Passports not yet received, but held at the Canadian Embassy in Riyadh, KSA

[matnpete]

Is there anyone here having the same experience as ours? We have submitted our passports for visa stamping to the PHEP Processing of the High Commission of Canada in London on 9 September 2009. Following the 30-day working period, I tried to email London Office regarding the status of our passports; however, the London Visa office informed us that our passports were already forwarded to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh on 25 September 2009 for onward transmission. I tried to contact the Canadian Embassy in Riyadh, and the operator advised me that someone would contact me on the following day. I waited for TWO weeks but nobody called. I also tried to email them twice, but I only received a confirmation of receipt email. I only kept my correspondence to a minimum to avoid annoyance. Please share your experience on how to followup the embassy regarding this case. Thank you very much.

[professional 1]

I had a similar experience with the canadian visa office in riyadh but it was for a student visa on 2008. They sent my passport via aramex to my stupid agent and he kept the passport with him for a while without telling me that he received it.

therefore, i called the canadian embassy in riyadh to inquire about my passport, the call center agent was a female, she asked me whether i sent an email or not to the visa section, i said no, then she said send them an email at first and within two days if you don't get answer call me again. i did and there was no responce except the automatic reply of the messages, and i called her again after two days, she asked about my name, date of birth, passport number, application type and date, and she said i will inform the visa office section about your case, and they might contact you.

after 2 hours exactly i got a phone call from the canadian embassy in riyadh, it was a female as well, she told me that she is the visa officer who processed my application and said that she sent my passport with aramex the week befeore, she gave me the tracking number for the shipment.

when i checked the tracking number on aramex website, i found out that my stupid agent has received it and kept it in his office without any reason.


i know that our cases are different because it was a student visa not permanent residence, but at least i wanted to give you an idea about my situation with the embassy in riyadh.

Good luck.

[belize]

my advice is sent them fax as soon as possible with  your email address and they will reply.

regards

[waqashz]

Hello brothers!
sorry for asking you my own question
that is
how did you people send your passports to london
means you used which courier service.
because in my case i am waiting for passport request only and some one told me that it is illegal to send our passports oustside the country where we live.
thanx
WAQAS

[matnpete]

We just got our passports with the visa in it today. I sent the Canadian Embassy another email today with all my contact details, and surprisingly enough, they were able to respond immediately. It was actually my fault because I did not write a contact number on the self-addressed envelope, which I sent to CIC with the passports.  I explained my case and the urgency of having our passports back especially since it would be difficult to make travel arrangements with our company a few weeks prior to the Eid holidays. Initially, I was reluctant to bug them again with another email for fear of annoying them, but everything just went fine. They've sent the documents today via aramex and the embassy gave as the tracking number. Even before Aramex got the chance to contact us, we went straight to their warehouse in Sulai (Exit 16) and got hold of the passports before 8 pm. To God be the glory!

With regards to Waqas enquiry, we are just blessed that when I requested the passports of me and my family, no questions were asked by my superiors. I just signed the passport request form, and the reason i wrote for requesting the passport was "For Canadian Embassy." I did not elaborate. I informed the Government Relations Department of the company beforehand of the possible delay of returning the passports. Btw, we sent our passports through DHL.