Request for Passports!!!

[gigab]

Hi everyone
I wanted to share the good news we received today. In the morning we received a call from VO requesting to send our passports may I add that we send our court certificates, POF last Thursday and medicals were sent April17. Wow, this was fast huh. We are so excited. By the way does anybody know how long will they take to sent our passports stamped? How much time do we have to land in Canada.
By the way does anybody know of an affordable and good place for a short term stay? You know before we can look for an apartment in Toronto?

Hope everyone gets a good news this month too.
gigab

 

[fariza]

Congrats Buddy
Enjoy your happy time
Wish you all the very best in the coming days

 

[zygurn]

Hi,

I'm surprised you don't ask me these questions, lol. First and foremost, congratulations, your process was a lot faster than mine. Second, I can tell you I sent my passport like in November 5th and my visa was stamped on Nov 12th. I got my passport back on Dec 4th. CIC Guatemala has two ways of shipping your passport: 1. Once your passport is stamped, it will be sent to Tegucigalpa on the following shipment there, this shipment is only done once a month so if it's not stamped before, then you'll have to wait a whole month. Maybe by the time of my writing you already got your passports, lol. The other way is if they call you, they can ask you if you want them to send it to you by DHL Collect. They will ship it to DHL Tegucigalpa/SPS, wherever you are, and you will have to go to DHL main's cargo office (the one that distributes all packages, usually on the city limits) and pick it up yourself. I remember I paid L.830 or around that for collect.

Congratulations.

 

[gigab]

Hi Zygurn:

Thanks for the information it really helped, because we were getting a little anxious waiting for the passports. I hope we get them next week.
By the way I wanted to know about the pof. Did you carry your money in traveler's checks and some cash? If that was the case, how long will it take to change a traveler's checks? I've being advised not to get canadian dollars in the airport but instead do it in a bank. What is your advice?

Thanks


Gigab

 

[zygurn]

I took cash (if you're not closing your accounts in Honduras, a bank statement helps) but I can tell you, I was not asked for POF when I arrived, the officer just asked me how much money I was bringing and she took my word for it, still don't risk it. As you know, it's impossible to get Canadian dollars over there and the only way is to get traveler's checks from Banco Atlantida (as far as I know). It is true that airport rates are killers compared to banks like when I arrived, USD at the airport where I landed were 1USD = 0.9 CND and the actual rate was like 1USD=1.02CND and at my bank the rate was 1USD=0.98CND. Most banks allow you to open accounts in US but you will have to exchange money to CND. My suggestion is to check with your future bank if they charge a %fee for exchanging currency, if they don't, then exchange money as you need it instead of all of it since from what I've noticed the CND is falling against the USD (it's 1.05CND = 1 USD on my bank right now). Mind you, take into account that $1000 of what you're taking will be spent right away when you apply for a credit card. It's not actually spent, the bank will take it as a collateral for giving you a credit card and will put it on an investment program (it's just like savings with a fixed rate that you can't touch for a year). I've heard ScotiaBank gives you an actual credit card without taking your money but I have not confirmed this so you might want to try this. Before arriving to the bank, try to exchange as little as possible and spend as little as possible or if you still have your Honduran CCs, use those whenever you can so you don't lose as much money from crazy exchange rates.

Btw, rereading your first post, you sent your medicals along with court certificates and passports all at the same time? In my case, it took them a month to review medicals so if they stamp your passports right away, you will most likely get them around end of June if you decide to wait for them to send them. You can always email CIC Guatemala and request them to send you the PPs via DHL collect if you can't wait to get them back.

 

[cheot09]

congrats! send ur passports ASAP so u will receive it back the soonest....All the best for u!

 

[gigab]

Thanks Zygurn and cheot:

I realy hope to get passports soon, by the way I e mail the embassy today to request for my passports to be send by dhl collect I hope they will answer.

gigab

 

[belize]

Dont worry friend you will get your passport soon hopefully by next week or on Friday. but pls pray for me too because we really waiting for some good news too.

Thanks.

 

[gigab]

I will Belize, hopefully we will celebrate at the same time, I'll let you know.

gigab

 

[cancer24]

Congrats!!! You are almost there. Now nothing can stop you...

All the best...