Hi, I managed to
SUCCEED to contact CIC outside of Canada
(July 20th, 2018), and thought I should share my experience here in case there are other people who are going through the same situation.
First off, the strategy I chose was to use
Skype to call overseas. You can simply sign up, and purchase
Skype credits for a certain amount. I spent $10(CAD) just in case I run out of credits while calling, and
ended up using about $2(CAD). Personally I think $5 max would be enough if you were to call only CIC and that's it.
Then, I tried calling two different numbers to reach CIC:
a)
+1 888-242-2100: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Client Support Centre (
Monday to Friday; 8am to 4pm)
This is the commonly well known number for contacting them, but unfortunately
it didn't work for me on Skype. I tried three times, and kept receiving a message from the operators which said, "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the number and dial again."
b)
+1 613-944-4000: Citizenship and Immigration Canada Corporate Offices
Then, I wanted to give a shot to this second popular Citizenship and Immigration Canada phone number, and FYI I called at around
9am PDT(Pacific Daylight Time). Finally, I was hearing the dial tone instead of the call being dropped, but
it didn't put me in the queue after automated message when I was trying to reach an agent, claiming that they were experiencing high volumes.
After some more research, I discovered that
the best time to call +1 613-944-4000 is at 2:15 pm PDT, so I waited until then to call them again. For this time
it finally put me in the queue after automated message, though the waiting time was 48 minutes long. It sounded extremely long, but I had no other choice than patiently waiting.
And Voila! I was finally able to talk to one of the agents after 50 minutes of listening to their meditative soundtrack.
Some other tips just in case:
1) This is pretty straightforward, but it totally got me in the beginning;
don't forget to include '+' before you dial the phone number. Otherwise, it won't work.
2) In terms of automated message just make sure that you press the right number as to your current status(mine was study permit), and after answering a couple of them they will give you as one of the options if you'd like to talk to one of their agents.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
