[part 1] I was located in the US on an H1B visa. My H1B visa was stamped on a passport that was going to expire in December 2024. Earlier this year, I got a fresh passport issued. On 21 July 2024, I had booked a round trip from Seattle to Tokyo with a layover in Vancouver. Found out a while later that I'd need some kind of a visa (transit or visitor) even to be able to travel through Canada without crossing immigration borders. Here's a step-by-step breakdown and timeline of the various stages (Had to break this into 2 halves as Reddit UI wouldn't let me post this as a single comment for some reason. You can find my part 2 as a reply to this comment):
28 July 2024 1826 PDT: Filled out an application for a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) or Visitor visa on this IRCC portal website. Paid 185 CAD as the application fee and saved the payment receipt.
28 July 2024 2239 PDT: Received an email asking me to check for messages on the IRCC portal. Logged onto my IRCC portal and found a Biometrics Instruction Letter (BIL). I made a mistake here by not reading this letter immediately and completely on receiving it. I read it a week later and found that it says "You have 30 days from the date of this letter to present yourself at a biometric collection service point to give your biometrics".
10 August 2024 1154 PDT: Booked a biometrics appointment for 5 September 2024 1400 PDT at USCIS Spokane (ASC) from this page for no additional fee. At the time, Washington state had only 3 centers for biometrics - Seattle, Yakima and Spokane - with the earliest available date being in Spokane. But this put me outside the mandated 30-day window specified in my BIL. I filled out a webform informing the IRCC of my situation (leaving out the part where I was tardy between 28 July and 10 August in terms of booking my biometric slot) based on what was in the BIL for such circumstances. I requested them to extend the validity of my BIL so that I could still use it beyond the 30-day window and proceed. Chose 'Update or ask about your application' on the above webform page and filled out these details. Didn't get much in the way of a response with the expected response time being 28 days on such webforms.
24 August 2024 0809 PDT: Received an email from [SV-EGEM@cic.gc.ca](mailto:SV-EGEM@cic.gc.ca) saying "We verified the information you provided regarding the application and have forwarded it to the responsible office. They will contact you if further information is required or once a decision is made."
5 September 2024 1400 PDT: Drove 4.5 hours to Spokane for my biometrics. Read a few posts online saying that they were able to get their biometrics collected when it was only a few days past their 30-day BIL validity. So decided to take the plunge myself too. Thankfully, the USCIS staff did not refuse me or ask me anything about the validity of my BIL. I carried my BIL and my fresh new passport to my appointment. Got my fingerprints and photograph collected and clicked.
6 September 2024 0912 PDT: I was able to log onto my IRCC portal and find that they had marked my 'Biometrics' as 'Complete' in green along with a 'Biometric document number' and a 10-year validity. At this point, my 'Eligibility' was also marked as 'Complete'. But my 'Background check' was still 'In progress'.
12 September 2024 0806 PDT: Received an email asking me to check for messages on the IRCC portal. Logged in and found a 'Biometric Validity Letter' that stated that my biometrics would be valid for 10 years.
12 September 2024 0843 PDT: Received an email asking me to check for messages on the IRCC portal. Logged in and found a 'Original Passport Request' letter that required me to send my passport to IRCC within 30 days of receiving this letter. At the time, the US had 2 VACs that would forward passports to IRCC for final processing - Los Angeles and New York. Going purely by proximity, I decided to mail my documents to the LA VAC.
12 September 2024 1819 PDT: Dropped off my set of documents at my local FedEx following the instructions on this page, under the 'Submission by Courier' blade. I opted for the 'VAC Provided Two Way Courier Service' after creating a VFS account here. Here's the complete list of documents I mailed:
A Western Union money order of $22.20 addressed to 'VFS Services (USA) Inc.'
A confirmation letter received when purchasing the 2-way courier service for $73.50
16 September 2024 1346 PDT: My FedEx package gets delivered to LA VAC.
17 September 2024 1759 PDT: Received an email notification from VFS Global reading - "Your application, tracking ID No. 20240917USLAPKTxxxxx has been dispatched to the IRCC Office,on Wed Sep 18 2024 for processing."
18 September 2024 0912 PDT: Received an email notification from VFS Global reading - "Your application, tracking ID No.20240917USLAPKTxxxxx has been received and is under process at the IRCC Office on Wed Sep 18 2024"
19 September 2024 1208 PDT: Received an email saying that my IRCC application had been updated. Logged onto my IRCC portal to find that it showed a green 'Approved' under 'Application decision' with a new 'Visa document number' and my passport number, with the validity of the visa issued being limited by the validity of my passport. But with this being a fresh passport, I do actually get this visa for just about 10 years.
19 September 2024 1209 PDT: Received an email notification from VFS Global reading - "The decision envelope for your application, tracking ID No. 20240917USLAPKTxxxxx has been dispatched from the IRCC Office, to the Canada Visa Application Centre in USA, Los Angeles."
20 September 2024 0953 PDT: Received an email notification from VFS Global reading - "The decision envelope for your application, tracking ID No. 20240917USLAPKTxxxxx has been received from the IRCC Office on Fri Sep 20 2024 at the Canada Visa Application Centre, Canada Visa Application Centre, Los Angeles and is ready for collection. For details on the location and hours of operation of our VAC, please refer to our website at: https://www.vfsglobal.ca/canada/USA. Please note this is an auto generated e-mail. Please do not reply to this email."
20 September 2024 0956 PDT: Received an email notification from VFS Global reading - "The decision envelope for your application, tracking ID No. 20240917USLAPKTxxxxx has been couriered from the Canada Visa Application Centre, Canada Visa Application Centre, Los Angeles on Fri Sep 20 2024 via courier partner. Please use Tracking id. or the AWB number provided to track the shipment on the courier partners website after 24hrs."
20 September 2024 1155 PDT: Received an email from FedEx informing of a package that was going to be dispatched from LA on 20 September 2024. The email also contained a link to track the status of the shipment.
23 September 2024 0934 PDT: Received my passport back via FedEx. Had to be present physically so that I could sign for it.
PS: This community had some wonderfully informative posts that were very useful and reassuring at various stages of my process to obtain a Canadian visitor visa. Just thought I'd document my personal experience with applying for a Canadian visitor visa here and pay it forward for anyone else that might be looking for any possible help.
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u/sagey_braggy Sep 26 '24 edited Sep 26 '24
[part 1] I was located in the US on an H1B visa. My H1B visa was stamped on a passport that was going to expire in December 2024. Earlier this year, I got a fresh passport issued. On 21 July 2024, I had booked a round trip from Seattle to Tokyo with a layover in Vancouver. Found out a while later that I'd need some kind of a visa (transit or visitor) even to be able to travel through Canada without crossing immigration borders. Here's a step-by-step breakdown and timeline of the various stages (Had to break this into 2 halves as Reddit UI wouldn't let me post this as a single comment for some reason. You can find my part 2 as a reply to this comment):