OOPNP: Fee payment from Europe?

[stephanos]

Hey there,

I'm a bit confused about how to pay the application fee for OOPNP from Europe. Paying by cheque is quite exotic here (at least here in Germany).

Some ways of payments require a full name for the cheque, some an address and some are just ridiculously expensive or complicated.

If you overcame this obstacle, can you share how you did it? Or someone else who can point me in the right direction?

Stephan

 

[MG84]

Hi Stephan,

You should be able to get an international cheque from your bank in Germany.

I was able to get it from Nordea Bank here is Denmark.

They did not charge much and I assume it should qualify as a certified / cashier cheque.

I am now hoping to get that back because I received an ITA 3 days after I had sent my application to Ontario.

All the best !

 

[freewillsky]

Hi, Stephan,

Have you solved this problem already?

I am also in Germany and get stucked here, and it seems there is no way to pay the fee without knowing the receiver's address and bank account.

I really want to find the solution ASAP.

 

[stephanos]

Don't have a solution yet

 

[stephanos]

Okay, this is what I learned today:

In Germany, you can get a 'Verrechnungsscheck'. Anyone in posession of the cheque can cash it. It basically seems to be acceptable for OOPNP IMHO. And then there is a 'Orderscheck'. This is a special kind of Verrechnungsscheck which only allows someone who is specified on the cheque to cash it in. So is is a bit more secure - but also harder to get from a German bank.

I contacted my local Berlin bank and they said I'd need to fill out a form ('Z1' / 'Zahlungsauftrag im Außenwirtschaftsverkehr'), send the form to them and receive a cheque via mail. It's not a problem to not have an address or first name / last name, only the receiver's name, city and province/state must be specified. Unfortunately, it also takes quite long ...

Another bank, an online-only bank said it will send me Verrechnungsschecks via mail and let me just fill them out as I desire. I'm not waiting for those.

Also, I talked to Western Union. They said it is problematic to send a postal money order to an institution without having some sort of account number and ID. I wasn't able to confirm this yet.

So long,
Stephan

 

[freewillsky]

Hi Stephan

Thank a lot for your inforamtion. My experience these days was just silimar to yours. Sparkasse and Deutsch bank (at least the points in my city) do not offer any channel to send money to a organization with out personnel name + bank account. They asked me to use postal order but that doesn't work. The west union need name as well, that's why I am still tring to find if there is any other way to make it quickly.

I will try again tomorrow to see if the banks here know anything about Verrechnungs scheck...

All the best!

 

[stephanos]

For what it's worth, I suggest not going into the actual physical bank but try your luck on the telephone. This whole thing is way too unusual for 'regular' bank employees to know about. The person I talked to on the bank's hotline made an effort to talk to the bank's international payment department - and of course they had an answer for it.

Terms I can suggest you can use is 'Auslandsscheck', 'Orderscheck' and 'Verrechnungsscheck'. Very important obviously is to mention it may not be in EUR, but in CAD.

I had lots of people, who didn't know better, that this does not exist. Which made me quite angry of course. Try to phone again and hope to get a more knowledgable person.

 

[stephanos]

Does anyone know if there will be problems with customs when sending 1,500 CAD via mail?