Denial of visas to scientists

Indian and American scientists suggest first name friends 'Barack and Narendra' should at their summit level iron out the wrinkles that lead to denial and delays for granting of visas to researchers for travel to both countries.

Despite bonhomie and garden side 'chai-pe-charcha' between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that formed part of the 'new journey' the two countries embarked upon earlier this year, instances of visa snafus remain a stumbling block. Visa rules remain a bottleneck that impedes free scientific exchange between the world's largest and world's oldest democracies.

Earlier Bharat Ratna Prof C N R Rao, as Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, had called the American visa regime regressive and demeaning. The jostling is not one-sided. Three years back, India actually deported a respected earthquake researcher Dr Roger Bilham after he had landed in New Delhi. The angst is on both sides and it seems boffins are on the receiving end of the entrenched bureaucracies.

Scientists by nature are impatient and would rather spend time in their laboratories, understanding the universe, than filling up loads of forms and standing in front of 'jail-like' windows giving interviews to more-often-than-not consular individuals who have no clue about science but are slaves of the complex diplomatic legalese. This leads to frustration on all sides and occasionally the scientific pressure cooker tips over.

Last week, India's leading petroleum researcher Dr M O Garg, Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi went livid on what he called was a 'denial of granting a US visa' for him to attend a scientific meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Garg heads India's largest network of 38 civilian labs employing over 4,000 scientists with an annually budget of about Rs 3,800 crore.

America is not a new country for him. He has travelled more than a dozen times to the US since 1983 and in 1988 he spent more than 7 months at a stretch in the US, his last visit was in 2009 so he has traversed the many bio-metric hoops put in place by the US State Department after 9/11 attacks.

Garg is a genial and jolly scientist not known for angry outbursts, having published more than 250 research papers, holds over 30 patents of which half a dozen are US patents, all-in-all he is a highly regarded chemist who won't tolerate fools or get pushed around. Well-travelled in the last decade he has had 32 overseas visits from Brazil to Australia. Last week he had enough from the American bureaucracy.

On June 1, Garg recounts that he spent almost half a day filling out screen after screen of questions to apply for his US visa which he calls was like writing down 'my janam-patri or life history,’ a day later in usual fashion he was finger printed and photographed. On June 3, he was asked to appear for the 'visa interview' which he did at 8.30 am and he recalls that 'questions for which the consular official already had answers' were popped to him which he says he patiently answered.

Then it seems his troubles began when he was asked to appear for another face-to-face interview at a new window where he was now given a piece of paper with several questions and a 'tracking number.’ Garg says having procured several US visas in the past this now meant to him that he was being 'singled out'.

He says even after more than three weeks of waiting the visa was not granted to him. He was to travel to the US on June 15 for which he had already purchased an air ticket and the meeting itself was scheduled for June 17. Till June 24, well after the meeting was over Garg says the visa never came through and he finally had to cancel his trip. He says both countries lost an important opportunity to forge stronger scientific ties.

On their part, the US Embassy in New Delhi which seldom responds to individual visa concerns quickly issued a formal statement: "The visa has not been refused, it is in process. We hope he will be able to travel next week. We regret any delay due to the system outage. We hope he will have many more opportunities in the future to further enhance scientific cooperation between India and the US."

"This is hilarious," says Garg, "what use is a US visa after the meeting is long over.” He does not buy the argument that the 'system outage' on June 9 – where by the entire US visa machinery globally went down after a hardware glitch – affected his particular case.

Garg says if US has to become a 'preferred partner' for India then at the highest levels such hurdles should be removed. In fact he goes on to suggest that possibly in tit for tat manner India should also retaliate by saying “if, suppose, we do the same thing to US scientists, for example if their Secretary of Energy were refused a visa, don't you think the US would have taken revenge on India as well?”

If you think there is pain only for Indians, there are many examples of Americans recounting their horror stories like Dr Jeffrey S Kargel of the Department of Hydrology & Water Resources, University of Arizona, US, who says "two years ago I applied for a visa to India for high-level scientific contacts that were invited by the Indian Space Research Organization and encouraged by NASA.

After 6 weeks of trying, we had to go to high levels in the Embassy, and finally I received my visa 48 hours before my departure. It seems that there are two-way bureaucratic problems." He did attend the meeting at an ISRO facility in Ahmedabad. In 2006 another respected chemist Prof Goverdhan Mehta, then director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, was denied a US visa.

He said he felt “humiliated after the interview where his research credentials were questioned.” The then American Ambassador David Mulford tendered an apology and Mehta's visa was subsequently hand delivered to his home but he vowed never to go to America again. In this diplomatic shadow boxing the real loss was for the world of science.

According to NDTV in 2013, "annoyed with the US visa rules, CNR Rao, the then Science Advisor to Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, threatened to boycott visiting the US. Rao had been affected by the US visa norms that allow a one-year visa to some Indian scientists, as opposed to the earlier five to 10 years multiple entry visa.

Clearly unhappy with the annual pilgrimage scientists were forced to make to the American Embassy, Rao said, “India is getting roughed up by the Americans.” Rao, a frequent visitor to the US for the past 50 years had been hit by the visa norms for three years now. He said, "I find it very insulting to go through this each year.

I am sick and tired... May never go to America again after my current visa expires." Kargel says, "the two countries need to fix the visa problems. I hope both India and the US can make visas easier to obtain. Doing so would improve scientific cooperation." Garg who is still smarting from his wounds says, "this visa issue is definitely a thorn in the whole process."

As far back as 2013, US President Barack Obama's current Science Advisor John P Holdren admitted, "I understand visas are a problem... We hope to improve." But, it seems little has changed for the scientific community that would reduce their travel woes despite the closeness of 'jadoo-ki-jhappies' or 'warm hugs' between Modi and Obama.

By Pallava Bagla