French woman shares India visa renewal ordeal: ‘It takes up big part of my year’
A French woman living in India recently shared her frustration with the paperwork and stress involved in renewing her visa, saying the process takes a significant toll on her every year. Julia Chaigneau, a French national and co-founder of This is it Studio, shared her experience in a post on X.Julia concluded her post saying that the visa process takes up a significant portion of her year. (X/@juliachaigneau)”Thank god I love living in India, because the paperwork, patience, and life it takes out of me every visa renewal is insane, haha,” Julia wrote in the X post.She said that she had spent weeks dealing with the process and had finally completed her latest visa renewal. “After a couple of weeks of this constant stress, I’m finally done with this round,” she wrote.”I know I’m far from the only one living as a foreigner somewhere, but it’s always crazy to me how a few paperwork can dictate everything, after building my whole life in a country I love, with my work and my people around me,” she added.Julia concluded her post saying that the visa process takes up a significant portion of her year. “Anyway, just thought I’d share this. I never really talk about this part of my life, even though it takes up such a big part of my year,” she wrote.(Also Read: ‘Having an Indian passport is sad’: Founder after being grilled over hotels, cash, return ticket in Timor Leste)How did social media react?Her post sparked a discussion online, with several users comparing her experience with the visa difficulties faced Indians travelling or moving abroad.One user wrote, “still probably far less difficult than french/europe visa process for an Indian passport, regardless of how long someone with an Indian passport may have lived there. my europe visa was for exactly the date on my pre-booked ticket arrival up to the exactly the date of departure.””It is the same with even the most economically powerful countries like USA as well. In fact their visa website is the worst that I have come across and they have endless red tape too. In fact they took weeks to resolve their website glitch. Seems like a universal problem,” commented another.”You will feel relieved after seeing the paperwork required for Indian to get Visas for US or many European countries,” wrote a third user.”Now imagine what Indians feel for every visa to every western nation, from short term tourism visa to long term employment linked visa. And most receive rejection and a loss of money at the end,” said another.”Bureaucracy in india is designed to kill the spirit of India. They extend 2 day work into 2 month, this is magic(Paperworks) it offers in India,” wrote one user.
