Unforgettable experiance with Inditan Consulate - Toronto

Typical R.K.Laxman's cartoon!

 

No I was not used to of this kind of services from Government Office -

Recently* I submitted my application for Police Clearance Certificate using VFS office in Toronto. If you have lived long enough (more than 6 months is enough to say enough) in countries like Canada, you are not really accustomed to wait for more than a week or two to get things done in any Government Offices or at least without any confirmation/status updates of your request or any rude behavior. And I did not even dare to think about under-the-table deals that are so prevalent in our country. I may be exaggerating with numbers here, but let me share my experience with Canadian Government-office to begin with this post (a.k.a * Service Ontario). This way few people may be able to relate the pain, frustration which is complementary with the service our offices offer to citizens.

What!! you don't want me to beg at the counter after submitting all the documents, fees for my genuine work done

 1) It took me 5 minutes to renew license plate for my car. Basically you have an option to do it at kiosk so that way people don't have to go anywhere and those machines are in every shopping malls, so even if you do visit those offices the wait time may change from 5 minutes to 15 minutes maximum based on how many peoples are ahead of you. So basically I think those are the ones who don't know how to use those machines. Well I was one of them to begin with.

2) Canadian Passport application - not more than 5 minutes and you get passport within a week mailed to your address. This is first hand stories from few friends of mine who recently acquired Canadian Citizenship.

3) Applying Social Insurance Number - Think of this same as your PAN card in India. Again I went to Service Ontario on busy Saturday. It was a time when a politician from India was in the news for corruption in Commonwealth Games that took place in 2010-2011. The only reason to mention this is because the person at the counter who was another Indian (or may be Pakistani) having conversation with about how our people has no ethics and sense of responsibility towards society. Yes, and in the meantime he gave me SSN number in 30 min including the wait time since it was busy day. The actual card came later in the post within a week time. But I got my number immediately so I can do all the legalities without the actual card.

4) Applying for Health Card - Again i was out of the office within 15 minutes and health card arrived hand in two weeks time.

5) Not just Canada - Last year I applied for visitor visa for Australia to visit my sister and her family. They accepted my application and stamped my passport with valid Visa in just two weeks time. Unfortunately I never made it there! may be next time down under.

Exception !

 I admit that the my experience with CanadaPost is very much similar to Indian Post office, but I rarely go to post office. And they normally don't ignore people waiting in line up like our post office treats us.

Welcome to Indian way of doing business

Once you get used to with the friendly government offices imagine what you expect (or don't expect) when you apply to our own Indian office. Especially passport related, OCI, Visa or PCC (in my case) because that's the only connection you ever have with Indian government while living outside India. And they make sure that you never forget how it always used to be and will ever be while dealing with them. I have got my own realization recently.

                            I applied for Police Clearance Certificate and its been little over 4 weeks time now and there is no sign of change in my application status. The status remained same as it was on day one. After repeated attempts to call the Consulate Office, I managed to get in to talk to real person. After my miserable attempt to throw upon urgency that without my passport all my travel plans are in limbo, the lady keep saying its minimum 4 to 6 weeks with no valid reasoning behind it. Needless to say it was a rude tone. The VFS office told me that it takes maximum 4 weeks but now I have two different answers. I wonder if this office ever heard of Service Level Agreements (SLA). They have no statistics on the website as why there is so much processing time for reasonably simple work. Just last month a colleague of mine got the PCC in two weeks.

                    I lived only two places all over my life in Mumbai (and without ever having any contact with police for wrong reasons!) and these two places are hardly ~10-12 kilometres away from each other.  So few question arises and they will never be answered

• Is it so hard for Central Government to have the defined process for PCC.  Do they do follow-ups with Indian police departments for delayed certificates.?
• Is there anyone responsible to handle grievances.
• The staff at Indian offices - Will they ever be trained to talk politely to others on phone?  
• Why Indian Consulate need original passport for PCC, seems to me that they changed this rule very recently as I read on some of the forums and that without any valid explanation.
• It may soon be my time to find those answers if  my status does not change for another week. I am not expecting any answers nor expecting any change in my status of application.

 To all those who have similar experience - i can only have sympathy for you. At least living in democracy i am able to share this openly. So as every Indian citizen does I will do the same ..just wait and do nothing until some magic happens...

* Service Ontario - When mentioned above Canadian offices, firstly it's called Service Ontario may be that name changes when you go other provinces but essentially they do everything for you. There are no different departments or windows inside. You go to any counter and they will provide all the offered services.


*Recently - After reading this blog you might want to judge the meaning of this word in Indian context