The bizarre logic of "essential personnel"

[Recursion]

We were just going over the impact of a shutdown for the consulate. A skeleton crew of consular officers will stay and take visa applications, but the techies like me will be gone so the processing systems won't be up. Furthermore, the relevant desks in DC will be closed, so they can't submit them, and the investigative arm of security will be gone, so they can't do background checks. However, local labor laws keep us from furloughing local staff, so they will stay working, as will their supervisors. Local staff do stuff like our library, and our social media presence, so the consulate will be able to tweet about how you can come apply but all that can really happen is that the consul can put your application in the outbox.

Also weird: we're 9 and a half hours ahead of DC (I can even explain why our time zone is a half hour off, but that's a long story), so we will be well into the morning of the 1st if a shutdown happens, which will be interesting to say the least.

[skying05]

1. really weird.

really weird.

[Recursion]

2. The Marshall Islands are right on the date line

So the embassy in Majuro will be in the afternoon already.

Interestingly, the diplomatic pouch keeps running, which sounds fancy but is basically just how embassy personnel order stuff from Amazon.

[joshcryer]

3. So let me get this straight.

They will have people there accepting applications but the applications won't be able to be processed. Pile up somewhere or get sent off in a mass shipment to sit in a warehouse or something.

I wonder what the logic behind that is. Trying to show the rest of the world that everything is still operating and that requests will be accepted?

I mean in theory the local laws mean shit all if you lock the doors.

[Recursion]

4. Our bilateral treaties always bind us by local labor laws

with the exception of PRC, which doesn't want to follow US labor laws in DC.

Indian law doesn't allow for layoffs per se, so we're stuck with the staff we have.