MUMBAI: Prominent theatre and film personality, Salim Arif, has accused the US consulate of keeping his visa application pending for nearly a month.
Arif, assistant director of films like Maachis, Hu Tu Tu, Chanakya and Fiza, was supposed to go to the US for the staging of his play, Ghazal Ka Safar, hosted by the Indo-American Society of Houston. However, the first show on April 1 had to be staged without its star performer.
The rest of the team members-five in all-have had no problem in getting their visas and have left for the US.
Arif suspects that his frequent visits to the Middle East and other west Asian countries have a lot to do with the delay in him being granted the visa.
"I went to the US consulate for the second time on Tuesday and was grilled on my visit to Pakistan. I told them that I had gone to Pakistan before my first visit to the US in 2004. The interviewer then asked me if I had visited countries like Afghanistan and Iran knowing well that there were no visa stamps of those countries on my passport," Arif told TOI after he returned from the consulate on Tuesday.
"I was made to write on a piece of paper the list of the countries I had travelled to. She later said that my visa application remained pending and that I would be informed about the status through their website. I told her that they could have been apprised me of the situation in the first interview itself. All I got was 'I am sorry sir'," Arif added.
A consulate spokesperson refused to get into the details of the case. "We do not comment on individual visa applications," she said.
"The tour is more than half way through but I am still in India. The organizers of the show are somehow managing it with singers filling in for me," Arif said. "Had the consulate told me or my host that I was not eligible to travel to the US, someone else could have taken my place and my host would not have suffered losses. I could have also used my time better," he added.
Arif first went to the US consulate on March 28 and, after the initial interview, he was told that his visa application would remain pending as some queries were to be made. "I have written to them, asking if my being Muslim was the problem," Arif said.
Arif, assistant director of films like Maachis, Hu Tu Tu, Chanakya and Fiza, was supposed to go to the US for the staging of his play, Ghazal Ka Safar, hosted by the Indo-American Society of Houston. However, the first show on April 1 had to be staged without its star performer.
The rest of the team members-five in all-have had no problem in getting their visas and have left for the US.
Arif suspects that his frequent visits to the Middle East and other west Asian countries have a lot to do with the delay in him being granted the visa.
"I went to the US consulate for the second time on Tuesday and was grilled on my visit to Pakistan. I told them that I had gone to Pakistan before my first visit to the US in 2004. The interviewer then asked me if I had visited countries like Afghanistan and Iran knowing well that there were no visa stamps of those countries on my passport," Arif told TOI after he returned from the consulate on Tuesday.
"I was made to write on a piece of paper the list of the countries I had travelled to. She later said that my visa application remained pending and that I would be informed about the status through their website. I told her that they could have been apprised me of the situation in the first interview itself. All I got was 'I am sorry sir'," Arif added.
A consulate spokesperson refused to get into the details of the case. "We do not comment on individual visa applications," she said.
"The tour is more than half way through but I am still in India. The organizers of the show are somehow managing it with singers filling in for me," Arif said. "Had the consulate told me or my host that I was not eligible to travel to the US, someone else could have taken my place and my host would not have suffered losses. I could have also used my time better," he added.
Arif first went to the US consulate on March 28 and, after the initial interview, he was told that his visa application would remain pending as some queries were to be made. "I have written to them, asking if my being Muslim was the problem," Arif said.
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