Saturday, January 13, 2007

This was my bad experience with Indian as well as Dutch goverment terable procedures for Visa processing related Birth Certificate legalization.

JAN-2006:
I am a Indian, I was working in good MNC in Bangalore, A fresh new year start of 2006 i have got mail form one dutch company, stating "your cv has been shortlisted, We like to conduct interview". With in 2 weeks all my 3 rounds of online video confrence interview as well as one simple assignment test completed. And technicially/luckly I was selected. Wow I was so Happy that time, there are few resons to make me so happy about it. 1) This is my first out side india (Specialy from South India) travel. 2) Foreign job is dream of many experienced IT people, As a entry level developer I got good chance.

Company applied long term workpermit visa for me, its called MVV, Workpermit Processing time By Duth officials took 2 weeks. After two weeks, they approved it. So now i need to get MVV sticker(visa) in my pasport from Netherlands Embasy located in Mumbai. End of Same week i recived mail from Embasy from Mumbai, stating "We recived WorkPermit approve, so please schedule an appoinment and get collect your entry permit visa." There is a small note in end of the page "1) Up on arival of Netherlands we might need your Legalized Birth Certificate/Marriage certificate"

I am unmarried so no need to worry about marriage certificate. Also it looks like optional, so I ignored both Birth certificate as well as Marriage Certificate, and fixed an appoinment with embasy to collect my entry permit visa. I informed it to my feature company, also we aggred joining date is Feb 3nd week. At least 1 month advance notice i need to give to my current company so I sent resignation letter.

I went to Emabasy office in Mumbai,(its arround 900 Km from Bangalore) Submited my pasport, that time they strictly said you must need your legalized Birth Certificate before entring in Netherlands, we give entry permit visa for you now, But before arival of Netherlands you must have legalized Birth certificate.

Now my fate starts playing. I have two mager issues in front of me in my Birth Certificate.

1) I don't have Bith certificate, my birth not at all registred,( Oho my god realy i have born ) . In 1980's these kind of registration not at all required in India and my inocent parants not aware about its need.

2) As a second step, Suppose i got it, after that It need to be Legalized.

At this point first i need to get my birth certificate. I don't have any idea about Indian goverment officials and their procedure for Birth Certificate. My father was know few detail about this process of getting Birth Certificate.

Procedure is like this First step,(1) I have to apply in my home town Municipal office stating "I need my Birth Certificate" (2) As a expected reply from municipal office they reject it, since Birth not registred. (3) In thired step I have to file a petition in Court , stating "I am Born in So and so place, " with attachment of Birth proff. (4) Court sent an letter to municipal person, do you have any objection to register his Birth at now. (5) Municipal person need to reply like "No Objection if court order it" (6) Now for further court procedure I need to give adverticement in news paper, stating "Public having any objection in registartion of my birth please report in court with in so and so date" After 2 weeks of this adverticement court look at this petition, was there no objection and verify my Bith proff attachments. and Send order to municipal to register my Birth. (7) After court order i have to show this order to municipal office and get collect my Birth Certificate.

Imm Sounds great steps. How long it will take... Oho god, first time i was felt like i am job less.

This is just 50% only. After got my birth certifictae I need to Legalize that. I was enquired in Embasy as well other people,
Procedure for legalization is like this. (1) Birth Certificate Should not be older than 6 months. (2) It need to be attested by state borad(Chennai), (3) Followed by central MEA(I guess, Ministry of External Appearience) attestration required. (4) After this i need to submit it in Embasy located in Mumbai. Embasy register it and give legalized copy by next day.

Immm nice, Chennai is in South end of India. Delhi is in North India. (its arround 1400 KM ) In Indian train it took 3-4 days to reach delhi. Mumbai is in Mid West of India(its arround 900 KM) it took 1.5 to 2 days to teach by train.

Now to get one birth certificate i am going travel my big entire Nation entire India :( .
I was thinking about Indian Software industry, Even though we are developing Software for all kind of domain and all over world, None of indian goverment public realted processing like this not computerized, Still handled by un professional terable people.

Now let us see how it was practically completed and what happen at the end!!

To get my Birth certificated as i stated above its 7 steps. First i need to apply in municipal office. In municipal office they not even ready to accept application, they simply saying they are busy. But in front of me, he is chating about movies and bla bla, Whats over there... I am surprised, Imm after some time i realized, imm my Nation is growing, i need to consider about one indian groth now :( ouside municipal office i cautch one broker for this and paied 100Rs, and asked him to submit application, he approched officer now in his way. Wow now they are free, they accepeted it with in few mins. Imm again one 100Rs penalty to give reply document. Saying "can't give Bitrh certificate due to its not registred and so and so..". I passed 1'st step of my first set of procedure. Now already Feb second week end.
Luckly companay agread to post pond my joining date March last week.

Now second step I need to file case in court, with birth my proff. Imm its again another Indian office, here problem was bit diffrent, judge not comming at proper time, She was comming arround 11 am , and leaving arround 4pm, in betwin 2 hours was lunch time. Wow greate working hour. Mean while there is a tons of cases is pending. This simple BC related petition treated as very low periority. Now no one knows when they took it for analyze. Even though this BC procedure is very stanadred/normal and common case, they like to analyze and arguve on it. I saw there are many people applied and waiting same like me. They said it took minimum arround 3 months to complete all court procedure. I surpriced like, what 3 months??? am i going to born again???

Immm now already i had experience with municipal goverment official. I like to apply growing Indian concept here. But its imposible in higher judge level, if i attempet i may end in different. But in low level it seems possible, now another official with good bugs, he corrected(imm its realy opposite) my petition number, like its applied long before, Imm seems working. Next day they took my case to analysed it. First part 3 steps over now. As next step judge need to issue an leter to municipal officer, stating "do u have any objection on register it" But insted of doing it on same day, they simply post ponded it to 1 week with our resoans. (oho my god) No other way simply i have to wait in home for 1 week(Can't even able to sleep).

After one week, pettion again for analyze, after that Judge ordered to send an letter to municipal office (like "Do you have any objection to register his birth now") . Now clerk (one who send official letters) was busy. And he said like he need to type few pages in type writer for that he need typist. they dont have any template like machanism. He was not even ready to do it in with in next few days, But he was not realy busy. imm now i need to think another 2 growing people. After 2 penality they send letter to municipal office in same day :). Now municipal office need to reply,

Wow at the end of complting first part 7 steps it was already Aprial first week. It includes 2 week news paper advertisement. and another two time postpond by court. Also I was in big amount of penaltys. Finaly i recived my Birth Certificate in my Mother Toung, (Even though officialy there is a option to issue it in english, they not ready to give it in english, since they dont know english, here i can't do any other thing )

Now i need to Legalize it and also find a solution for Birth certificate language. Here after only all my romming indian starts. Mean while again i asked my compny postpond my joining date. Again luckly they understood my situation and aggred maximum last week of Aprial.

Imm Now i was in Secretariat office of my state. There one schoking news waiting for me, that is to get attestation from state board, BC need to go one round of verfication via postal mail trough district collector , municipal office and finaly again to state borad. Goverment postal mail for 1 post hardly took 1 week. For this process it need 4 time post+ busy indian goverment officers time, no one knows how many days they took to open it , read and reply. And still i was with in my state, but legalization process need many more procedures,

Imm now partialy I losed confident. But insted of job less/searching i might work on the same. Ok i tried it again using some more bugs, and i did the post man role betwin goverment officials from state capital (Chennai) , My district capital and my home town . (Legaly offical leter do not hand over to other people, but they did it for bugs.) Finaly i got attestation from state board with in 2 weeks. (50% time i saved due to i did post man role over there).
After attestation, due to language is local, i need to translate it. As per Indian rules for language translation, Notry public( Experience Layers holding special permit) translate and issue english version of it. Its bit simple i complated it with in day.
Its already Aprial 3rd week(I was thinking why saturday and sunday is holiday, if its not their i might get process fast).

If i travel to Delhi its not possible to make it fast. So i desided to do it via brokers in Delhi. So i sent it via DHL postal. It worked well, I recived central board attestated certificate with in 3 days.Finaly I have left 2 days in my planed joining date, till my mind not ready for travel, ticket need to be booked, purchace and other planings are left, Also i need to get complete last step of legalization from Mumbai.

Now i was not ready to accept any delay. So again i travled to Mumbai via flight. to get complete last step of legalization.

Now fate started playing via Dutch Goverment officials called Embasy, One who handled my application, she was not ready to accept application, reason is my Original Birth certificate is in Local language. I said thats why i got it translated from Notry Public, She simply replying who is that Notry Public. I shocked who come an embassy not aware about Indian document translation process, Specialy india is the one having arround 18 regional and official languages. I am 100% losed my confident that time, and started arguving with embasy, finaly she aggred to send it to embasy person located in my state(They may know my local languge), if they said what ever content translated by Notry Public is correct, then she(mumbai embasy) issue legalized copy. It may take 1 week time.

Oho god second time i was running over my joining date luckly company didn't highred any other person for that position. But now its 1 week delay. Finaly embasy issued legalized copy. 1 day before boked ticked(With huge bugs) to Netherlands., and reached safley,

Now Almost i pased arround 1 year in Netherlands, but still any one in anyware, fuking stupits didn't asked my Birth certificate. All my woryies, huge money and 3+ month time just gone with bad experience.


As start point of this problem might be my Innocent parants. But Why not this process simplified by indian goverment, there are lots of cases like this exist. Why they need too much attestation?, Why not dutch officials accepet Notry public translation?, why do they give too much presser on optional document, that too no one require in my case.