Hey all
Just wanted to share my experience since lots of people seem to be having the same problem I've just solved.
First of all, I was waiting for more than 30 days for a transit visa. They've got my documents on October 10, and since I saw on the website that the average processing time was 14 days, I thought I would have gotten it back by last week, and I am traveling this Thursday back to my country. One of my flights have connections on Canada, so I needed the transit visa.
I've been e-mailing them, and, as it also happened with others, no answer. I've called just to hear that they could not provide any information on visas over the phone.
I've sent faxes and emails to all of the numbers and names I could find over the Internet, from people that work on NYC Canadian Consulate (usually their emails are firstname.lastname@international.gc.ca, so if you google it and find names connected to the consulate, this is a good way to get an answer back - they are not answering emails from the regular email)
Someone from the consulate finally called me back last Friday and gave me my file number, and told me he would call me back on the same day. He did not. Since people here on the forum were waiting longer than I was, and I an traveling this week, I have decided that I did not want the Canadian transit visa anymore and sent emails withdrawing my application. They did not answer.
I've decided to drive more than 800 miles to NYC to see if I could get my passport back, and then I was going to change my tickets so I did not need to have a connection inside Canada. I was at the front door of the consulate at 6:30, and was the first one in a big line of people that were applying for the visa in person. When the visa office opened, at 8, the guard told me to show my documents, and I told him about my situation. He gave me the Urgent Form, in which you have to explain why you need a short notice visa. I wrote that I did not want the visa anymore, just my passport, and you have to give a cell phone number and email so they can reach you. He told me to go back there at 1PM if no one called me back or emailed me.
Someone called me at 11:30 saying that I should be there at 1 to pick up my documents. This person also told me that they sent me an email saying that my passport was available for pick up and that i should bring it with me. I've found a FEDEX nearby and printed it. I was there at 1 and had to wait in another line (be there sooner, so you can be one of the first) and then I've showed an ID and get my passport back WITH THE VISA AND EVERYTHING.
The documents I brought with me:
- copies of the forms of my application;
- copies of my passport and American visa;
- copies of my tickets;
- proof of income;
- copies of the emails and faxes I've sent them;
- my file number.
Advices: be there early, be honest (some guys were trying to enter the consulate as if they were regular applicants as the others, when they were in the same situation as I was. Obviously the guards find out and they were sent back home), be nice, don't use bad words or bad behavior (I saw that there) and you should be just fine.
If you did not start your application yet, and you are trying to decide if you are going in person or sending via mail, go there. Don't even think twice, unless you can afford being for 2-3 months without passport, in another words, something that no foreign should ever do.
Hope this can help you guys.
Good luck!
