...should hurry to the Chengdu consulate to get pages added. I just read that this formerly free service will cost $82 as of July 13th. The price for passport renewals is also getting jacked way up.

Gotta balance the budget somehow I guess...

The moral of the story is that the U.S. consulate is good at the following things:

1) Denying visas to Chinese nationals.

2) Charging $82 for a few sheets of paper.

God bless the US of A.

happy 4th of July to you all :)

USA - sometimes it means U Suck A-hole. For those of us living on the local economy, USD 82 = RMB 500+...major league ouch factor (or USA).

Just think - the gov can spend USD 80 bill to bail out a corrupt bank, they can allow over USD 40 bill a year in drug money to flow out of the USA - but they just LOVE to screw their citizens for pennies...(FYI BofA bought Wachovia which just got busted for laundering mexican drug money. Their fine - a few hundred mill...USA!!!

laotou,

As a non-US citizen, you have no moral authority to criticize our government on this issue. When will you ever see the the light of day of walking into an US consulate and forking over $82 for a few sheets of paper?

Perhaps you've lived in a socialistic economy for too long and now expect every governmental service to come for free? Maybe you are forgetting that it cost money to run and manage a consulate office abroad who services not the American public in general, but a specific subset of people who travel abroad often and use a disproportionate amount of consulate resources. You are are in essence paying for your portion of the bill to keep the consulate running. The American Staff, by the way, are paid in US currency and are subjected to the federal pay scale regardless of where they are posted and hence all fees are rendered into USD.

I might grumble at paying $82 but I know that's part of the package when I choose to live and work abroad. If $82 is too much on the local currency, then don't work on the local currency, go back to the country that issued your passport and you could put all of this behind you. No more hassles with the Visa or lost passports.

God Bless America

Cheers~

First - - I will state that I am an unashamed US citizen who has fought and bled for the red, white & blue.

With that caveat, I feel that I can legitimately criticize government policies if I feel they need it. There are many things about the current administration with which I don't agree. However, any time I do so I feel it must be in a "civilized" manner - - and not name-calling. The name-calling only lowers one to the ranks of the lower levels (call it what you will)

With current deficits (yeah, I don't agree with many of those) many organizations are struggling to balance administrative costs. The city of Phoenix has even started a five-dollar parking fee in public parks.

So - - if you are a US citizen - - and don't agree with policies - - there are political avenues to voice opinions and take action. These do not include name-calling for the poor overworked employees at the Consulate/Embassy.

Just my two cents!!

Cheers - - JJ

Amen to that brother!

God bless our Vets!

Cheers~

JJ - you're right...it wasn't meant as a slight on embassy staff - although you and I are in different positions when we go to the embassy. It was more of a generic groan of dissatisfaction with nowhere to turn - kind of like ranting against heaven. Believe me - I've complained vociferously to the embassy about their fees - especially the outrageous fees for kids services - they just shrug as though it's heaven ordained and therefore unquestionable - of course they can help file a service complaint back to the state dept - if enough of us complain - MAYBE they'll take note and lobby to lower our fees instead of raising them - but I'm not holding my breath - I know career government employee culture. As for embassy staff - your stuff is historically rapid - my stuff ALWAYS gets the one hour+ treatment. Been that way ever since I left the USA - I don't expect it to change until long after I'm just another chunk of mud. US Embassy will always be a painful droll experience for me - but on a brighter note...probably beats other embassies (like DPRK).

My complaint is the total lack of accountability that the GAO puts on where our money goes and how its spent. That's no way to run a company and DEFINITELY no way to run a country - I can't stand to watch the great ship sink slowly with all on board as the band plays on. We can't blame our politicians cuz we voted for them (or against them in some cases) - but this is what the majority of Americans want? I live here - well cuz I gotta GREAT job - but mostly because I can't stand to watch her sink in full view and nobody seems to care or want to fix the problem...plus nobody wants to hire an opinionated grumpy old fart.

Tony
I don't have a grain of sand's right compared to JJ - he's my hero! But I've also done my part to seriously advance the US war machine to an incredibly mind-bogglingly terrifying level of destructive power. Unlike you natives - I'm a second class US citizen - I'm a naturalized cur. I can have my citizenship revoked on a whim with no due process of law - next stop, Guantanamo Bay or the Indian Ocean - or the brig on some floating barge..or feeding the fish. Costs a LOT of money to maintain a Guantanamo Bay - Did you know 60 minutes (are they still around?) did an expose on the California prison system about 20 years ago - it cost about USD 30k a year to keep a convict in a medium security lockup. Twenty years ago - the average California welfare recipient was receiving about USD 3k per month in aid - gotta have a LOT of kids to rack up those points!! Those were my tax dollars - so YEAH - I lived in a socialistic economy for too long - it's called California USA.

The feds built a fence with lots of video cameras along the Mexican USA border (really un-neighborly - why not be fair and build another one along the USA-Canadian border - they'd love that and it would give the fence-builders some economic recovery money. It was built ostensibly to stem the flow of illegal alien traffic - which is the source of USD 40 billion a year in drug traffic - and can you even GUESS how much drug money Wachovia was laundering for the cartels (now BofA's headache). Fences don't work - but we built it anyway - the Great Fence of America...what a legacy...

I grumble at the prices because I know the history of just when and where those fees started becoming ludicrous and I know the BS crap logic they tried to shovel down our collective throats justifying the "new fees" in a cost-cutting move to make the government lighter and more efficient. I'd gyahahaha that one but I've still got donkey poop in my mouth, eyes, hair and ears...cursed memory.

But Tony - really c'mon - USD 82 for someone to paste some "special" paper into your passport. And you can accept that abomination and just grumble with an oh well shrug of your soldiers? Do you seriously think charging any kind of fees can dent the deficit? And let's not even discuss the amount of money pumped in to salvage our corrupt banking and insurance system. The interest on that free money alone is enough to finance these tax-paid citizen services for a lifetime. Tony - you must be seriously loaded with cash.

Embassy staff are federal employees - I'm QUITE familiar with their salary and tax structures. They also whine and complain about losing their COLA and housing subsidies etc ad infinitum. Some are lifelong friends.

As for going back to the local economy - here's the land of opportunity. In my over 10 years in Asia - I've ALWAYS tried to help steer contracts towards US IT companies - what a lazy stagnant cesspool of dead fish. The US Embassy - too lazy to bother forwarding to the US Chamber of Commerce. And the USCC - too lazy to bother responding. Five years I've forwarded contract leads with instructions to contact me - black holed. Last week I sent a simple curt email to the Canadian Embassy. Turnaround time - 5 working days. They were FAST!! I'm gonna buy some stuff - small contract - only USD 15 mill. Must be too small for the fat cats back home - but 10 x $15 mil should raise some eyebrows - but by then it'll be too late - i'm already entrenched with my NON USA vendors - at which time they'll whine and complain to the embassy about me not being fair and not buying USA and the US embassy will attempt to coerce me - at which time I can only shrug my shoulders and look nowhere in particular.

And for welfare - my all time favorite way to utterly waste my hard earned tax dollars - the HUGE swaths of taxpayer money showered upon the well-known, corrupt and nepotic welfare state of Saipan. Did you know Saipan was so bad they actually had to pass a law forbidding the recipients of welfare from using that money to hire maids....somebody - adopt me please...

If Rodney Dangerfield were still alive - he'd have a weatlh of material...and I could quit ranting cuz he'd know how to make light of injustice.

Hey Laotou,

For some reason, I thought I read somewhere many forum posts ago that you studied in UK, I didn't realize you're an US Citizen.

My original beef was with some non-US citizen criticizing our government. Having realized that you are indeed an US citizen, it rendered my original critic moot, I apologize.

Having said that, I still have a beef in your "U Suck..." comment. It's ok to criticize the government and their policies and the politicians, but you crossed the line when you started attacking the country. The people might suck, the politicians might be A-holes, but it has nothing to do with the country.

In closing..."I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it." That to me, is what makes America great.

Cheers~

Tony
actually I don't have a problem with people criticizing the USA - even Chavez - it helps to have an outside perspective otherwise we'll all just live in tunnel vision.

My USA comment was directed towards the continuous stream of lies coming from our government - the "trust us" people - i this particular case the people who control the embassy budgets and approve these ludicrous fees...but you and JJ are right - there are more elegant and polite ways to spit invective.

In this small isolated case of embassy fees however, can you not see the imbalance? We all pay taxes allegedly for government services. Embassy fees were originally implemented as a government cost-cutting measure during austere times. The USA has been operating a full-fledged war on not less than two battlefronts (aka Germany during WW2) - a portion of the fleet is doing pirate patrols in Somalia - and we just finished bailing out ALL of our banks and financial insurance companies using tax payer dollars. The fence along the border with Mexico is a joke and is actually really offensive IF you can look at it from Mexico's perspective - and is precisely representative of our foreign policy.

Back to the embassy - we pay taxes for the government to provide services - the embassy fees are actually a form of double payment - we pay taxes for the embassies and have to pay again to use the services - no matter how you slice it - we're paying twice for the same thing.

While we can debate the budgetary decisions of our elected leaders - the simple fact is we POUR our tax dollars overseas trying to buy foreign policy - but we can't even manage our latin american neighbors - forcing us to both pay for services which the government is supposed to supply - that's what taxes are for - and they expect me to eat the propaganda that things are getting expensive?

I'm not against paying taxes - even God demanded his 10% tithe from the Jews - what I rant against is both the abuse of our tax dollars AND the attempt from the top down to the rank and file to make me swallow a crock of bull. I'd probably feel better if they could just tell the truth - "we have to screw you so we can use the money to support some corrupt nepotic government which will probably fail in 10-15 years anyway)...and need I mention Saipan...yet again. Saipan is endemic of how our government wastes our money and yet they extort small change from us under the guise of embassy services...and it's extortion - as you note - if you don't pay - you're screwed. Truthfully - I'd even be happy if they outsourced the general embassy services - at least I know I'm being screwed for profit.

I'm just tired of being lied to, treated like an imbecile, and expected to be happy about it. My rose-tinted glasses came off decades ago...

And - WE ARE the country...As a US citizen - I'm part of that screwed up system and I can't do anything about it...except cheer on Rush Limbaugh for Vice-President (as screwed up as that sounds)...Electing him President might be suicidal. We have NO avenues to pursue when we detect our own government's policies conflict with its citizens' rights. I'm frustrated cuz they're making me look like a donkey hole - I can do that quite successfully by myself without government assistance, thank you. We are fast becoming the scapegoat of the world's woes.

And think about this - my family still lives in California - they still pay the loathsome tax burdens imposed by state and feds - yet they have to BUY their own healthcare - yet welfare recipients, convicts, and illegal aliens get it FREE! If this isn't take my money then spit in my face, then maybe I'm just too sensitive...