Short visit visa for Canada.

[sandyf]

I have just completed an application for a short stay visa for Canada. Before I started I did a search on the forum and all the posts returned were quite old and did not address the current process.

Everybody's situation is different and it does have a bearing on the requirements, I can only relate what they applied to me. I am a UK citizen and applied to take my Thai wife to visit my brother, expat but now Canadian resident living in Montreal.

The process is completely online and you start by taking an eligibility test at this webpage.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/my_application/apply_online.asp?d=1&q=n

When you have completed the questionaire you will receive a personal document checklist with a reference number. In my case, this is what they required in the way of supporting documents. Against each item there is an information symbol and if you click on it there is details regarding the requirement.

Proof of Financial Resource of Supporter

Purpose of Travel/ Other

Proof of Means of Financial Support

Passport or travel document

Digital Photo

Proof of Relationship

Travel History

Invitation Letter

You get 30 days from the time of the eligibility test to initiate an application. In order to start an online application you need to create a MyCIC account. This is not particularly straightforward and it is important that you read carefully what appears on the screen, otherwise you get frustrating error messages or sent back to the beginning.

It is a 2 stage process, you create a user and password which is fairly standard and then you create a security barrier which consists of 4 questions and answers.

Every time you access your account, you login with user and password, then accept the terms and conditions, and then answer a security question, can be any one of the 4 set up.

Once inside the account the first thing you see is your details and initial reaction may be that you need to change something, it is only the edit screen and you need to scroll down past it.

There are several items listed but you have to select the one for starting an application and then enter the reference number provided with your checklist. The eligibility questions will come up on the screen giving you the option to change the answers and then provide a final set of document requirements. Once you start the application you have 60 days to complete.

As well as the supporting documents you need an application form and a family form. These are pdf forms and can be downloaded from the website.

On the online application you will come across upload buttons for everything that they require and you cannot complete until a file has been uploaded for each item, max file size is 4mb.

Once you have uploaded everything, you digitally sign the application and make the payment, currently 100 CAD.

I submitted all docs on the 15th and then on 27th received a message through MyCIC asking to send my wife's passport to the Canadian Visa Centre at Trendy. Just waiting now to go and collect it so we can hand in the UK application.

[luxoretired]

many thanks for clear info ,i could try next year for my partner ,im sure she would be unsuccessfull for us visa.so far 3 schengen and no2 uk next week !

[sandyf]

Follow up to original post.

It took over 3 weeks for VFS to get the visa into my wife's passport, just seemed to be one delay after another. When we were instructed by CIC to send the passport to VFS there was no mention of any further payment. About 4 days after they received it they phoned up and said that they required about 800 baht transferred to their account before they could process the passport. We were tied up in Pattaya at the time and little we could do about it there and then.

The following day my wife rang back, not an easy task, and established it was 554 baht that had to be paid as we wished to collect the passport. I then made the payment using online banking with the application number in the transfer details, and emailed the transfer details to VFS.

With the benefit of hindsight that was a big mistake. Over the next week they phoned several times to say they had not been paid. In the end I told them that I was going to refer the matter to the Canadian embassy and by a strange coincidence 15 minutes later the money was in their account.

Unfortunately we had now hit Songkran weekend and everything held up again for several days. When they did say the passport was ready, it was a few days before we could get a convenient appointment at the UK office.

Anyone contemplating this process should try and establish the VFS charges and send it in with the passport, will save a lot of hassle. If you are faced with a bank transfer then it would be advisable in the applicants name. I think this was the problem with mine, they never bothered with the bank transfer details.

Another point worth bearing in mind is that in VFS lingo, 'Canada visa office ' means the Canadian embassy. They used this in a tracking message and we had to ring up and find out what they meant.

Generally speaking the process is much better constructed than that used by the UK and a great deal of repetition would be eliminated in subsequent applications. The real bonus is that initial document submission is online and can be done at your convenience without any appointment or travelling involved. Anything else would come up after the documents had been reviewed by Canadian immigration.

I have to say I was quite surprised when I actually saw the visa, my wife was granted a multiple entry visitor visa valid for the remaining time on her passport, approximately three and a half years. A bit more than she would get from my government.

Edited May 6, 2015 by sandyf

[chrisdodd]

For your info...you dealt with an AGENCY not the Canadian Embassy