TravellerUK

I’ve just read a story about an American’s nightmare with a Russian visa and thought – I’m having the same with my Canadian visa. Canadian visa process for an individual with a Russian passport is interesting.

So that’s the story:

My wife and I live and work in England. Our son lives and works in Russia. My family have a clean travel history and unspoiled reputation within more than 10 years travelling all over the world to the US, Europe, Asia, Caribbean, etc. This summer our old Canadian friends asked us finally to come over to visit them. They were a host family to our son when he studied French in Quebec 14 years ago. Also, our son did want to see his Canadian friends again in a long time. He was excited about the trip.

We carefully prepared our applications, booked flights as the Immigration Authorities wanted to see our return flights, and applied well before before the travel date. But Canadian Embassies in London and Moscow have not made any decision by the travel date and they still keep our passports. We sent numerous requests to return our passports without visas as we lost any desire to travel to Canada, but they are not responding.

The disappointing thing is that our son is not able to come to visit us, his parents, in England as Canadian Embassy in Moscow still retains his passport. He had to fly to London on 12th June 2013 but he couldn’t without passport. I changed his flight to 17th June paying extra £200 but he is not able to make the changed flight as no passport yet! Now I need to change it again (and pay £200 more), but the Embassy in Moscow say they will return documents within 2 weeks so I do not know how to change his flight. If our son needs to wait for his passport 2 weeks he loses his holiday as he needs to get back to work on 5th July.

In a few weeks I need to travel on business to the US but I can’t because they retain my passport at the London Embassy. I don’t have any idea on how to retrieve the passports back from now – probably will have to involve the Russian Embassy in London. Not speaking that I lost about £3,000! So, I was going to bring my £££ to Canada as my family love shopping but Canadians simply didn’t let us in!

For 3 of us we had to collect and complete a good number of documents, 30 in total. As for the Forms, you need to list names of your parents, your all sisters & brothers, where they live – postal addresses, what they do. If your parents are deceased you have to indicate the place where they died and still to provide the answer if the deceased parents are travelling with you or not! And in the end, you lose all your money you spent for the flights and ruined your holiday. So we are trapped at the moment and do not know how to get through it.

Sue_xx_yy

I'm sorry to hear of your frustration.
How long before the travel date did you apply?
What kind of visa did you apply for?


According to this site, a tourist visa for holders of Russian passports

http://tinyurl.com/ljduhk8

will require a processing time of 42 days (6 weeks)

but I have also noticed something else:


<i> "Alert – Strike Action

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) union is currently taking strike action. PAFSO union members responsible for processing visa applications have been walking out of offices in Canada and overseas.

Posted processing times for both temporary and permanent resident visa applications do not take into account work stoppages.

Anyone applying for a visa should anticipate delays and submit their application as far in advance as possible.

Contingency plans are already in place to ensure all offices remain open and are providing at least a minimum level of service. Priority will be placed on urgent humanitarian applications.

CIC continues to closely monitor the situation." </i>

It sounds like you got caught in a labour dispute (?)

TravellerUK

Thank you, Sue. Applied 1.5 months before. That's what they say about Moscow, 42 days. in London the processing time is 8 days, but it's not always true.
Yes, they are on srike - got caught in a labour dispute
We travelled to Vancouver in 2008 and they issed our visa in 1 week that time.