Spain VISA Rejected, and No one from the Embassy will tell why!
I have no clue why our Spain VISA application got rejected. No, it’s not a rant. It’s basically a run down of all the activities that happened during the application.
We, at Beebom are one of the most active, trusted and responsible technology media company in India. And I am the Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder of Beebom. As we knew that MWC is going to happen in the last week of February 2018, in Barcelona, Spain. We started working on its VISA application so that we can attend the event. We applied for the same on January 12, which gives us just enough time to prepare for the travel, and set up our meetings during the event with the key people who’ll be attending the same. We were a team of three, all prepared to go for the event, and little did we know that our positive hopes are going to taste the ashes.
Here’s how the journey went:-
I’ve never traveled outside of India. So, it was a new experience for me to apply for VISA. I searched online, made a few calls, and finally got in touch with the Travel Agent who helped me prepare the documents for the VISA. All smooth and buttery.
Once the documents were ready for all three of us, we booked an appointment to Visa Application Center ‘BLS India’. They verified our documents and submitted our application. I asked them twice if the documents were alright and and they said yes. Since they are in this business, I expect them to let me know beforehand if there were any issues with the document, so that I can correct them before submitting the application, but they didn’t. So, I was 100% confident that nothing could go wrong from here. And I was then waiting and looking for best air fare prices for our travel, as one normally should.
We received a letter one fine morning (it looked fine at that time, but not now). I opened the envelope while one of our team member was on MakeMyTrip, rehearsing for the ticket bookings. I read it, and I came to know that our VISA application got rejected, and the reason was unclear.
The reason that was ticked read ‘Your intention to leave the territory of the member states before the expiry of the visa could not be ascertained’’
This-in-simple-English means that they think we are going to stay in Spain and will not come back, at all.
I didn’t know how to react to it, so I simply asked my Travel agent to help me with this, and even she was confused with the decision. She told me we can either re-apply and it’ll cost us the same application fee again, or we can appeal against the decision of the Spain Embassy. We chose the later, and submitted some more solid documents to prove that we’re definitely going to come back to India once the event is over.
At the time of submitting our documents for appeal, we again checked with the BLS team if the documents were alright and if these documents were enough to reverse the initial decision. But they simply said they don’t know anything about it, their job is to submit applications, collect money, and print receipts.
At that time, I was convinced that BLS India’s employee are not going to help. But I didn’t understand why? What is wrong in helping people before the application is submitted? Isn’t it their job? Are they only their for clerical job? I genuinely felt bad when I received zero to no help from BLS India’s employee who were there at the counter. I don’t really know if they’ll be as un-cooperative to their peers as they are to us? Since they’re the first point of contact to Spain Embassy, and not us, we expected certain help from them.
Now, we submitted the appeal on 23rd of January, with all the supporting documents that we could gather, hoping that the decision will change.
Once the appeal is submitted it usually takes 15 to 30 days for Embassy of Spain to react to it.
We submitted the appeal on 23rd of January hoping that it’d take 15 days, but in our case it took 25 days, and today, 19th of Feb, I received their final verdict.
Now, the interesting part is, our travel was scheduled for 24th February, and now it’s impossible for us to re-apply the application, and expect the VISA approval/rejection on or before 23rd of Feb, so that we can travel on 24th.
The Spain Embassy knew that we had to travel on 24th of Feb, so they could have reacted early, in this case, so that we could enough time to re-apply again, but they didn’t. And as far as I can see, it’s on purpose.
The final rejection letter that we received was written in Spanish, and when I asked the BLS India employee’s help me understand that, or at-least explain it to me, they simply said that either you translate it using Google Translate or get in touch with someone who knows Spanish, we can’t help it.
Here’s how the letter looked like:-
I translated it and the reason wasn’t clear to me even after that. All it said was our documents weren’t good enough to reverse their initial decision.
Now, the point is, I don’t know which part of my documentation went wrong, and what I can do to right that wrong. So that, when we apply again, we should be careful of that.
No communication of that sort has been made to us, and it’s quite unprofessional after you charge a hefty sum of application fee, just to reject it?
I don’t know understand how Spain Embassy or BLS India works, but as far as I can tell, it’s the most unprofessional encounter I’ve ever had considering it’s foreign travel we’re talking about.
Everything said and done, and now, we won’t be able to attend the most important event of the year MWC 2018 because of negligence from BLS India and Embassy of Spain.
I don’t know what made them think that we’ll not come back to India because I have a prospering company running in India, and I’ve been working on building ‘Beebom’ even before I completed my college. My family is in India. Most importantly, we’ve got an invitation from MWC to attend the event on behalf of Beebom Media Private Limited.
Similarly, the team I was going with are an integral part of Beebom and heads two most important departments of Beebom, and they’ll never escort to Spain leaving behind their family, and the job they’re so passionate about.
I’d have appreciated if the VISA process had some sort of ‘interview’ or a personal interaction where we’d have explained it to the person who was the incharge of all these decisions.
The VISA rejection decision made against us is unfair by all means, and it’ll cost us loads in terms of our business, and the opportunity that we rightfully deserve.
I hope the person who signed rejection document sees this, and at-least regret his decision, if not more.
Devinder Maheshwari:- Chief Business Officer, Beebom
