Transit visa processing time - New York consulate

[green_bear]

Hey guys, I am in panic mode right now, hoping someone could give me some advice!
I have a flight to Turkey on January 15th, requiring a transit of 10 hours in Canada. On Feb 11th I'll have the return flight, also transitting through Canada. Not until today that I found out I'd have to apply for a transit visa!! They replied me saying it'd take approx. 30 (business) days, which means I am very unlikely to get the visa before my departure. I am under F1 visa in the States. I have two questions:

- In my case, do I have to apply for two transit visas?? Is it possible to do that in the same application?
- Is there any way at all I can make sure that I could get the visa and passport back before my departure? Because otherwise, I would need to cancel the whole ticket reservation and make a new one and go completely broke (I just cannot afford to miss this trip).

Any suggestion/ advice would be highly appreciated!!
G_B

 

[green_bear]

One more question: After my submitted my application, and paid my application fees, how long on average does it take you guys to receive their email asking for the passport? If I cancel my application before I get that email, would I get refunded with my application fees?

Thanks!!
G_B

 

[sshh13]

Hi!

Not sure about transit visas, it depends on your country of residence. Try to pass the survey on CIC website and it will give you the results about visas and document checklist based on your answers.

About your second post: I recently applied to TRV online and it took 5 days to proceed my application. I applied on Dec 6 and on Dec 11 they send a passport request. They are quite fast right now and I don't think that it will take long to proceed transit visa, but still nobody can give any guarantees. The application fees are non refundable, but if i am not mistaken - there is no fee for a transit visa (check it yourself on the website please)
CIC survey will be really helpful for you http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp

 

[green_bear]

Hi sshh13!

Thank you for your reply,
I am confused because I will transit through Canada twice in a span of 3 weeks. So if I only apply for a transit visa right now I don't know if they'd let me pass on the return trip. Otherwise I would have to apply for multiple-entries visa right? I took the survey, but there's no option for this case.
It's good to hear that your application got processed so quickly though. Multi-entry visa cost $150 while it is free for transit visa, but I'm not concerned about the fees anymore, I'm just afraid that multi-entry visa would get processed much slower than transit visa (due to the purpose of the stay).

 

[vattaluri]

I applied for TRV on Dec 2nd and received a passport request on Dec 13 and mailed the passport to Newyork consulate on Dec 13. Anybody in the same situation can join this thread. Thanks.

 

[varanha]

Hello- I am an Indian citizen living and working in Boston. I have a flight booked to argentina via canada on the 21st of march. I applied for a transit visa online on the 20th of february (last month)- there is no movement on the status of my application and I have no way of knowing when they will update my application and ask me to proceed for biometrics and request my passport. (the online processing time for the NY consulate where i have applied says processing time is 35 days!) Has anyone recently applied and can you tell me if you did how long it took to finally get your passport back with the visa? I could cancel and move my flight, but it is going to cost my alot of money. Any help is appreciated. thanks.

 

[jayrpatel9]

This is such a harassment. What is the need of such a visa? How will I escape the Airport Security, and claim myself as refugee in 3 hours of layover? I was really lucky to find this out at least three months before my flight, and applied for the visa yesterday. But I read many posts in which many people were denied boarding the flight.

And honestly, why the people of Indonesia, China and other countries are exempt? :
Can they not try to do what others might? :/
AIR CANADA and others needs to post it on their booking page, that connecting flights may need a Transit Visa.

I hope the Turkish guy did not face any trouble.

 

[scylla]

How will I escape the Airport Security, and claim myself as refugee in 3 hours of layover?

It would actually be extremely easy to claim refugee status on a 3 hour layover and there would be no need to "escape" Airport Security in order to claim refugee status. That's why a transit visa is required.

 

[CICOtawa]

Hello- I am an Indian citizen living and working in Boston. I have a flight booked to argentina via canada on the 21st of march. I applied for a transit visa online on the 20th of february (last month)- there is no movement on the status of my application and I have no way of knowing when they will update my application and ask me to proceed for biometrics and request my passport. (the online processing time for the NY consulate where i have applied says processing time is 35 days!) Has anyone recently applied and can you tell me if you did how long it took to finally get your passport back with the visa? I could cancel and move my flight, but it is going to cost my alot of money. Any help is appreciated. thanks.

of curse it would be difficult to understand that you bought a ticket from Boston to Argentina via Canada? and then you went to the hassle of applying transfer visa paying bio metric sending and receiving your passport,... I quickly checked the price if you buy ticket from Bos to Argentina(without Canada layover) is at least 100$ cheaper and you paid all this extra visa cost.
Somethings is wrong!

 

[cherry1198]

hello, please help.
I sent my passport for visitor visa stamping on 6th Feb 2024 to VFS New York from Dallas, Texas. On the 12th Feb, I got an acknowledgment that VFS received my passport and same day sent it to IRCC and also received it at the IRCC office for stamping.
On the 13th Feb, I received an update that the package was dispatched from IRCC to VFS NYC. After that, there is no update. Scared that my passport got lost or not. what should I do and what delays does anyone else expect as of now?