A bit confused about visa waiver

[VQ30DE-K]

Greetings all!

My story is not nearly as dramatic as many others posted here, but here it is. Im a Russian Federation citizen, but i lived most of my life in EU and i hold a permanent residents status of the country where i have resided for past 10 years + citizenship of another european country. In short, i have a double citizenship, but currently i cant use EU passport as it has expired and i cant renew it now, as im in Central America at this moment.

I decided to spend my vacation on travelling from Argentina to Alaska, and all was going fairly well, untill it was brought to attention that i require a visa to enter Canada. In every other country i have visited on this vacation (I made it to Costa Rica already) Russian passport + EU permanet residents card was sufficient to enter and exit without any problems. No visa or any other documents were ever asked for. I assumed it was the same foe Canada. Was I horribly mistaken?

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Jalex23]

Greetings all!

My story is not nearly as dramatic as many others posted here, but here it is. Im a Russian Federation citizen, but i lived most of my life in EU and i hold a permanent residents status of the country where i have resided for past 10 years + citizenship of another european country. In short, i have a double citizenship, but currently i cant use EU passport as it has expired and i cant renew it now, as im in Central America at this moment.

I decided to spend my vacation on travelling from Argentina to Alaska, and all was going fairly well, untill it was brought to attention that i require a visa to enter Canada. In every other country i have visited on this vacation (I made it to Costa Rica already) Russian passport + EU permanet residents card was sufficient to enter and exit without any problems. No visa or any other documents were ever asked for. I assumed it was the same foe Canada. Was I horribly mistaken?

Thank you all in advance!

Use the tool:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp

 

[VQ30DE-K]

Did that yesterday. Basically what I am asking is this - does my EU permanet resisent status affect the need for visa/eta. This site does not provide an answer to that, i was at it 18 hours straight now.

Example - i traveled to Argentina to Costa Rica with russian passport, even though none this countries have visa waiver agreements with russia (to my knoledge, at least). All i had to do is produce a plastic permanent residents card. Thats it. I assumed that is the same with Canada. However, i talked to parson yesterday who was absolutely adamant that it wont fly in Canada.

Naturally i got a bit concerned and called the embassy in San Jose (was told they didnt do visa applications, attempts to explain what it is that i actually want were unheard). Next stop was a VAC nearby. I couldnt reach them, plus i suspect they only do spanish and my spanish is good enough for most everyday situations, but i might be over my head here.

 

[scylla]

To the best of my knowldege the only residence card that gives you any benefits is a US Green Card. Everyone else is assessed based on the valid passport they hold.

 

[VQ30DE-K]

Thanks for clearing this thing up. I sort of suspected and feared that was the case judging from no sir, i cant help you, we dont deal with these sort of questions/ gtfo my lawn attitude of embassy workers. Well, I guess i can take solace in knowing i did the southern american part of the panamerican highway.
Best regards and thanks again.