My Chinese friend is applying for a single-entry tourist visa to visit Canad this summer. She applied on May 9 at the consulate in Shanghai. I am the inviter, but since my parents are the only ones currently living in Canada, they submitted and invitation too. On May 12, they asked for more documents by fax (tax forms from the inviter, invitation letter from me in addition to the one my parents wrote, etc). We submitted all these documents and some additional ones (like our boat insurance forms and my canadian social insurance card). Finished faxing on May 18. Now it's June 6 and we've heard nothing from them.
Seems strange. Anyone know how the embassy/consulate system works? Is calling to ask what's taking so long discouraged? I guess the student rush could be affecting it but we have to apply for the US visa next week and that requires that she have her passport returned from the Canadian consulate.
They are insanely busy. So busy, in fact, that CIC has been previously accused of "managing" the influx of Chinese immigrants by deliberately understaffing their Chinese offices. They deny this. They have also started conducting some of the paperwork and interviews out of the Seoul office.
I don't think there's anything sinister amiss-- and it is highly unlikely you'll get much of a response by calling them, but it wouldn't hurt. Just don't expect them to meet any hard deadlines, and stay as flexible as you can!
It can take a very long time for Chinese to get visas for Canada. They may not believe that she is planning on going back to China.
Yea I dont have any huge deadlines to worry about, but the problem is she has a "visa appointment/interview" with the US consulate next week. I assume the Canadian embassy won't let her take her passport back from them while they beat around the bush so that the US embassy can do their thing? The US embassy gives you an accepted/rejected notice immediately at the end of the visa appointment, so she would not need the passport for very long. But am I right in thinking that if she asks for her passport back from the Canadian consulate in order to apply for the US visa, even though she only wants the passport temporarily, they will withdraw her application all together?
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