Professor Goverdhan Mehta has joined the list of those, from many countries, whose visa application has demonstrated the US bureaucracy’s post-9/11 tendency to sometimes shout five after adding two and two. Of course, bureaucratic paranoia is not an exclusive American trait. Our own country can claim a fine record. But America being America, and therefore special, its officials confusing a scientist who’s a biochemistry whiz with a bio-terrorist tends to aggravate the applicant and his compatriots somewhat more. And because America is America, there’s also a reflexive tendency to see in such bureaucratic snafus a demonstration of arrogance. But, surely, the world’s only hyperpower doesn’t need to show arrogance by rejecting visa applications?Visas, and passports, probably allow a government official his most satisfying exercise of power: rejections can be brusque, questions can be mind bogglingly unanswerable, and presumptions can be as fanciful as the visa-giver wishes. The more a country is sought after as a destination, the more, inevitably if sadly, is the opportunity for arbitrariness — and blunders. US policy for regulating entry deals with two fundamentals. First, and compared to Europe, its liberal immigration policy, a subset of which is entry permits for professionals (the famous H1B visas). Second, its security fears and the understandable determination that another attack on home soil can’t be allowed. The intersection of these two often produces problems for foreigners as well as Americans — US universities have complained that security procedures are putting off overseas applicants.So, US bureaucracy needs to get smarter. It’s impossible to be so smart that every case is called correctly. But it’s possible to be smart enough that the CV of a widely travelled scientist doesn’t look like the career chart of a terrorist. But those of us who may be occasional victims must also remember — thousands of us go there, many more want to go, and the melting pot continues to bubble — no need, really, to overdo the letting off steam bit.
