COPR and visa for non exempt passport

[Avadava]

Hi guys, I am nowhere near the COPR stage in my application, but I was just thinking of this stage and trying to get some ideas on how to best deal with it.
I am non exempt national, so when the time will come for COPR, I will need a visa in my passport also. My VO is Vienna and I live in Germany. Usually, I read, people send in their passports for the visa to be stamped.
I'm trying to find way to avoid that for several reasons:

1. I've heard of cases when the mail service has lost the passport. That would be terrible for me, because to get a new one I would either have to fly to Romania (country of nationality) but that won't be possible either (see below why) or go to the Romanian embassy here in Germany. But in both cases, I wouldn't be able to get a new passport in less than 3 weeks. I know when you get PPR the VO usually gives you a 30 day time frame.

2. The passport is my only ID (I renounced my Romanian ID card because one of the requirements was to reside in Romania. My passport now shows my residence being in Germany). If I send the passport to Vienna by mail, I will have no ID for the entire time, and in the possibility it gets lost, I wouldn't be able to fly to Romania to get a new one. I would have to apply for a travel document from the Romanian embassy (but that again, takes lots of time because of the Romanian bureaucracy).

The only possibility I see that could work, is to go in person to Vienna for my visa to get stamped. So my question is, has any of you done that? Would this be a viable scenario? Would Vienna agree to me going there in person with my passport for the visa stamp?

 

[Betina]

First of all, I will say that I don't have any experience with Vienna Then why the hell am I butting in?

I will tell you what you can do if Vienna does not accept going there in person for the visa. (Because Bucharest does not accept that and the solutions, from what I've seen, are the same).

First of all, never send your passport through mail. If there is no other option, contact a courier service, it's much-much safer. In Romania, I know that DHL has a special service for sending and retrieving passports from the Canadian Embassy.

But still I didn't use it, because I thought the safest way was sending may passport through the newly opened (in 2013) Canada Visa Application Centre (CVAC). The cost was just a bit higher than DHL, but still I felt it was worth it.

CVACs are private service providers, but I would recommend them to anyone that can reach them.

And there is one in Germany, at Düsseldorf http://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/germany/ (And it's services are cheaper than in Bucharest, go figure ).

You go there without appointment, give them your passport and whatever else the VO asked you to provide (2 recent pictures, height and eye color, for example), they give you a consent to sign, take everything, plus the fee, an email and your phone number, and give you a receipt and a tracking number.

When the passport is back from the VO, they will send an email. Even if something happens with the email, you can verify the status on their site with the tracking number. When it says that the processed passport has been received from the VO, you can go and pick it up.

Hope this will help.

Good luck!

 

[Avadava]

Thank you for this information, VACs didn't cross my mind. I will look into that more, and check if there is one VAC closer to where I live. Dusseldorf is about 3 hours drive from my place. ( if I add 2 more hours, I'll be in Vienna).

I looked into the DHL services, the Express Shipment one, but when Vienna sends it back, they will use regular mail.

I'm hoping maybe, since the passport is the only form of ID that I have at the moment, they will make an exception. Besides, it is illegal for me to be in Germany without valid ID, because I am an immigrant here. Also, I need to provide my passport twice a week to be able to get in the building where I work, due to security measures. So without a passport, I can't go to work.

If they will allow me to get the visa in person, it would solve all of my problems.
Just for curiosity, how long did it take you to get your passport back? From the day you sent it in, till the day you picked it up.

 

[clearly]

You may be able to get a german residence card in the mean time if that falls through. As an EU national, you aren't required to have one, but I think you can still apply for one. Just an idea if they don't want to let you give it in person. I don't speak german so I can't find anything, though, so you may have better luck.

 

[Betina]

Thank you for this information, VACs didn't cross my mind. I will look into that more, and check if there is one VAC closer to where I live. Dusseldorf is about 3 hours drive from my place. ( if I add 2 more hours, I'll be in Vienna).

I looked into the DHL services, the Express Shipment one, but when Vienna sends it back, they will use regular mail.

I'm hoping maybe, since the passport is the only form of ID that I have at the moment, they will make an exception. Besides, it is illegal for me to be in Germany without valid ID, because I am an immigrant here. Also, I need to provide my passport twice a week to be able to get in the building where I work, due to security measures. So without a passport, I can't go to work.

If they will allow me to get the visa in person, it would solve all of my problems.
Just for curiosity, how long did it take you to get your passport back? From the day you sent it in, till the day you picked it up.

Through any courier service you must be able to pay upfront for the return of the documents using them, so that the embassy will not send them back using regular mail. When I got my email from my VO it said that, if I chose to send my documents directly to the embassy: "Given the importance and sensitivity of passports, they must be handled in a secure manner. Therefore, your passports are to be sent by pre-paid courier, at your expense, with the return cost included. The choice of courier is yours. Please insure that the Air Waybill is completed according to the requirements of the courier company which will pick up your documents from our office. The passport(s) and other documents will be delivered to you using the courier you have selected."

The CVAC from Düsseldorf is the only one in Germany. And there is none in Austria. Take into consideration that you'll have to make 2 trips: 1 to send the passport and 1 to retrieve it.

 

[OhCanadiana]

Hi guys, I am nowhere near the COPR stage in my application, but I was just thinking of this stage and trying to get some ideas on how to best deal with it.
I am non exempt national, so when the time will come for COPR, I will need a visa in my passport also. My VO is Vienna and I live in Germany. Usually, I read, people send in their passports for the visa to be stamped.
I'm trying to find way to avoid that for several reasons:

1. I've heard of cases when the mail service has lost the passport. That would be terrible for me, because to get a new one I would either have to fly to Romania (country of nationality) but that won't be possible either (see below why) or go to the Romanian embassy here in Germany. But in both cases, I wouldn't be able to get a new passport in less than 3 weeks. I know when you get PPR the VO usually gives you a 30 day time frame.

2. The passport is my only ID (I renounced my Romanian ID card because one of the requirements was to reside in Romania. My passport now shows my residence being in Germany). If I send the passport to Vienna by mail, I will have no ID for the entire time, and in the possibility it gets lost, I wouldn't be able to fly to Romania to get a new one. I would have to apply for a travel document from the Romanian embassy (but that again, takes lots of time because of the Romanian bureaucracy).

The only possibility I see that could work, is to go in person to Vienna for my visa to get stamped. So my question is, has any of you done that? Would this be a viable scenario? Would Vienna agree to me going there in person with my passport for the visa stamp?

The Vienna Visa Office is open to the public in the Monday - Thursday 8:30-10:30am so you could go drop off your passport in person. In general, visa offices will return your passport with the immigrant visa in it the same day if you drop it off (I know I suggested folks in a similar situation do this through Vienna a couple years ago and it was same day at the time).

When the time comes, you can check the dates the Embassy is closed at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/austria-autriche/contact-contactez.aspx and their office hours at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/austria-autriche/visas/contact-contactez.aspx?lang=eng.

 

[Avadava]

The Vienna Visa Office is open to the public in the Monday - Thursday 8:30-10:30am so you could go drop off your passport in person. In general, visa offices will return your passport with the immigrant visa in it the same day if you drop it off (I know I suggested folks in a similar situation do this through Vienna a couple years ago and it was same day at the time).

When the time comes, you can check the dates the Embassy is closed at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/austria-autriche/contact-contactez.aspx and their office hours at http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/austria-autriche/visas/contact-contactez.aspx?lang=eng.

This is good news, thank you! I think if I explain the situation (that I need my passport on a weekly basis for work) they would allow me to drop off my passport in person. I was looking at the opening hours also, but on their website I couldn't find any information about passport drop off for visa stamping. How do you suggest I should go about this? Just go there during officer hours without notice or let them know with an email that I prefer to come in person for the visa?

 

[OhCanadiana]

Check for details in the passport request letter when you get it. If there's no details, don't worry about it. Even if you just show up they should process it on the same day (as long as you turn in your passport early).

 

[canvis2006]

keep a copy of the passport before sending/mailing it or submitting it.