US Consulate in Hong Kong asking for GMAT scores

[Erin]

A former student of mine is reporting that she needs to show her TOEFL and GMAT scores to the US consulate in Hong Kong.

Erin

[raghuveer_v]

Hi there Erin,

Are there any rules governing these consulates, as to what details and documents they should examine while considering someone for granting a visa?

If they reject a visa application, do they have to inform the applicant, the reason for doing so?

I'm asking this because....I've heard that many peole whose visa applications are rejected, don't even know the reason for it.

Someone I know had this experience ....

Official : Do you know what the local people in the city you are going hoping to go, usually do in their weekends?

Applicant : (May be,..) They have partys. (A wild guess)

Official : No, they go fisihing.
Official : You can go now.

That was it! no Visa!

I agree that there might be someother reason for rejecting his visa. But does this make any sense?
Shouldn't there be some transparency?


Raghuveer.

[Erin]

When I lived in Brazil, I used to make fairly frequent trips to the US consulate for various reasons and heard worse things; for some bizarre reason, these folks think nothing of making their entire conversations audible to the entire room. I thought the whole process was humiliating, to be honest.

Here's one of the worst conversations I heard (all in Portuguese; the American consulate speaking with a very heavy (read "bad") accent:

Consulate (demeaning, imperious tone): So, where do you want to go in the US?
Applicant (timid, almost fearful tone): I wanted to visit Disneyworld.
C: Are you traveling alone?
A: No, I'm traveling with some friends?
C: Friends? Who?
A: Just my friends. My friends from work.
C: So where are they now?
A (pause): Now? (nervous pause) Um, now... Now, I don't know.
C (voice rising): YOU DON'T KNOW?
A (very timid, almost crying): No, I don't know. They must be working, or doing whatever.
C: YOU NEEDED TO BRING THEM WITH YOU.
A: Bring them with me? (And these are the words that stay in my mind forever...) "Eu não sabía" (I didn't know.)
C (mocking tone, in heavy American accent): NAO SABIA? (You didn't know? For all those who know Portuguese--of course she said "nao sabía" instead of "não sabía")

Then there was a pause for a second. The applicant said nothing. Then the consulate said:

"DENIED!!

And that was it. The end of the woman's hopes.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound like I'm America-bashing, but I just thought there must be some better way to handle these things... Something clearer, something that would not make people feel so humiliated, something more objective and less subjective...

Just my two cents...