NEWS AND VIEWS: Saga of a visa experience in Kyiv (07/05/98)

NEWS AND VIEWS: Saga of a visa experience in Kyiv

by Mary L. Walkiewicz

I would like Ukrainian Americans to know about the recent experience my cousin had in trying to obtain a visa from the American Embassy in Kyiv. First of all, my cousin, Oleh, traveled 10 hours from Lviv to Kyiv in order to be interviewed at the American Embassy. Oleh arrived at the Embassy on a Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. and found approximately 80 people already in line. At 11 a.m. he reached the Embassy gate where a guard asked him if he had any food. Of course, he had his lunch in a sack and was told to leave it anywhere outside the gates. Needless to say, his lunch was not there when he returned.

When he was able to enter the Embassy territory, he was searched and asked to open up his briefcase. There they removed his electric razor and shaving cream. He was then allowed to go to the building, where the visa department is housed. There he waited with others for the interview. He paid the required $45 - but those applicants who had not thought to exchange their hryvni for dollars in advance (and no such instruction was provided) had to leave the Embassy to exchange them outside. His thoughts were, "would the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington make Americans exchange their dollars for hryvni?"

Oleh thinks he was interviewed by a young Ukrainian American man. He stood in front of a big glass window with a little hole for passing his application. His interview consisted of five questions:

Q: Where and why do you want to go?

A: I'd like to visit my cousin. A year and a half ago, she visited here in Lviv and now she has invited me to visit in the U.S.A.

Q: Is your cousin married?

A: Yes, and she has a son and daughter.

Q: Are you married; and, if yes, why doesn't your wife go with you?

A: Yes, I'm married and I have a daughter. My wife can't go with me because she is working as a chief accountant in a private firm and she is very busy. I am invited because I have holidays from the university during the summer.

Q: Where do you work?

A: At the Polytechnical Institute of Lviv. [He presented a document that states he is under contract until the year 2000. Oleh has a Ph.D. in computer engineering and is a professor.]

Q: Who will pay for your trip and your stay in the U.S.?

A: My cousin will help me pay for these expenses.

The man noted something on his application and told Oleh to wait 30 minutes. A woman returned who spoke poor Russian and called him to another window. She told him that he was denied a visa. She said, "Your cousin only left Ukraine one and a half years ago. That is a very little period of time that has passed to visit her." Oleh objected, stating that I hadn't left Ukraine, and that I was born in the U.S. This information is clearly stated in my invitation letter to Oleh. The woman was surprised, but restated that he had been refused. She told him that he could write a special application to the consul, pay another $45 and in a week he would receive a reply. No more words were spoken, and no further explanation was given for their decision.

Others waiting in line told Oleh that they were going to say in their interviews that they were directors of private companies and have enough money to visit the U.S. and to spend it there. But Oleh didn't want to lie and feels that the old ways of the Soviet Union are still alive, even at the American Embassy! My question is: What does it take to get a visa?

I read the interview that your publication conducted with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine after his return. I read about the percentage of people who are granted visas and the types of people the Embassy staff were trying to prevent from obtaining a visa. I did not think for one moment that Oleh would be turned down.