|
|
| Subject: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money.... |
|
|
|
I mailed my application to the Buffalo Consulate towards the end of Oct´04 after putting in more than 1 month of effort (collecting all docs/notarizing and stuff).
I verified from my bank that my Cashier Check(910 USD) was encashed by the Consulate (so obviously the application was accepted).
Its mid-Feb now but I haven´t even received an AOR(the file no. i.e.).
Now my question is...can these guys happily take the money and stay put...no receipt ...nothing.....are these guys above the law...can I take my case to some consumer forum.......
Just want them to return my 910$...no more interested in going to that frozen wasteland up north to work in a Safeway.
[11-02-2005,22:05]
[***.107.253.39]
Kannada |
|
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
no worry yet.. many who sent their application in OCT 04 have not received their AOR. To check timelines, go to : http://www.yogi799.com/timeline/index.asp
[11-02-2005,22:09]
[*.64.149.158]
Anonymous |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
^What do you mean "no worries" ?
When I pay somebody 910$, don´t I at least deserve an acknowledgement of the receipt. Or do I have to wait for 6 months to find out that the check was lost in the mail.
Remember at the end of the day, I am paying them for a service....if they can´t provide the service ...they better return my money.
I am only asking for a receipt for God´s sake ...not immigration approval....are they so busy that they can´t even send in an acknowledgement 4 months after a payment is made.
Even the US Immigration acknowledges receipts immediately.
[11-02-2005,22:20]
[***.107.253.39]
Kannada |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
The buffalos of Buffalo! That´s a good one! Man, I agree it would be nice to see a complaint against CIC in a consumer protection agency.
[11-02-2005,22:27]
[***.163.254.113]
Ozz |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
Seriously, the U.N. must come up with some kind of a universal law to hold foreign consulates/embassies worldwide accountable for any inefficiency/irregularities in visa/immigration processing.
I mean there are people out there who put their life savings into the immigration process and have no where to go for any grievance redressal.
The consulates are outside the reach of law of the host nation and operate with too much impunity.
[11-02-2005,22:38]
[***.107.253.39]
Kannada |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
if they have not cashed your cheque yet, you are entitled to request a refund. It might be a good idea. I doubt that there is anything about immigration or Canada that you really want. not sure about your documents but we were told the timeline when we applied so we had no surprises or disappointments.
[11-02-2005,22:58]
[***.81.114.40]
sharon |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
Sharon....I see you have not changed.........were you told that you may have to wait for more than 5 months just to get some sort of an acknowledgement of the receipt of the application/fee.
I verified from my bank that my check was encashed. But is that the way Buffalo Consulate recommends the applicants to find out that their application was accepted and was not lost in the mail.
[11-02-2005,23:08]
[***.107.253.39]
Kannada |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
Sure, fax them and ask them for refund! Nobody invites you to Canada, you applied it voluntarly!
In fact, there are so many people who want to go to Canada but unfortunately they are not eligible. If you do not want to immigrate, fine, withdraw and save the consulate time to process an application of someone who really wants to go to Canada!
[12-02-2005,00:22]
[***.235.249.80]
CRK |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
I have not changed? whatever that means.
yes, we were told right in our application form (Paris) that we could expect a wait of 2-3 months for any AOR. In my mind it was pretty clear. Don´t check the mail box or get frustrated until a minimum of 8 weeks had past. That was our prescribed wait time. Other embassies are different and I am unfamiliar with what information is provided. CIC does not cash the cheque until they have checked to make sure all required documents are supplied so if you find out they have cashed the application fee, you know you are into the system.
If I am considered abrupt or rude in suggesting that your expectations are unrealistic... then so be it. There is close to 1 million applications in the que. this is not the equivelant to the utility payment at the local bank. If you think Canada is bad... check out Italy.
[12-02-2005,00:36]
[***.81.114.40]
sharon |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
Sharon:
I do not wanna attack you or anybody else. I just wanna bring some of my observations to your attention and then it´s up to you to judge. I am a human and have conscience. That´s perhaps why I can not stay calm.
Currently, there are 700,000 to 800,000 applications for Canadian PR. Each applicant has to pay a $550 application fee. Most applicants have family members which have to pat the application fee for them as well.
If we assume an average of 1.25 persons per application (which is apparently underestimated) the total application fee will be $550,000,000 just for applications. About 200,000 are granted the Canadian PR each year and the have to pay their an RPRF worths $975 which together with the application fees comes to a total of 745,000,000!!!!
Currently, there are ~40 Visa posts processing applications for PR. If this money equally distributed among the Visa posts, each would receive a $18,625,000 value!!!!
In most of these Visa posts the number of immigration officers is less than 15. Why!?!? Cannot they hire more people to shorten the processing times? Do they need more money on the top of that $18-19 million? Does it result in higher application fees? Fine. People are paying thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer to just give them some advice. Most of them can afford an increase if their processing times become shorter. But, have you ever thought about that $17-18 million? It´s a huge amount of money, isn´t it?
Lots of Buffalo applicants are currently living inside Canada but they still have to send their applications to Buffalo. Why?!?!?! Does it make any sense to you? Some of them actually have to spend several thousand dollars to travel to US and attend a 5-10 minutes interview in there. Why?!?! Any idea?
There is an online service for the applicants to check their application status. To be honest, it does not say anything to you and checking it is just wasting the time. Do not you think that they can provide the applicants more useful information? (like the one they provide in CAIPS notes after paying a $5 fee and again a long wait of several weeks?)
Sharon, my dear, we are both sure that they know all these drawbacks. They heard these kind of complaints over and over. I am sorry to say, however, that I can not see any will to fix these shortcomings. You ask why?!?! We all know the answer: because there are few Candians that are involved in this painful process...
[12-02-2005,05:07]
[***.188.105.9]
Anonymous |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
if it´s such easy to immigrat to Canada, everybody gonna apply, believe or not, they have certain critira, one of them is getting stuff complicated, then you would not apply
[12-02-2005,07:46]
[**.66.78.119]
Yijie |
(in reply to: The buffalos at the Consulate took my money....)
Yijie, your justification was too strong!!! Before posting a nonsense just think for 30 seconds man!
[12-02-2005,12:05]
[***.114.30.40]
Anonymous |
