Embassy New Delhi, India and Constituent Posts - OIG - US ...

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members benefit, as they come from diverse backgrounds. These sessions, called India 101, have
an added benefit of helping LE staff members to develop their public speaking skills.
Innovative Practice: Teaching Staff about Local Culture
Issue: Consular officers need to understand local culture. This understanding leads to better
adjudications and makes officers more effective in outreach and representational functions. It
often takes officers several months at post to gain this knowledge.
Response: Consular managers in Hyderabad ask LE staff members to volunteer to present
sessions on topics about local culture on training days. The sessions are generally taught by LE
staff, but sometimes the LE staff has guest speakers with expertise on a particular topic.
Result: Consular officers understand local culture more quickly than they would otherwise and
develop a more thorough understanding of local customs and social norms. LE staff also benefit
as they come from diverse backgrounds. These sessions, called India 101, have an added benefit
of helping LE staff members develop their public speaking and mentoring skills.
Consular Section in Mumbai
Mumbai’s consular staff of 28 officers and 61 LE staff have operated for many years in
cramped and overcrowded space that is among the worst that OIG team members have ever seen.
This facility is inadequate for the current staff and workload, and the staff greatly anticipates the
move to the new consulate compound, which is currently scheduled for the fall of 2011. The
working area there will be considerably larger, the waiting areas will be bigger, and the section
will have 39 visa windows and 5 ACS windows. Despite the current poor working conditions,
morale is high. The OIG team attributes this primarily to the exceptionally strong leadership of
the mid-level visa managers.
To add more windows for interviews and processing, several years ago the consulate
general constructed an extension to add 6 windows to the existing 11 visa windows by enclosing
a part of the visa waiting room along most of the length of one wall. They refer to this extension
as the “tunnel.” With as many as 40 people in the immediate area, including those in the tunnel,
and the lack of egress at the far end, the inspection team concluded that in the event of a fire or
other emergency, the staff in the tunnel would have difficulty getting out and could be trapped.
The OIG team believes that safety is the top priority and that the matter was sufficiently urgent
for the team to make a recommendation to close the tunnel even before the end of the inspection.
To their credit, embassy and consulate general managers closed the tunnel. The MCCA realigned
consular work, reapportioned visa appointments, and sent some staff from Mumbai to other posts
in India so that there was no loss of time or inconvenience to applicants. The mission and CA
deserve praise for their expeditious response to this issue.
CA would like to make the consular section in Mumbai a model section when it moves
into the new facility. Given the huge challenges and potential for growth in Mumbai, the OIG
team supports the installation of state-of-the-art technology such as Q-flow and thin-client work
stations. Consulate General Mumbai has begun the installation of Q-flow.
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