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Subject: is the PR visa stamping done in a day @ BUFFALO?? |
Hi,
I am planning to go to Buffalo tommorrow. Has anybody done his PR stamping at Buffalo. Ans is it done in a day?
a prompt response would be appreciated.
raj
[09-02-2005,22:37] [**.231.69.131] raj |
(in reply to: is the PR visa stamping done in a day @ BUFFALO??) Here is someone´s experience. Do your own reserch in the search option to find more.
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1. Do i need to take an appointment ? NO
2. Do all family members habve to be present or only primary applicant ? You can take the passport of all your family members.
3. Do they really give you stamped passports back in 1 day ? In the letter it says that you can submit only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they will try to give you back same day by 3 PM.
Here is the experience of Yogi799 (posted on immigration.ca discussion forum) who got his passport stamped in Buffalo on the same day.
After receiving my passport request on August 2, 2004, I decided to buy an airline ticket and bring the passports for visa stamping to Buffalo in person. On the passport request papers it clearly states that passports can be dropped off and picked up on the same day (so all the stories about Buffalo needing several days are wrong). I showed up at the HSBC center (tallest skyscraper in Buffalo) at 7:30am on Tuesday. As I went inside to the building lobby, a person at the front desk immediately "seized" me as they saw some uncertainty in my moves. He asked what my purpose is at the building (for security purposes, after all it is a skyscraper... connect the dots for yourself, please). When I said Canadian Consulate, the genetlman pointed at the line of people next to the wall. It was a line of RPC visitors as I found out a second later. He asked me to stand in it immediately and almost forcefully. There were about 15 people standing in the line, some of them children. To show you the amount of control of the man mentioned above... some of the children were tired of standing in the line - when they sat down on the floor (no chairs were provided), the man immediately called out for them to get up! It literally felt like we are all unwanted immigrants in the worst meaning of this word. Not only were we collected in a line, we were almost totally prohibited to move!
At exactly 8am, a lady showed up and started asking everyone from the 1st person in the line what the exect purpose of our visit to RPC was. Then she counter 10 or so people and took them to the elevator. She returned after another 5 minutes and took another group upstairs. So, they are controlling who exactly enters the consulate - don?t try to visit Buffalo RPC if you don?t have a good reason to. There are two security lines - one, the receptionist (security guard) in the lobby and then the lady from the consulate which meets the visitors downstairs to bring them upstairs only in her company! The elevators are also protected by a security guard, so if you try to bypass any of the above, that guard will stop you.
After I finally landed upstairs (on the 30th floor), I was, like all the others to stand in the line to the appropriate window (only 2 window were open) - one for dropping off passports and the other, I think, for all other visas. When my turn came, I was greeted by a nice lady behind a bullet-proof glass, which took my passport. She verified each passport with what was on her computer. Then she took the pictures, gave me a receipt card with some number and asked to come back "this afternoon" (1:30pm-3pm). That?s it.
When I came back at 1pm, the same story with the line in the lobby occured - this time there were about 20 people waiting. I joined them, and the lady from the consulate showed up exactly at 1:30pm to pick us up. Let me mention, however, that I did try to bypass the line and go straight to the elevator. The guard stopped me and asked the purpose - I said picking up the passports and wanting to wait upstairs (there were restrooms and TV there in the consulate). He refused to let me go and said they don?t want anyone up there until 1:30pm! So, I went to the line. After getting upstairs accompanied by the same lady, we were aksked to sit down and wait for our number to be called. Mine took about 5 minutes. The same lady from the window handed me my passport with stamped visas (what a sight after 1.5 years!!!!) and asked to verify the names, then gave me some huge papers called Confirmation of PR and asked to verify the dates of birth. After that she said not to sign the papers until landing and packed everything in the sealed envelope. That was it!!! My case was thus over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn?t show my emotions since a bunch of people were waiting for their turn :-(...
The moral (or two) of the story: ONE - Buffalo CAN stamp visa in one day, TWO - don?t go there without a good reason, and even if you have one (like for example discussing your case) - you may be stopped before you get to the Consulate. Hope this helps someone out there. Good luck and take care!
[30-11-2004,17:16]
Kenny
[09-02-2005,22:41] [***.163.254.113] Ozz |
Hi (in reply to: is the PR visa stamping done in a day @ BUFFALO??) Thanks for posting that awesone description
[10-02-2005,01:51] [***.142.200.206] Nishant |
(in reply to: is the PR visa stamping done in a day @ BUFFALO??) Guys,
Thanks everyone for keeping me informed through this forum. I got my PP stamped and entered canada as a PR same day. It was an easy process. My timeline if it is of use to some one....
Applied 20 Oct 2003
AOR Nov 2003
Medical June 2004
RPRF fee REQUEST OCT 2004
Included my Wife into my application OCT 2004
My Wife´s Medical request and done Dec 2004
Approval 4 Feb 2005
PP stamped and entered canada 10 Feb 2005
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!
Raj
[13-02-2005,16:25] [**.231.69.131] raj |
got P.R done, sharing the experience (in reply to: is the PR visa stamping done in a day @ BUFFALO??) Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share my experience with the PR thing so that people would know.
1) March 24, 2005, me and my wife went to HSBC(the tall building in Buffalo downtown). It is preety much a straightforward process. They took us up, collected our passports, the photographs and the letter that come requesting the passports. We were asked to come back later the same afternoon to collect our stamped passports.
2) We went back the same afternoon and collected our passports with stamped visas and the papers that are the landing papers. We were asked not to sign on the papers before we actually cross the border.
So the Buffalo part was done here. Extremely straight forward and hassle free.
3) My US, H1-B visa still holds good for another 1&1/2 years and so I wasnt in any immediate rush to start living in Canada. However, my Canadian medicals were expiring in a couple of weeks and so I was planning to land immediately, stay for 2 days in Canada and return back to the US.
4) Anyways, so we came out of the HSBC building and walked towards the Greyhound bus station. It is a 5 to 7 minutes walk. They have buses every 2 hours that go to Toronto.
5) Our plan was to do our immigration stuff at the border and then go to Toronto since our return flight was from Toronto into Houston.
6) The Greyhound trip works this way. You go to the bus station and buy tickets for the next bus to Toronto. Before boarding the conductor/driver would check your passports(any country) and your tickets.
The bus starts and the border is around 15 minutes from Buffalo. The bus stops at the border and every gets down. You get all your luggage with you and form a line.
7) We went in and a lady asked for our passports. She asked us the purpose of our visit and I said "We are landing". She sent us to the immigration counter escorted by a cop.
8) This is where the experience began. At the immigration counter we had a lady officer to whom I handed all the docs(mine and my wife´s passports, our landing papers etc). She took a look at my passport and said " Are you landing" ? I said "Yes, maam". She said"well, I dont see much of luggage that you have brought. How long would you be staying " ? I said "For this particular trip, 2 days". She asked me "I see from your passport that you have almost quarter to 2 years on your H1. Do you even intend to come here anytime ? " I said "Yes, maam. I had to do a rushed landing since my medicals were expiring". She said " Well, lets see. Have you found a job here as yet ? Do you have a house here ? " I really didnt think these questions were relevant since the whole purpose of immigration is to go to a country and settle down. How many new immigrants come to Canada with jobs in their hands and houses that they own ?
Anyways, since I didnt want to spoil my case etc I decided to be very patient and not cross her by counter-logic etc.
I said "Maam, my long term plan is to come to Canada. As I did mention before, my medicals were expiring in 2 weeks and so I had to do a rushed landing".
She said "But, to me, I dont see any reason that you would come here or really interested in living here in Canada. You have applied since 2 years. All this time did you even try to find a job here ?". I said "Maam, I am in talks with a few people and when things materialise I would move here. Plus though I have around quarter to 2 years on my H1, my wife is on H4. She cannot legally work on H4 and she would really want to start working. Since we both would have P.Rs in Canada she can also work there. So I am really more interested in moving to Canada much before even my H1 expires so that my wife can find some gainful employment too".
Luckily I also had a couple of papers that had emails of people that I had from a tech-forum in Canada that I am subscribed to. I showed her that list and said "Maam, these are the people that I am in touch with who are into the same kind of work that I do back in the USA. Most of them ask me if I have already got my immigration papers for them to even consider me for a position in their organization. Now that I have my papers I can talk to them saying that I am ready to make a move".
9) I guess 2 things, my wife´s H4 example(she wanting to work) and that list of people that I had from Canada did some work of onvincing that officer.
10) She said "Alright. But for your PR cards, I am not allowing you to give me your friend´s home address etc. You will need to come to Canada(whenever I decide to come to stay) and at that time fill out the form for your actual cards. It seems for them to send the actual PR cards, the address that they need from us has to be residential address(not an office one) from Canada(not in the US).
11) So, finally she asked us to sign on the landing papers and gave us our "Letters of confirmation of P.R". She asked us to go for Customs.
Phew ! I think, once in a while one gets an officer that causes some tension. I have a feeling that finally she would have given it even without any proper explanation from me since her points didnt really make sense about me having a job/house in Canada etc. I guess she just wanted to see if I was prepared to answer her questions.
12) The Customs officer was very cool. Since I knew what they usually expect, I gave him 2 neatly organised printouts. One was "Goods in Possession" list and another was "Good to follow" list. I had also declared that later on I would be getting my car to Canada too and had my car title ready for him to note down the VIN #. He looked at all that and exclaimed "Excellent ! You have done your home work and saved a lot of my work".
Customs was done in 5 minutes.
We were done with our PR process.
13) The Greyhound bus usually waits till everyone that was in the bus returns to their seat. If one or more passengers have complex issues and if it looks like they are going to take time at the immigration, then the bus driver comes in and lets you know that he is leaving but you can board the next bus on your same ticket. So dont worry about the bus leaving etc in case you arent done.
Anyways, luckily from our bus everyone got it done on time and we were off to Toronto.
Toronto is at an hour´s drive from the border.
I thought I would share the experience so that you all would know. It is always better to go prepared in case you get a quirky officer.
Usually the process is very smooth.
- Rahul
[18-04-2005,14:28] [***.251.100.6] Rahul |
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