Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

To pursue the PhD program in India, a foreign national needs a Research Visa. Usually the visa application form and the passport is sent along with the necessary documents to the Indian embassy in Frankfurt which is responsible for the area I lived in. However two (or so) years back, the service of receiving the forms and sending them back together with consultation has been outsourced to an agency called Indo German Consultancy Services Ltd (IGCS). So I started to apply for the Research Visa through the IGCS and then the odyssey started. Concluding from my experiences with the IGCS seems that not many have the idea to do their PhD in India. Here is a history of events:

August/September 2007:
Started to gather information about Research Visa. Although mentioning the whole background to IGCS and stressing out, that I want to to PhD in India, the IGCS in Frankfurt claimed that a Research Visa either does not exist or that it is the same as the Student Visa.

Even information read from the homepage Ministry of Human Resources and Development and from the Indian embassy in Japan to IGCS people in Frankfurt and Cologne saying that there exists a Research Visa, was answered with one of the well known replies above. Due to that (I mean the IGCS people are supposed to be the professionals regarding visa questions, aren’t they?) I applied for a Student Visa in November 2007.

Then I had a long fight with IGCS and the Academic Deputy Registrar, Mr. S., about Research and Student Visa for the next 2 months. Mr. S. insisted on the Research Visa, whereas the IGCS had obviously difficulties to believe what Mr. S. said, and even more difficulties to check out the existence of the Research Visa by themselves.

27.12./28.12.08:
Mr. T from the IGCS was suddenly aware of a Research Visa after 4 months of quarreling.

January 2008:
I won the scholarship for PhD students of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst – DAAD). They also will take care of the prospective scholars and sent the application form for the Research Visa. They collected all applications from all scholars and sent it in one single packet to the Indian embassy in Berlin. The Indian embassy in Berlin forwarded the application for visa approval to Delhi. However in the meantime there was a circular from the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources and Development) that “the power for issuing the visa has been fully delegated to the Indian missions abroad”.

On January 5^th, I moved to the Indian Institute of Science so that I do not loose any more time and started my career as a Project Assistant for which the Student Visa was sufficient.

September 2008:
The duration in which the Research Visa is issued, was said to be between 4 and 8 months. In September the 9^th month started, so I started to check out the current status of the Research Visa application.

October 2008:
It took a month of research to figure out, what has happened to my visa application. I believe it had been thrown away due to the circular letter and due to the following reasons:
Nobody I called up in Delhi was able to tell me anything about the visa as if it does not exist. Mr. P. the section officer of the MHRD responsible for Research Visa never heard anything about my application.

So I reapplied once again, but this time I made sure that the circumstance are set and that the Indian embassy and the IGCS are aware of this application. I sent the complete application set to the IGCS in Hamburg (because they answered the phone [I called all IGCS offices and embassies randomly] and only IGCS Hamburg was very professional and gathered information FIRST, before telling some invented facts such as “Research Visa? Doesn’t exist.”). However they insisted that I gave an address of correspondence in Germany. So I gave the one of my brother who stays in North Rhine-Westphalia. The IGCS figured out that the Indian embassy in Hamburg is not responsible since my brother lives in the wrong state, and therefore forwarded the application form to Frankfurt.

With the people in Hamburg it has also been clarified that for application submission I do not need to be in Germany itself. For collecting the visa, it is compulsory.

November 2008:
A reply by Dr. S. from the IGCS in Frankfurt about the progress of the visa application said, that I have to be in Germany for the paper submission. That is a contradiction to the statement above. A reply to that asking for clarification was without any response till now. More important: Also asking for a status update about the progress was without any reply at all so far.

December 2008:
I lost the DAAD scholarship, because it is in cooperation with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Delhi. Since I did not get the visa for more than 1 year, they canceled my application. So thanks to the IGCS and their inability to verify information, I lost a scholarship of EUR1052 a month for three years. I also would like to mention that for every application the IGCS collected nicely EUR13.50 for their “consultation”.

January 2009:
I got my visa without the “help” of the IGCS, but the scholarship is gone.

August 2009:
I sent another mail to the IGCS and received feedback almost immediately. If it is an automated reply or not, we will see. Mr. S. J. replied that he will look into that matter, but it might require some time.

November 2009:
So far no more word from Mr. S. J. A kindly reminder was also left without a reply.

As you can see, I made a very bad experience with IGCS and I know some others who have the same difficulties. Unfortunately there is not much of an alternative, if you need a visa for visiting India. I recommend to show no patience towards them and to camp in front of their door, if necessary, to get things settled. Do not listen to any information IGCS provides but get the information by yourself through the Internet or friends. Due to some legal reasons I had to blank out the names I had contact with.

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Around 2 weeks ago a representative of Airtel called (I do not know, how they got my number), telling me that they have special broadband packet offers. Since I have already broadband and I am happy with it, I am always interested in offers which either gives me the same product for lesser money or a better packet for the same money. However showing interest in the first place was a big mistake. The representative forwarded my phone number to the “expert” regarding broadband packets and she called the same day in the afternoon. Obediently she read all the packets and their content to me until I stopped her.

I said: “Listen, currently I have a broadband connection that has 2Mbps, 2.5GB traffic per month for free and it costs me around Rs.500. Do you have anything in this category?”
Expert: “Yes, 2Mbps, some limited amount of traffic (I forgot) and the price is Rs.899″.
I: “Eeeehm, you tell me, why I shall pay more for almost the same thing.”
Expert: “So, you are not interested? Maybe you are interested in this packet: Starter for only Rs.399″
I: “So what is the speed? 256kpbs?”
Expert: “Correct.”
I: “???????, so why shall I change? For less than double the monthly amount I get a connection that has 8 times the speed and much more free traffic.”
Expert: “So, you are not interested?”
I: “Not at all.”
Expert: “Ok, sir. Have a nice day.”
I: “You too, bye.”

This is a summary of the whole conversation. Although I made myself clear that no Airtel packet suits me, Airtel seems to be so desperate to get customers. Within 2 weeks they keep calling and calling almost 3 times a day. Whenever I see a telephone number like 0804210XXXX or 0804110XXXX on my display, I immediately know that Airtel is calling. I started to answer a call like this:

Cell phone rings.
I: “Good afternoon, dear Airtel call center. You want to sell me broadband packets, right?”
That causes some surprises at the other end.
I: “See, you already called something like 15 times and I am still not interested. Please delete my records from your databases. Could you do me this favor?”
Expert (very sorry): “Ok, sir. Sorry, sir.”

But the learn effect equals zero. So I tried this:
“The person you are trying to speak to is, currently not available. Please leave a message after the beep.”
Then I take my high pitch sports whistle and blow into the mike. After that, I simply cut the call.

However, even that seems not to work. So I listened to a fax machine recently and I copy the sound:
I: “Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeppp Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Sssshhhhhhhhhhh, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep”
Expert: “Hello? Hello?”
I: “Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp”
Cut

Let’s see, when they learn it. If I get some time, I am going to talk to their supervisor. But as long as I have my fun, I do not see a reason for it. Let me know, if you got an idea what else to try.

[Update 23/04/2010]
Finally the calls stopped for a few days now. The trick was to deny that they talk to the right person. I mean anybody could have given a cell phone number to the promoting boy:

Airtel: “Hello sir. I am calling for Airtel, do I speak to Mr. Alex?”
I: “Alex? Who is that?”
Airtel: “Is this not the number of Mr. Alex?”
I: “Sorry, I do not know anybody by that name. My name is Achmed.”
Airtel: “So, you did not put your contact details into the register stating that you are interested in Broadband connections?”
I: “Listen, I have no clue, what you are talking about. I think, you have the wrong number.”
Airtel: “Ok, sorry for the disturbance.”

>Click<

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