Visa stamping experience in Buffalo - January 2012

[ethels]

Stamping at Canadian Consulate    @    Buffalo. January 2012.


I left Toronto at around 5AM in the morning and traffic was very light in the morning time. I reached Peace Bridge at around 6:40AM and subsequently the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo at around 7:30AM. I should have parked immediately inside the HSBC centre (I believe it's $6 all day), but I didn't know they have parking on-site so I parked 2 blocks away and that was only $4 for all day parking. The HSBC One tower is very hard to miss since it's the tallest one around. Parking is very abundant however, so no need to worry!

I immediately checked in with the security on ground floor. At 7:30AM, I was already the 20th person to line-up. We were provided with a sticker to attach to our chest and instructed us to go up to 30th floor. Once up there, there's another security guard who's asking for cellphone. I read about this previously and decided to leave my cell in the car.

After the cellphone checkpoint, we were told to line-up at the reception desk. People were there for different reasons (interview appointment, tourist visa, pr stamping, etc) but the process was quiet fast as they were just gathering documents. When it's my turn, they asked the following -2 Appendix B immigration photo, -Passport, -PPR letter and -letter with height and eye color. We were all instructed to sit down afterwards. I started sitting down at around 8:10AM

It's good to know that instead of calling each person to come up and pick their COPR and PR Visa, they were calling enmasse in batches. The first batch that was done processing was around 9:10AM which to me looks random. Some people that came after me has been processed whereas people that come earlier (including me) is still pending. There were few more batches before I was called up finally at around 10:15AM. I wasn't expecting the wait to be 2 hours, but was glad that it was at least done. The staffs at Canadian Consulate were also pleasant and helpful however which really improves on the whole experience.

I did not land the same day so I can't really share the actual landing experience.

If there's one big takeaway is that: you absolutely need to come early (7AM-730AM) if you want to be done in 1-2 hours.

[bkd1969]

Stamping at Canadian Consulate     @     Buffalo. January 2012.


I left Toronto at around 5AM in the morning and traffic was very light in the morning time. I reached Peace Bridge at around 6:40AM and subsequently the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo at around 7:30AM. I should have parked immediately inside the HSBC centre (I believe it's $6 all day), but I didn't know they have parking on-site so I parked 2 blocks away and that was only $4 for all day parking. The HSBC One tower is very hard to miss since it's the tallest one around. Parking is very abundant however, so no need to worry!

I immediately checked in with the security on ground floor. At 7:30AM, I was already the 20th person to line-up. We were provided with a sticker to attach to our chest and instructed us to go up to 30th floor. Once up there, there's another security guard who's asking for cellphone. I read about this previously and decided to leave my cell in the car.

After the cellphone checkpoint, we were told to line-up at the reception desk. People were there for different reasons (interview appointment, tourist visa, pr stamping, etc) but the process was quiet fast as they were just gathering documents. When it's my turn, they asked the following -2 Appendix B immigration photo, -Passport, -PPR letter and -letter with height and eye color. We were all instructed to sit down afterwards. I started sitting down at around 8:10AM

It's good to know that instead of calling each person to come up and pick their COPR and PR Visa, they were calling enmasse in batches. The first batch that was done processing was around 9:10AM which to me looks random. Some people that came after me has been processed whereas people that come earlier (including me) is still pending. There were few more batches before I was called up finally at around 10:15AM. I wasn't expecting the wait to be 2 hours, but was glad that it was at least done. The staffs at Canadian Consulate were also pleasant and helpful however which really improves on the whole experience.

I did not land the same day so I can't really share the actual landing experience.

If there's one big takeaway is that: you absolutely need to come early (7AM-730AM) if you want to be done in 1-2 hours.

thanks for your sharing. How is it possible so fast in your case: filed in 08/11 and got stamped 5 months later? That is the fasted I ever seen. Any tips to share?

[gaijin]

Stamping at Canadian Consulate     @     Buffalo. January 2012.

Congratulation ethels. I wish you could brought our passports back with you. That would be faster. hahahaha.. just j/k

[ethels]

thanks for your sharing. How is it possible so fast in your case: filed in 08/11 and got stamped 5 months later? That is the fasted I ever seen. Any tips to share?

The faster processing times seems to be unique to files that got transferred to CPP-Ottawa. AFAIK, this office is relatively new and had no prior backlog .