I never needed a travel visa until this microworld tour. Now I need them to get into China, India and Vietnam. I learned that instead of having to go each country's consulate there are service companies that take you passport then walk through the process for you. At a few hundred dollars for the expedited service I need, it's not cheap; but it is worth it.
Still the sidebars are interesting.
China and Vietnam take only a day here in the US. But India requires six days. The other two countries have one-page forms. India has two and needs to know my father's name and birthplace.
Up in Toronto, Rick only needs one day to clear India as well as the others. What gives? My friend Gibu Thomas, who has been helping me better understand India for this trip may have the answer. He is an Indian citizen, holding a US green card who has been here for years. Whenever he tries to travel, the US government makes the process impossible. When he graduated Stanford several years ago, he could not go to Europe with his American friends because our immigration folk made it impossible.
So, Gibu speculates, "maybe it's comeuppance."
But the India anomaly is really small potatoes compared with the odd coincidence I've had with China. My visa service let's me track progress via their website, sort of like FedEx. My visa was approved for China last Thursday.
On Friday, I started getting all sorts of spam email from inside China. It was very targeted, offering me deals on hotels, tours and a pass into a couple of tech conferences going on while I was in the country.
I can think of no explanation other than someone in the consulate is selling or sharing names and data. Of course, it's probably entirely legal and my data has probably done nothing more than move from one Chinese government office to the next.
I'm glad the US IRS doesn't work that way, but on the other hand, I'm not certain that it doesn't.
