In Gujarat, visas are life's biggest treasure

AHMEDABAD: On January 26, 2001, when people scampered out of their homes as the earth shook violently, Rituraj Pathak ran back into his house, scurried up the stairs, opened his safe and then ran out of the shaking building with a small bag. If your guess about the content of the bag says gold and diamonds, you are wrong.
It carried his passport which has an H1-B visa stamp."This passport is worth the risk," says his sister, who is equally protective about her passport stamped with a B-2 (visitor visa) allowing multiple entry into the US for 10 years.
On February 28, 2002, when the Naroda-Patia area resounded with cries for mercy as smoke billowed out from burning homes, Yusuf Ghori and his family were among the lucky few to escape.
Leaving his valuables to the mercy of mobs, Ghori, however, did not forget to take out his Indian passport and his father’s British passport.
"My father used to work in Singapore and had later settled in the UK and got a British citizenship. I hope to immigrate to the UK someday when I have the money. My father’s passport will make it easy," he says.
Across homes in Gujarat, uneasy lies the head who holds a visa. As going abroad has virtually turned into an obsession making passports with visa stamps invaluable and an object of desire, people are hiring lockers and taking more care of their passports than their jewellery.
And the US visa office making rules tougher in cases of lost passport has only added to the fear psychosis gripping holders of the ‘million-dollar passports’.
"In case a visa holder loses his passport, he has to immediately inform the US mission about it and give the visa code mentioned on the visa stamp. He also has to keep a copy of the FIR lodged, regarding the lost passport, for showing it to visa authorities. He then will have to make a fresh application for the visa category held by him," says Nilambari Sheth, head of the US Visa Facilitation Service Centre here.
Sources say that increase in the number of fraud cases, where people have been lending their passports to agents for illegal use, has led to the US cracking down on those having lost their passports and putting layers of checks to filter out the good from the bad.
Supriya Mehta, who holds a B-2 visa valid for 10 years and allowing multiple entry to the US, keeps her passport with the jewellery in her safe.
She also keeps her husband’s (Ajay) passport along with hers. A bank locker is not just a place for keeping only jewellery or bonds. For Nandini Sharma, a US education counsellor holding a longterm US visa, "It’s the safest place to keep such a valuable document."
"At the same time, it is also a big responsibility. You have to ensure or keep a check that your passport is not used for any wrong purpose to sneak into the US," Sharma adds.
"A passport with a visa stamp today has a high value in the market with rising craze for migrating to foreign places. People want to leave the shores by any means. It is time to realise the worth of such a passport," says Maulin Raval, an advocate linked with the Indo-US Legal Service.