Hi All,
I recently walked in to get my Canadian Visa from the Canadian Consulate in New York City. I just wanted to share my experience for people out there looking to get their Canadian Visa.
I basically arrived at the consulate at 7:25am on Wednesday. The consulate opens only at 8am during weekdays for walkins and they accept applications till 10:30am. When I went at 7:25am, there were only two men waiting in a queue and slowly more people started coming. Within 15 mins or so there were approximately 60 people in the queue. Note that I went for my walkin in January and waiting outside in the queue was no fun. It was freezing cold. I was hoping they will let us into the building at 8am and finally get some warmth. Unfortunately due to some issues, they let us in only at 8:30am. So I waited outside in the cold for more than an hour. My kind advice to all would be not to go in winter if possible. As the consulate does not maintain strict time. Its so very uncertain. Well once we got inside the building, they screened us and our belongings. One of the officers there said make sure you have the proof showing you paid the visa fee. Then after that I was given a token number and a blue folder that had all my documents.Then was asked to wait till I see my number in the big display. Since I managed to be in the queue early, I had to wait just for few minutes before it was my turn. The VO asked for the blue folder. Made sure I had all the application forms, visa fee and any supporting documents for my trip to Canada. I was on F1->OPT->H1B and was basically going to Canada for H1B stamping. So I showed proof related to my degree,employment, proof of financial ability, and all previous work permits held. I also submitted 2 recent photographs..The VO did not ask me even one question. She looked at all the documents and asked me to come back on Friday to pick up the passport. Note that the Consulate is not open on Wednesdays for passport pickups. She told me to hold on to the token slip as they will need it to locate my passport.
Then I went back on Friday to pick up my passport thinking it would hardly take few minutes to get it. To my surprise there was already a huge line outside the embassy for passport pickups. I was so freaked out to see the line. All I could think was that I am going to freeze in the cold all over again. I was the probably the 30th person in the line. This time though, the line moved a little faster and I went inside the building in like 25 mins. So it was not too bad. Then I went through pretty much the same process. Security screening, another token number(different from the one that you will already have in your hand from the day you dropped your application). I just waited for my new token number to come on the screen. I went to the VO, she asked me for the old token slip and asked me to fill a form(basic information like my name, DOB, citizenship etc). Then I got my passport with 6 months of Canadian Visa on it. Note that the Canadian Visa did not have my photograph on it unlike my F1 US visa. I was pretty surprised to see why they asked me to submit 2 photos and yet they did not put my photo in my visa.
Anyhooo with my experience, I only realized that going in winter was a bad idea. Other than that everything was pretty smooth. GoodLuck!!
I recently walked in to get my Canadian Visa from the Canadian Consulate in New York City. I just wanted to share my experience for people out there looking to get their Canadian Visa.
I basically arrived at the consulate at 7:25am on Wednesday. The consulate opens only at 8am during weekdays for walkins and they accept applications till 10:30am. When I went at 7:25am, there were only two men waiting in a queue and slowly more people started coming. Within 15 mins or so there were approximately 60 people in the queue. Note that I went for my walkin in January and waiting outside in the queue was no fun. It was freezing cold. I was hoping they will let us into the building at 8am and finally get some warmth. Unfortunately due to some issues, they let us in only at 8:30am. So I waited outside in the cold for more than an hour. My kind advice to all would be not to go in winter if possible. As the consulate does not maintain strict time. Its so very uncertain. Well once we got inside the building, they screened us and our belongings. One of the officers there said make sure you have the proof showing you paid the visa fee. Then after that I was given a token number and a blue folder that had all my documents.Then was asked to wait till I see my number in the big display. Since I managed to be in the queue early, I had to wait just for few minutes before it was my turn. The VO asked for the blue folder. Made sure I had all the application forms, visa fee and any supporting documents for my trip to Canada. I was on F1->OPT->H1B and was basically going to Canada for H1B stamping. So I showed proof related to my degree,employment, proof of financial ability, and all previous work permits held. I also submitted 2 recent photographs..The VO did not ask me even one question. She looked at all the documents and asked me to come back on Friday to pick up the passport. Note that the Consulate is not open on Wednesdays for passport pickups. She told me to hold on to the token slip as they will need it to locate my passport.
Then I went back on Friday to pick up my passport thinking it would hardly take few minutes to get it. To my surprise there was already a huge line outside the embassy for passport pickups. I was so freaked out to see the line. All I could think was that I am going to freeze in the cold all over again. I was the probably the 30th person in the line. This time though, the line moved a little faster and I went inside the building in like 25 mins. So it was not too bad. Then I went through pretty much the same process. Security screening, another token number(different from the one that you will already have in your hand from the day you dropped your application). I just waited for my new token number to come on the screen. I went to the VO, she asked me for the old token slip and asked me to fill a form(basic information like my name, DOB, citizenship etc). Then I got my passport with 6 months of Canadian Visa on it. Note that the Canadian Visa did not have my photograph on it unlike my F1 US visa. I was pretty surprised to see why they asked me to submit 2 photos and yet they did not put my photo in my visa.
Anyhooo with my experience, I only realized that going in winter was a bad idea. Other than that everything was pretty smooth. GoodLuck!!
