on arbitrary rules

Today I went to an Embassy to obtain a visa for a specific country that I won’t embarrass by naming. It was a strange experience of the arbitrariness of rules.

The first guy said I would need a letter of invitation to get a visa for that country. I said: “No, I didn’t think so.” He insisted that yes, I would. But while I spent a few seconds mentally preparing to cancel that ticket and go somewhere else instead, he noticed that I had a U.S. passport and said in that case, no, I wouldn’t need an invitation letter. He said he had initially thought I was Egyptian. Aside from the obvious unfairness of the policy discrepancy (I was recently victimized in the other direction by Tanzania, which singles out Americans, Irish, and especially Pakistanis for exorbitant visa fees applied to no one else in the world, just as Turkey does to Canadians) I’m not often mistaken for an Egyptian, being of fairly obvious northern European descent to anyone who sees me.

He then sent me to a second guy in the Embassy, and that’s when it became even more strange. The second guy repeated the mantra that I would need an invitation letter. Thinking I had already unlocked the secret code, I handed him the U.S. passport, and he said I would still need an invitation letter. Again I said: “Really? I didn’t think so.” He replied: “Yes, you do.” I then idly stated: “I’ve never had that happen with any other country on my travels.” And to my astonishment he said: “OK. I’ll give you a visa.” I happened not to have enough cash on me, since these things often take a few days and sometimes you pay upon pickup, and he told me to return tomorrow.

Frankly, I think I’m being asked to pay a bribe in this case. The price he quoted sounds a bit inflated, but it’s affordable. I suppose I could look up the official rates, but given that their website sent me to an address they had left two years ago and I had to spend half an hour being driven around part of Cairo as my taxi driver asked various security police where this country had moved, I doubt the listed rates would even be accurate.

And anyway, I don’t really want to know.