Day 174 - Lies Have Short Legs

Germans aren't very good at lying. That made our jobs easier in many ways. But as I mentioned before, lying isn't grounds for refusing a visa application. It just makes it harder to figure out what the real story is.

Before I arrived in Stuttgart, it was well known that a previous consular officer there never issued visas to German women who had GI boyfriends. Never. So German women with GI boyfriends learned that telling the truth wouldn't work. But unlike the situation with applicants wanting to spend a year in the U.S. as an au pair, there was nothing illegal about a German woman traveling to the U.S. with her American boyfriend. The key was the purpose of the trip. If it was to remain in the U.S., a tourist visa wasn't the appropriate category. But if it was for a vacation, there was no problem.

Except that German women thought they couldn't tell us the truth.

Image by arteunpooro, via Flickr.com

My favorite example was Ursula.* She arrived at the interview window with her hair a mess, too much make-up, and wearing clothes that left so much of her exposed she should have been embarrassed. But she wasn't. She explained that she wanted to travel to the United States for the Christmas holidays. She had an invitation from an American woman, Mrs. Brown,* Ursula said she had met the previous summer when Mrs. Brown was in Germany on vacation. She said she and Mrs. Brown hit it off right away and she had spent a lot of time showing Mrs. Brown around Germany. She also said that Mrs. Brown had sent her a present recently, so she was very much looking forward to seeing her again. Ursula was about 20. She said Mrs. Brown was about 50.

I was having a hard time understanding how this ditzy blonde had managed to charm a middle-aged woman to the point that she would invite her to spend two weeks over the Christmas holidays. Christmas is for spending time with families, not strangers.

So I suggested to Ursula that I could better understand her reasons for traveling to the U.S. for the Christmas holidays if Mrs. Brown were the mother of her American boyfriend. At that Ursula said she didn't have a boyfriend in the United States. In fact, she said, her boyfriend was the Marine on duty at the Consulate right now. I had seen her talking with Cliff, the Marine on duty, so I thought it might be possible. I went into the office and called Cliff to ask how long he had known Ursula. His response - he had known her for just as long as I had.

At this point, it seemed hopeless to think I would get Ursula to change her story. So I refused her visa application. When we didn't issue a visa, we stamped the back of the passport with a notation that we had received an application and we wrote in the date. It wasn't always an indication that the application had been refused. Sometimes it just meant that we needed more information or documentation before we could issue a visa. But most people understand it means the visa was refused. I am sure that Ursula understood that. But she had a lot of nerve.

A few days after I refused her application, my boss got a phone call from an American GI in Illinois. He wanted to know why the airline in Frankfurt wouldn't allow his fiancee to get on the plane. They told her they wouldn't accept her visa. Ursula was trying to convince the airline that the stamp in the back of her passport was her visa. I don't know if Ursula ever got to the U.S. or if her boyfriend/fiance returned to Germany for her. Consular officers only get to know the beginning of most stories.

Image by summerbl4ck, via Flickr.com

Another favorite was Brigitta*. I had seen her sitting in the back row of the waiting room with two children and a tall man when I began interviewing applicants that day. Brigitta was older than Ursula and therefore at least a bit more believable. But still her story didn't quite make sense. She also said she planned to travel to the United States for the Christmas holidays. She also planned to visit someone she had met in Germany who had invited her to spend the holidays. I asked if she was traveling with anyone else. She said she wasn't. I asked why she would leave her children behind in Germany over the holidays. She said her children would be staying with her ex-husband.

She had answers to all my questions, but it still didn't quite make sense. So, just as I had done with Ursula, I told Brigitta that I could understand her reason for wanting to travel to the U.S. with just a few changes to her explanation. I could see that her children adored the man she was with. They were sitting next to him, taking turns giving him a hug. And he seemed to be very comfortable with them. So I could understand her story if she told me he was her American boyfriend and that the two of them were planning to travel to the U.S. for the Christmas holidays to spend them with his family.

At that point, Brigitta told me a German saying, "Lügen haben kurze Beine." Lies have short legs. She said she thought she wouldn't get a visa if she admitted that she would be traveling with her American boyfriend. I asked if he was in the Army. He was. I asked if he was being transferred back to the U.S. He wasn't. He just had two weeks of leave for the holidays.

I issued Brigitta a visa for her Christmas holiday. Lies may have short legs, but they don't prevent visa from being issued unless the lies are intentional and material to the question of eligibility.

*A name, not necessarily the right one.