# Ankara embassy nightmare



## ugur (Aug 14, 2008)

I was recently at the US embassy in Ankara Turkey with my husband and we had a really horrible experience there. I am trying to find a way to make a formal complaint about how we were treated by the US consular who 'interviewed' my husband for a US non-immigrant visa. i want to also complain about the lack of public information on the embassy's website and at the embassy itself. i can not find a list of rules or how to contact a manager or anything like that. i'm not even sure if consulars have managers.

I am an American by birth who is living with and married to a Turkish born citizen. we reside in Turkey, but want to visit my family in America. does anyone know how to make complaints? i have been searching the internet with no results. 

also is there a good site i could visit for non-immigrant visa advise?
thanks

Ugur


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I suppose the Ambassador is the "manager" of the consulate. But you might try checking the US State Dept. website. All the US Embassies and Consulates report to the US State. Dept.

I just checked the Ankara Embassy website and it seems pretty standard issue. A few years ago they standardized the website presentations and other than the local differences, most US Embassy and Consulate websites are pretty much similar. There are lots of links to the USCIS and State Department sites, which I admit take a bit of wading through to get to the information you want.

As for non-immigrant advice, you can ask your questions here. We have enough folks who have entered the US on both immigrant and non-immigrant visas that perhaps someone will have some ideas for you.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

ugur said:


> I was recently at the US embassy in Ankara Turkey with my husband and we had a really horrible experience there. I am trying to find a way to make a formal complaint about how we were treated by the US consular who 'interviewed' my husband for a US non-immigrant visa. i want to also complain about the lack of public information on the embassy's website and at the embassy itself. i can not find a list of rules or how to contact a manager or anything like that. i'm not even sure if consulars have managers.
> 
> I am an American by birth who is living with and married to a Turkish born citizen. we reside in Turkey, but want to visit my family in America. does anyone know how to make complaints? i have been searching the internet with no results.
> 
> ...



Hi Ugur,

I'm afraid the lack of accountability is endemic in America as a whole, more pronounced in government services, and possibly one of the worst when it comes to immigration. There is, indeed, nowhere to complain on any of the websites. 

Unfortunately, while Americans remain more afraid of their government than their government is of them, this is unlikely to change. Beyond Bev's suggestions, I'd try your political representatives at the place where you were last resident in the US. Most senators even have a special team to deal with visa and immigration issues who are kept very busy -- and sometimes they can manage a little.

If you want non-immigrant visa advice, you can ask here. I'm guessing you applied for a B2 visa for your spouse so you could visit relatives in the US but it was denied? If so, let us know the letters/numbers written on the rejection letter and a brief description of what happened and we'll see if we can come up with any ideas for a way forward..


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## Tiffani (Dec 4, 2007)

I'm guessing your husband was unable to prove sufficient ties to his homeland? Is that what happened?


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

The consulate is managed by the consul. Try finding that name and complaining directly to him or her. You don't say what happened, no how long you have been married.

If you have been married for a short time, the interviewer is going to assume that you are trying to get him into the US as part of an illegal immigration scheme. Why? Because it happens. In 1987 I was offered over $10,000 to marry someone so he could get into the US. I'm sure there are people who have been offered more. There are also a lot of people of both sexes who pretend to be in love so they can get married to an American and eventually get a green card. I have met quite a few men whose wives left them the day the green card was granted.

Now, I'm not saying that you are in a situation like that, but those sorts of situations tend to make the State Department leary of anyone who married a citizen of a developing country while overseas. This suspicion will be heightened if your husband doesn't have strong ties that would draw him back to Turkey.


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## ugur (Aug 14, 2008)

thanks for your help everyone. my reason for complaining to the embassy is to explain how i was treated by the american official and not only that my husband was denied a visa. i'm sure if his app. was not good enough a decent person would have denied him also. the woman "interviewing" (interrogating my husband for 2 minuets) actually yelled at me and told me to sit down. she did not provide either of us with help or explanation. my biggest problem is that afterward i called 2 embassy phone numbers and no one would hear my complaint and one woman said i must pay for a new appointment and pin number. (200$ and days of waiting). i also looked around the room when i was in the building and there was no one to seek information from and no papers posted anywhere about how to complain or ask general questions about the embassy. so is it actually possible to complain to the embassy about how it treats people? basically she can act how she wants with no consequence. it has shaken my trust and that is not good if i ever really need the embassy for something more important than a trip home with my husband for christmas.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

I know it doesn't really help, but up until a few years ago, the embassies and consulates could not hire local Americans. Most of the non-diplomatic staff was local nationals. So, in places like France, you got all the "attitude" of a French fonctionnaire when you were supposed to be on sovereign US territory.

I've also had the situation where I've been yelled at by the immigration official on entering the US with my husband (who is a non-resident alien like yours) because I've tried to "help" him answer the questions. (He doesn't do well with English straight off a long flight.) It's apparently part of their job to make the US spouse sit down and shut up. (OK, and my husband has a beard, which makes him immediately suspect.)

I don't think you'll get far with your attempt to complain, though I really do wish you well and I would love to get someone (anyone!) to listen to how badly the image of the US is tarnished by the abrupt treatment folks get in the Consulates (not to mention the crazy visa requirements these days).

The only "explanation" for much of it is that they have been cutting back on the funding for the overseas embassies and consulates for years now, yet requiring them to do more and more stuff for which they have to charge (like the interviews for visas) because they were never given the funding for additional staff needed to do the job. Ever tried getting papers notarized at the Consulate? 
Cheers,
Bev


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## ugur (Aug 14, 2008)

thanks Bev for the validation of my situation. i am currently writing letters to Ambassador Ross Wilson and to the Consul General Sharon A. Wiener. i wonder if it will do any good, but i have to try. my letter is just over a page long single spaced. i don't want to leave any details out.

like you my husband also has a beard and is not often forced to answer questions on the spot in english. so ya he was visibly nervous at the interview. seeing america from the outside in is really sobering and i wish there was something to do about it. i was living in new mexico before coming here and maybe i could write to the governor. he is really interested in foreign issues and immigration specifically. (thats part of the reason his trying for the presidency was so hard, and the fact that he's hispanic)
good God
anyway thanks again

ugur


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

ugur said:


> so ya he was visibly nervous at the interview.


A bit of coaching if you try again might be in order. If he doesn't fully understand the question, get him to say he doesn't understand it and ask them to rephrase it. Also, answer the question they ask and nothing else. If they ask when you got married, the answer is "April 1, 1999" not "April 1, 1999 by the mayor in the town hall with 50 guests, and we went to Cyprus for our honeymoon".


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## YaGatDatRite (Aug 7, 2008)

*Hi Ugur:*

Sorry to hear about your experience at your 'friendly local US consulate' but its pretty much standard issue -- its the discretion of consular staff to demand any info they deem necessary to process applications and treat visa applicants any which way they like. All depends on the "mood" s/he is in that day.

Remember these are all civil servants representing USA abroad but there's really no emphasis on "civil" and they don't give a damn about service. USCIS probably has the most thick-skinned of any bunch of government employees, a category that doesn't attract the best or the brightest anyway.

Good luck with your complaint but its doubtful it'll go anywhere. Those guys do not like it when the foreign post (FP) is not in Europe, or western nations. They show little regard to their own and other citizens esp. when based in emerging and not-so-developed countries.


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

If the interviewer addressed the question to your husband, she needed answers from your husband. If she had to ask you more than once to sit down and not help your husband answer questions, that alone probably doomed the application. From the point of view of someone who is charged with keeping people out of the country, having someone answer for the applicant or give prompts is a cue that the answers are false ones that have been prepared ahead of time, and the person giving the prompts is trying to keep the interviewee from slipping up. 

People aren't required to speak English to get visas, so there should be some process for getting an interpreter, if you want to try again.

It's amazing to me how miserable we make it for people trying to visit the US, and how much Americans complain and grouse about anything other than a 'welcome and stay as long as you want' from other countries. People complain about needing visas to stay in Thailand more than a month, and the visa application requires no interview and is processed in 24 hours for a fee of only $25. We are one of the few countries in the world with a declining international tourist industry for a reason.


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## B&M (Sep 30, 2010)

I was searching for the same reason on google and I came across your thread, did you ever get any result??? would love to know!


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## Zoom (Jul 7, 2008)

Fatbrit said:


> Hi Ugur,
> 
> I'm afraid the lack of accountability is endemic in America as a whole, more pronounced in government services, and possibly one of the worst when it comes to immigration. There is, indeed, nowhere to complain on any of the websites.
> 
> Unfortunately, while Americans remain more afraid of their government than their government is of them, this is unlikely to change. Beyond Bev's suggestions, I'd try your political representatives at the place where you were last resident in the US. Most senators even have a special team to deal with visa and immigration issues who are kept very busy -- and sometimes they can manage a little.


Yep, Fatbrit has got it spot on correct. First thing you do is write letters to your 2 Senators and Congressman/woman. I'd write it in a firm, somewhat angry, very bold style and tell them, "I expect action on this ASAP" Threaten to take your case to the media (print/internet or TV/Radio) if they don't help you out (also add, "WTF do I pay taxes for anyway!?!?!") These American Embassy workers are the most none caring, arrogant pigs in the world (sorry to any real pigs that feel I insulted them). 

I had a problem years ago with a non VWP European country when I tried to have my cousin's son visit here - California - for 2 weeks. He had the Notarized Affidavit of Support that I had sent him (took me all day to put that together). The American <BLANK> at the embassy looked it over for 30 seconds and said - denied, come back in one year. He asked why, she said , "I don't believe he's telling the truth" (What I wrote was 100% true). I was on the phone for hours for many, many nights with this particular European Embassy - mainly staffed by Jerky, unhelpful, useless, Americans (3 in the morning after a bottle - or 2 - of wine. Out of frustration. I'm not a big drinker normally). I was SO ANGRY that I can't believe I didn't end up in the hospital (or eating piles of Valium). Years later it came out that many there, at that Embassy, were on the take and a Visa could be had for $5,000. It was a big scam and most lost their jobs (not that it helped me any - much too late)

Another pathetic case that reminds me of this Turkish situation is a very good friend of mine married an Egyptian guy and they ended up having to live in Egypt for more than a year before the Embassy people would even allow him to enter the "almight" USA. During that time my friend suffered a miscarriage from all the stress, major hassles, and disruption in her life. She finally got things moving after one year by contacting her Senator back in New England and DEMANDING action. Things started moving. They finally came back together legally. A few years later he took his US citizenship test, finished it in 16 minutes, and scored a 100% correct. The immigration office (INS) goofballs were beyond shocked - it's very rare, that high a score that fast. The guy has a good job now - Chef - and is very hard working. The Ideal American Immigrant.

If you haven't learned yet almost all Government workers are effed up super slacking A-holes. They coast through life working as little as possible. Most are very unhappy little trolls that love to wallow in their filthy misery (and love you to get right down in the hole with them) DESPICABLE HUMAN GARBAGE - nothing more, nothing less (and I'm going easy on them). Good Luck. My advise is to get strong, get tough , and be ready for the fight of your life (and always remember that the Embassy troll's number one goal in life is to make your life as miserable as their's is). Don't take the bait, fight for your rights!!! DON'T LET THE B*STARDS GET YOU DOWN !!! Zoom


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