they wouldn’t give more visas. This is the reason why the tech industry is also suffering. The US can’t produce enough engineers and that’s why they import a lot of people from countries like India. Problem is, limited number of visas. The US has a lot of bull**** but everyone’s gotta deal with it.
Teka, why don’t people apply to other countries like Canada, Italy, etc. The US is in a recession and things are quite bad right now. Unlike Canada, US healthcare sucks.
@issai
maybe you are talking from a filipino perspective. maybe that amount is relatively low for americans. they have different spending habits. i did notice that what was a lot for me wasn’t enough for many of them. also, i think they are importing labor from india to save on costs, not necessarily because they don’t have enough IT professionals. i work in the IT industry, and i know there is a long queue of those wanting to get in where i work.
i work as a software engineer in the bay area (aka silicon valley) and the industry lacks IT professionals. but then again, limited visas, so it’s relatively hard to get in. yes they do outsource to india to save money. but they also want more talent within the US. i’ve worked with a lot of people from india, russia, and china, they’re one of the smartest people i met and lucky enough to get visas.
and for nurses, no, $42 is huge. I earn lower than that as an engineer, and nurses are considered middle to upper class. i think it’s the culture here in the US that it’s like a consumer’s market. and if you don’t have money, it’s hard to function. i guess that’s one reason why pinoys think that they don’t have enough. i’m actually one of them, even after a raise, i just see my expenses blow up like crazy. it’s not all fun and games when you’re an adult.
oh are you currently in the US too? just wondering. i haven’t seen a lot of pinoys working in the IT industry here. or maybe they’re all in google and i just don’t see them.
@issai
oh. i see you’re in a more progressive state. that’s probably why there is more talent demand than the supply.
you are right. it’s a consumer country. maybe that’s why money is never enough. but those who did not grow up there or haven’t stayed there for long are contented with the modest salaries they get. they haven’t adapted the american consumer behavior yet. it happens over time. i actually find it amusing whenever i hear my american colleagues complain that they don’t have enough money, because i know it is harder to get by here. i guess it is because life is much simpler here.
to answer your question, no, i just got back in the philippines. i didn’t work in the US. i was only there for business meetings at our corporate headquarters in kentucky.