Www.citaconsularguatemala.com San Francisco: The Guatemalan consulate network on US soil is currently coping with the impact of a government transition that has left its citizens in limbo due to an Appointment system that deals with unchecked passports that are as difficult to comprehend as water and oil. We went to the citaconsularguatemala.com website the next day after getting a copy of the complaint published in Los Angeles.
What’s startling is that only eight consulates, including those in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, Seattle, Miami, and Denver, will accommodate your request for an appointment the next day or the following week. Booking an appointment at the other consulates, on the other hand, has turned into a nightmare due to lengthy wait times ranging from 42 to 184 days, which is almost equivalent to six months. Times to confirm that at least 16 of the 21 consulates allow consumers who make appointments online or through the call center. The first option is to request an appointment using the following URL: According to the Guatemalan consul, “arranging your appointment takes five minutes.” It’s incredibly easy and quick.”
The cities that have reached this level are Lake Worth (42 days), San Francisco (53 days), Chicago (59 years), Houston (120 days), Providence (114 days), Silver Spring (150 years), and New York City (184). Other than the remark that no appointments are available this month, Atlanta offers no other possibilities. According to Carlos López, a Guatemala City resident, it is “unfair” to him. People without legal status are also present, and the consulates are doing little to help them. For the time being, there are two procedures for seeking a consular appointment if you want any type of procedure.
The website reopen for Arranging Appointments
On February 28, the website http://www.citaconsularguatemala.com will reopen for arranging appointments for the month of March. You can arrange an appointment for any surgery by phoning the call center in addition to utilizing the internet. However, because all calls are routed through this center to one of the 23 Guatemalan consulates throughout the United States, this may take a little longer. If you just need a quick piece of information, you can do so by contacting the embassy via Messenger on Facebook, where roughly 170 messages are received daily and responded to by three different consular officers.
This issue corresponds to New York’s introduction of the undocumented driver’s license, which requires a valid passport and identity documents from the Consulate, such as consular registration, in order to obtain access to the state license in question. As of Monday, December 16th, this license may be completed for immigrants who are in the state on a temporary basis. Guatemalans with a large presence in the country are expected to gain around 250,000 people. At various Guatemalan consulates in the United States, passport appointments might take anywhere from one to six months.
The Angels – The Guatemalan consulate network on US land is suffering from the effects of a government change, which has left its compatriots in limbo due to an appointment system for passport processing that is as weird as water and oil. After receiving the complaint, the Los Angeles Times en Espaol checked the website citaconsularguatemala.com to see if at least 16 of the 21 consulates accept users who arrange appointments online or through the contact center. Only eight consulates, including those in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, Seattle, Miami, and Denver, provide appointments on the next day or the same week that they are sought.
At the consulate’s entry into Los Angeles
A diplomatic officer examines a user’s documents. However, making an appointment at the remainder of the consulates has become a nightmare, with wait times ranging from 42 to 184 days, or six months. Lake Worth (42 days), San Francisco (53), Chicago (59), Houston (120), Providence (114), Silver Spring (150), and New York are all in the top ten (184). It merely says there are no appointments available this month in Atlanta, and it doesn’t offer any other options. “It’s not right,” Carlos López, a Guatemala City native, remarked. “There are those who don’t have a legal stay as well, and the consulates aren’t helping.”
This issue has arisen in conjunction with the implementation of a driver’s license for illegal immigrants in New York, where they are required to present a valid passport and identifying documents issued by the consulate, such as consular registration, in order to obtain the state permit. Immigrants with irregular status in the state can apply for a driver’s license beginning Monday, December 16. Around 250,000 people are projected to benefit, but Guatemalans living in the area who have a huge settlement are caught between a rock and a hard place.
President Jimmy Morales, according to Giovanni Bautista, publisher of the internet journal La Voz del Inmigrante, specializing in the Guatemalan community, utilized the Guatemalan diaspora to gain power. “These folks (in New York) will have to continue to take risks out of need many times,” Bautista lamented. “They will have to drive without a license and risk being imprisoned and potentially deported.” The consulates in New York and Maryland recently built a passport printing center; however, this advancement is largely ineffective because the appointments lack the flexibility that the public expects.
According to the Census Bureau, 1.3 million Guatemalans live in the United States, with Los Angeles (214,939 residents), Harris, Texas (34,117), and Cook, Illinois (24,931) having the biggest concentrations; in Florida, Palm Beach (20,080) and Miami-Dade have the highest concentrations (19,771). Amarilys Ortiz, the general secretary of the Guatemalan American Association in Los Angeles, encouraged Guatemalan legislators to act on the issue.
Conference with consults at national level with the Foreign Ministry
“There should be a conference with all the consuls at the national level or with the Foreign Ministry, and we should file a lawsuit against all of this,” the outraged activist stated, referring to the fact that her compatriots are unprotected by the governmental agencies tasked with ensuring their safety. Since August 2015, when it was first implemented at the Houston headquarters, the appointment system has been in use at Guatemalan consulates. Then they started putting it into practice in other government agencies.
Johana Hernández, 33, started working in this industry when she was 19 years old. She now owns two retail locations, one in Downey and the other in Beverly Hills. The Guatemalan consul general in Los Angeles, José Barillas Trennert, indicated that he has no idea what is going on in the other cities’ consulates. In his practice, the average wait time for an appointment is less than 24 hours. However, the consul stressed that this issue does not apply to consular situations, such as immigration appointments or document processing for cases of illness; in these cases, the user should only bring court notices or medical documents.
“With verifiable emergencies, we service everybody who arrives,” the official added, referring to any embassy. “Your passport is taken care of right away, or whatever you’ve come to do, it’s handed to you right away.” According to Christians Castillo, an analyst at the University of San Carlos’ Institute of National Problems (IPNUSAC), this is a state problem and an act of discrimination against Guatemalan nationals who are receiving special attention. differentiated.
