How to send documents to Vienna Office with a "Pre-Paid Commercial Courier Coupon"

[aphermix]

Hello All,

I live in the Netherlands and is a citizen of India. I received the PPR yesterday. In it they have asked me to courier the passport and other documents to Vienna office with a "pre-paid commercial courier return coupon " so that they can return the documents. I called up all major courier companies (Fedex, DHL and UPS) and none offer this service in Europe to their Non-Business Clients. I want to know from others who send documents to Vienna office as how they accomplished the return of documents.

If I have to go to a VAS to drop my pasport, the nearest one is in Germany and I need a passport for re-entering Netherlands while I wait for it to be stamper (All buses and trains ask for passport even in Schengen now). SO I don't really want to go for the VAS option

Thanks for the responses

 

[Nina53]

Hello All,

I live in the Netherlands and is a citizen of India. I received the PPR yesterday. In it they have asked me to courier the passport and other documents to Vienna office with a "pre-paid commercial courier return coupon " so that they can return the documents. I called up all major courier companies (Fedex, DHL and UPS) and none offer this service in Europe to their Non-Business Clients. I want to know from others who send documents to Vienna office as how they accomplished the return of documents.

If I have to go to a VAS to drop my pasport, the nearest one is in Germany and I need a passport for re-entering Netherlands while I wait for it to be stamper (All buses and trains ask for passport even in Schengen now). SO I don't really want to go for the VAS option

Thanks for the responses

Hello. What you can do (my college did that with UPS) ...is when you get the envelope to send your passport to Vienna you also get a return one (basically you need a label with the address from Vienna to your home address). You put your passport AND return envelope into the current one and send. Then, after few days you receive an email from embassy that your passport is ready for collection. You MUST call ups to schedule the collection of your passport (you have to give them the number in that return label that they know exactly which envelope to pick). You should find out what hours the reception in the embassy is opened (cant remember exactly...but it is up to noon or something like that)...and then the guy will collect it and your passport will be on its way to you And you can track the progress! Good luck!

 

[aphermix]

Hello. What you can do (my college did that with UPS) ...is when you get the envelope to send your passport to Vienna you also get a return one (basically you need a label with the address from Vienna to your home address). You put your passport AND return envelope into the current one and send. Then, after few days you receive an email from embassy that your passport is ready for collection. You MUST call ups to schedule the collection of your passport (you have to give them the number in that return label that they know exactly which envelope to pick). You should find out what hours the reception in the embassy is opened (cant remember exactly...but it is up to noon or something like that)...and then the guy will collect it and your passport will be on its way to you And you can track the progress! Good luck!

Hi Nina53 thanks for the reply. I asked the UPS offices in Netherlands and they have no such facility :-(. Anyway I have already sent the passports to VAC (VFS Global) in Dusseldorf Germany as this needs only a one-way courier. I am hoping they will handle my documents professionally. I had some bad experience with VFS Global in past though

 

[makdt]

Hi Aphermix,
Can you please let me know how it worked out for you and the time it took to complete your process?
I have the same situation now and I need to send them my passports and was also looking into the whole return envelope

 

[aphermix]

I used the VAC Dusseldorf Option. Contacted them and they asked me to pay 48.99 EUR as bank transfer and send them the documents including the VAC Consent form available on their website. I sent them the passport, photo and documents thru DHL on a Wednesday. They forwarded to the embassy and got the stamping and COPR from there and sent me back it by the next week Friday. Was fast and efficient.

 

[makdt]

k. Thanks for the info.

 

[aphermix]

No problem

 

[makdt]

Hey Aphermix,
I went to my local DHL / Post shop here in Germany, looks like they know about a prepaid return envelope. He even understood and said "so they can send it the things back to you". so that should work I suppose. The only part that bothers me is the part where they say about the courier company sending them an email to arrange pickup, although that is in the section that says Private courier where they, mention the pre paid commercial coupon. In the registered post section they just mention sending direct with registered post and in the pack including a pre-paid courier return envelope. Does your document have something like that mentioned?

Has no one done a direct registered post and prepaid return envelope?

 

[aphermix]

Hey Aphermix,
In the registered post section they just mention sending direct with registered post and in the pack including a pre-paid courier return envelope. Does your document have something like that mentioned?
Has no one done a direct registered post and prepaid return envelope?

In my case they didn't mention pre-pad courier return envelope under the 'registered mail' section. There they only said they will send it by registered mail back to you.

I never knew DHL provided return coupons to non-business customers. Why don't you double check this ?

Even if you send it one way in either DHL/ Registered post without a return coupon, they will send it back in a proper registered mail free of charge. I think inside Europe it should not take many days to be back.
Can you tell me where you live in Germany ? Maybe the VFS is not very far from you. If you can get to them thats the fastest option

 

[makdt]

I am in Frankfurt am Main. I have been to Duesseldorf for UK visa and the VFS thingy is not far from there. I am trying to avoid Duesseldorf/VFS and because of the cost. I have to do 3 passports (wife and child also). Ok so in the letter they say without a return envelope they will send it by regular mail. My only concern with sending the prepaid envelope is the arrangement of DHL pickup, and although it is mentioned in another section, the DHL people having to mail them at an email address to arrange pick up.
If I can get a guarantee that sending a DHL envelope in the package is good enough and they will hand it over on their own to DHL no problem . then I will totally skip out the VAC thingy.

 

[aphermix]

I am in Frankfurt am Main. I have been to Duesseldorf for UK visa and the VFS thingy is not far from there. I am trying to avoid Duesseldorf/VFS and because of the cost. I have to do 3 passports (wife and child also). Ok so in the letter they say without a return envelope they will send it by regular mail. My only concern with sending the prepaid envelope is the arrangement of DHL pickup, and although it is mentioned in another section, the DHL people having to mail them at an email address to arrange pick up.
If I can get a guarantee that sending a DHL envelope in the package is good enough and they will hand it over on their own to DHL no problem . then I will totally skip out the VAC thingy.

Hmm yeah I totally agree. In my case in Netherlands DHL or any other postal company did not give me a return mail option. Else I would have gone that way. And yes it seems weird that DHL had to email them when they are ready. You can see in your CIC status that your visa is approved. Then maybe a day after that you can call DHL and ask them to email the embassy.

In worst case they will send you back by registered post (that's what they meant by ordinary post, I have confirmed with the embassy). It may take a few more days to reach you. Good luck man

 

[shini2969]

I am in Frankfurt am Main. I have been to Duesseldorf for UK visa and the VFS thingy is not far from there. I am trying to avoid Duesseldorf/VFS and because of the cost. I have to do 3 passports (wife and child also). Ok so in the letter they say without a return envelope they will send it by regular mail. My only concern with sending the prepaid envelope is the arrangement of DHL pickup, and although it is mentioned in another section, the DHL people having to mail them at an email address to arrange pick up.
If I can get a guarantee that sending a DHL envelope in the package is good enough and they will hand it over on their own to DHL no problem . then I will totally skip out the VAC thingy.

@makdt , did the direct post to Vienna and avoiding the VFS thing work ? What did you do ? Can you please suggest ?

 

[makdt]

I went with VFS.
Did not take the risk as I cannot speak in German to DHL, and then getting and english speaking agent would mean some more time and waiting for callback from them etc. etc.
So just spent the money ... and VFS also gives you a tracking no. Not that it adds a lot of details but is still better than nothing.

If you can go with VFS, I guess I recommend that....

 

[giri123]

Hmm yeah I totally agree. In my case in Netherlands DHL or any other postal company did not give me a return mail option. Else I would have gone that way. And yes it seems weird that DHL had to email them when they are ready. You can see in your CIC status that your visa is approved. Then maybe a day after that you can call DHL and ask them to email the embassy.

In worst case they will send you back by registered post (that's what they meant by ordinary post, I have confirmed with the embassy). It may take a few more days to reach you. Good luck man

Hi Did it work for you? How many days did it take for the registered post? I am in a similar situation now and confused if I should take VFS or the normal post option. Thanks

 

[varunaqua20]

Hello everyone,

I also received my Canada PR and received a Passport request letter.
I just want to share my experience on this topic.
I went all the comments from members across various forums and also did research on my part trying to contact various courier companies(DHL, UPS, GLS, DPD). It was not possible to get a return prepaid label and arrange a pickup from the Canadian Embassy in Vienna.

The safest option is however through the VAC in Dusseldorf which is expensive(around 50 Euro per passport for Passport transmissions and sending back the passport to you). You also need to consider the cost to send your passports to the VAC either by post, courier or drop in person.
If you leave near Dusseldorf and can collect your passports by yourself, then you can save some cost and it will the cost you around 24 Euro per Passport(Passport transmission to the Embassy,Vienna).

Well I went for the 3rd option, sending the passports via Registered post directly to the Embassy in Vienna. I didn't send any prepaid return envelope(as it was not possible for me to arrange it). The Embassy also sent back the passports also via registered post. The total turnaround time was 5 working days. I sent my passports Thursday morning and got it back by next week Wednesday. Isn't that great .
Regarding the expense. It cost me under 10 Euros for one way registered post. The embassy doesnt charge anything for sending the passports via Registered post which also cost them around 10 Euros.

I read many posts which raised doubts on the registered post option and the Passport request letter also mentioned "The embassy will not be responsible for documents lost in regular mail". This also made me skeptical on this option as I didn't want to risk losing mine and my family's passport.

But then I thought if this was a risky option, why would the embassy even propose this option. They could have directly asked us to go to the VAC.
Then I decided to opt for the registered post which worked fine for me. It costed under 10 euros and took only 5 working days.
I relied the registered post which should be trustworthy in Europe. Registered post is traceable online.

I hope this is helpful.

Thanks