POOR Service in INDIAN CONSULATE GENERAL offices SFO and Houston

To : INDIAN Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Consulate General of India Needs improvement

Most of the indian citizens and also non Indian citizens who require services of CGI together with the signee of this petition would like to bring to the attention of the INDIAN Ministry of Foreign Affairs several issues regarding the INDIAN Consulate of San Francisco, Houston public services and affairs.

INDIAN citizens or not, who reside in the State of Washington - are designated for any type of help, service and information to refer to the INDIAN Consulate of San Francisco. Services such as passport issuance and renewal, travel visas, transfer of vital records, acquisition of the INDIAN citizenship and so forth are covered by this Consulate. Due to over two hours flight distance between Seattle and San Francisco largely all hard copy documentation and correspondence is done by mail.

In the following list we gathered a number of common problems based on the experience of INDIAN citizens and not - in dealing with the Consulate of San Francisco. We would like to provide some suggestions and requests to correct some of the issues also.

1) Communication with the Consulate has become almost impossible. Often calls are not returned, nobody answers the phone and most of the time the phone mail box is full preventing the caller from leaving a message. The same goes for email communication which if often unanswered. All this is, to say the least, very inconvenient especially when having a specific question regarding a form, inquirying about the progress of an application, or in emergency situations.
2) Passport issuance waiting period is much longer. At times it can be up to a month or two

Therefore we suggest the following:

1) The introduction of measures that can assure a better and more effective communication channel with the Consulate, with the possibility to talk directly with someone when calling the offices of San Francisco during business hours. We would like to suggest the installation of a more modern telephone system such as a Call Center with automated responses that the user can obtain by keying in the appropriate number on the phone. And if no answer is obtained the phone system should allow the caller to talk to somebody on the staff - especially in emergency cases. This would avoid the inconvenience of finding an answering machine when calling, which is often full or when a message is left the call is not returned. The same should apply to the email correspondence.

2) Increasing Consulate personnel. This could improve efficiency of all consular services. Please note that the Consulate of San Francisco covers important high-tech areas such as Silicon Valley and/or Seattle, Dallas, Companies residing in these areas have contributed to a growing number of INDIANs moving to the USA for work, business and/or research.

3) The reopening of an official Vice Consulate in Seattle which was closed many years ago. Such office would be of great support not only for the INDIAN Consulate of San Francisco, but for the people who live in other states such as Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Alaska. They also are facing the same issues and inconveniences.

4) The introduction of an evaluation system (survey: online and/or hardcopy) that allows the user of the consular services to give feedback and useful suggestions. Measures thereafter could be taken to further improve the quality of service.