In defense of the bureaucrats

Any thinking person who has the great misfortune to deal with consulate officials, inevitably comes to the conclusion that they are exceptionally stupid. However it is not necessarily so. One of the readers provided the inside information:

Ne znayu pochemu, no u nih ochen' zhestkie pravila - i sami devochki, kotorye vydayut vizy, ne vinovaty - esli oni ne budut sledovat' pravilam, oni vpolne mogut poteryat' rabotu - bez vozmozhnosti nayti druguyu, tak kak u nas v konsul'stve, k primeru, prakticheski ni u kogo greencard net. Poetomu vse i boyatsya sdelat' chto-to "ne tak":((

This reminded me the classics:

Svoyu podpis' postavit' i vizu (Da, imenno vizu! -MM)
Vse ravno chto projti po karnizu
My sgoraem kogda razreshaem
I poetomu vse zapreschaem!

Ok, I remove the charge of stupidity. But instead I charge them with complacency. Ok, these girls are only soldiers of the Organization, but why did they pick this line of work? Not everybody would agree to do the job that requires following stupid instructions. I would have slammed the door the next day (like I've done in the past).

Of course, Green Card is a serious incentive, but remember that these girls are not from some poor African, Asian or Latin American country, not even from Russia or Ukraine - they are Europeans, and the worst thing that might happen to them is that they'll go back to Europe (any place in Europe!) and receive generous unemployment pay. Some people, including myself, would consider it a promotion!
In fact, during my stay in Paris in 2001, I visited apartments of some of my unemployed friends. I don't know whether every French unemployed lives like that, but I haven't yet seen any hard-working Manhattanite who had apartment of the same size and quality.