The Italian Consulate General in Curitiba has adopted a decisive approach to address growing concerns related to suspicious consular appointments.
Through direct guidance from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the central Italian foreign relations body led by director Luigi Maria Vignali, the diplomatic representation in Curitiba took the initiative to cancel a series of appointments which were allegedly carried out in an automated manner, possibly with the help of robots.
This measure, which is expected to extend to the consulates of Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, exemplifies the Italian government's reaction to a scandal recently exposed by deputy Andrea Di Giuseppe, from the Fdi (Brothers of Italy) party, representing the North and Central America region.
This scandal exposed corrupt practices involving employees of Italian embassies and consulates around the world, causing a negative impact on the reputation of these diplomatic institutions.
While the cancellation of appointments aims to immediately deal with the situation, Farnesina authorities are also engaged in developing more comprehensive solutions to improve consular services, as learned by Italianismo.
Appointments for passports, visas and citizenship recognition have often been the target of criticism, especially in South America. The decision taken in Curitiba is considered a temporary action, while more effective measures are being studied to establish a transparent and accessible appointment process .
In citizenship groups and Italian communities, there are reports that the Curitiba consulate is restricting access to applicants, including blocking email addresses possibly related to suspicious appointments in ongoing processes.
The price of the way
The growing demand for consular appointments has opened space for technological innovations. Companies have developed automated systems that replace human intervention in scheduling vacancies, with the aim of speeding up the process.
However, this automation has brought with it challenges, making it even more difficult to manually book legitimate vacancies in the Prenot@mi system.
In a scenario that highlights the urgency for consular appointments, companies come up with attractive, but questionable, proposals, promising to simplify the process for applicants.
However, these services come at an exorbitant cost. According to reports in citizenship groups, companies charged high prices, reaching up to R$ 2.000 to schedule a simple passport issuance process. Surprisingly, obtaining an appointment in the Italian citizenship process exceeded R$ 5.600.
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