Diplomatic ordeal: A Mexican tourist shares her story trying to get into Canada
- August 4, 2009 12:10 PM |
- By Your Voice
Submitted by Miriam Kosa
About/Bio: I am a social sciences high school teacher who survived the Canadian visa challenge for Mexicans and spent all of my year's savings in Canada. I am a hard working person and I felt absolutely impotent, furious and diminished by the new visa regulation that came into effect in July.
My take: We just came back from a two-week trip to Canada. Everything was great except for the fact that out of the blue the Canadian government required Mexicans to have a visa starting July the15th at 11:50 pm and we were leaving to Montreal on July 16th at 7:15 a.m.
What did we do? We left our town, Puebla, two nights before our flight in order to sleep in Mexico City and be in the Canadian embassy very early in the morning of July 15th.
We got there around 5:40 a.m., thinking that there might already be people waiting for the office to be opened at 9:00 a.m. We were not wrong. In front of us, there were at least 300 people that had been camping all night long to be able to get their visas.
We thought that, after waiting for four hours, with all the required documents, the office would open at 9 a.m. Nevertheless, we had to wait one more hour because the entrance was crowded by late-comers (meaning people who did arrive at 9 a.m.). These people were demanding to be attended to because their planes were leaving either that very same evening or the following morning.
We finally gave them our visa formats and documents around 11 a.m. but did not do so inside the embassy. We did so at the gate of the main entrance. The embassy officials took them and placed them in sealed bags with a code, then they placed them in cardboard boxes marked with the departure date of the people, so ours got in the very first one.
We were given back a sticker with the code and told to return at 3:00 p.m. By that time, we had just slept around five hours, and we decided not go back to our hotel because it probably would have taken us four hours to go there and back to the embassy due to Mexico's traffic.
We walked around the area and returned to the embassy around 1:30 p.m., and ohh! what a surprise, there were another hundred people already lining up for the 3:00 p.m. "pick-up." Again we waited four more hours and gave the embassy police guards our code. They allowed us to go in the embassy in small groups of 20.
Once inside, there were five or six tiny cubicles in which the embassy personnel asked you two or three simple questions and returned your documents and your visa sticked in your passport. Nevertheless, I was not one of those lucky ones. They told me that my visa was ready but that it had not been printed yet, so I had to wait two more hours for it!!!!!! So finally after 13 hours, I was able to step out of the embassy with my visa.
I almost did not want to go to Canada any more. Forget the fact that the hotels, nor the train, nor the bus company, were going to refund us our booking. Forget the fact that we were going to spend a very considerable amount on tours, food and souvenirs. And forget the fact that we had planned the trip for almost 3 months.
The Canadian foreign ministry's so called "diplomatic expertise" has been diminished and proven non-existent. The completely disorganized embassy personnel appeared to be as shocked as the hundreds of Mexicans outside their premises.
Such a measure is not only affecting the Mexican population, it is affecting hundreds of people's jobs and industries in Canada.
I just can say that the last two weeks in Canada were unique. This had been my fifth time there, and believe me, I do not think I will ever visit again.
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Comments (12)
Did any Canadians know that if your Mexican friends and family want to visit you in Canada you have to send them -so they can include them in their application- your ORIGINAL T4, Notices of Assessment, bank statements, pay stubs or a letter from your employee stating your salary?
I HAD TO READ THE REQUIREMENTS LIST FOUR TIMES because I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT.
Who in their right mind would send a T4 or similar to Mexico?
Have any of the embassy staff any idea how unreliable are couriers and the Mexican mail system? To top things up, the applicants have then to send their original property deeds, car registrations, etc. along with their application.
Seriously, WHO, in Canada or elsewhere is willing to courier this sort of documents.
Their message is clear for me: they want to break law-abiding families apart and they don't care about genuine Mexican tourism.
Very upsetting and saddening.
@MExican-Canadian
Yes I knew you have to send all those documentation. Its so you can prove that you can support whoever you were sponsoring into the country for the period that they were here. And their deeds, registrations, etc. is needed to determine if they have anything to return to back in home, to give the gov peace of mind that these tourists won't come here and stay beyond their visa. Its to prevent them from becoming illegal immigrants who will put additional strain on gov provided services.
But yes I do understand your concern regarding the mail and the confidentiality of your documents. Too risky.
AS for this entire visa situation, its very unfortunate and stupid on the part of the gov.
Don't blame Canada; if more Mexican citizens had applied to work legally in the USA and/or become American citizens in the past few decades, this problem wouldn't be coming back to haunt Mexico's reputation here.
Would Mexico want a bunch of Canadians working illegally in Cabo, not paying taxes, taking up jobs, and taking money away from the local economy? No!
We go down there to SPEND our money which bolsters your economy, which is exactly what you had planned to do up here, and we thank you for that. The problem is not with YOU per se, but with the history of illegal 'aliens' i.e. not tax paying citizens. working in the USA.
I must say tho, only 4 hours total standing in line at Mexican immigration to get your passport? WOW! It took me 4 hours, six weeks, and 90.00 to get mine and there was hardly much of a line!!!
You realize, of course, "Reality Checker," that illegal aliens in the US are responsible for about 1/5th of the economic growth in the country each year? They don't pay taxes (just like the top 1% who, if they did, would far outweigh any contribution from the bottom) but they rent, they buy cars, they eat, they send their kids to school, and they are productive - in fact, they have to be since they don't qualify for any social services.
In Canada, we treat Mexican temporary workers like slaves - have you been to Leemington? We charge THOSE workers taxes, but they don't qualify for EI or Canadian health-care or even basic labour protections, even though they DO pay into the Canadian tax system. And they don't get any kind of credit if they do want to immigrate.
So stop and think before you talk about who is justified in doing what to whom. Tourist visas do not stop illegal immigrants anyway - but they do stop honest people who want to visit our country.
Reality Checker, I have been travelling extensively accross asia, europe, pacific, north and central America for many years. Lived in Canada for 8 years, Australia for 3, Indonesia for 10 months.
Believe me when I tell you, Canada is by far not the country I'd choose to stay, and secondly, I have personally met DOZENS of canadians working illegally in Australia, Indonesia, Mexico and Europe. so dont come point fingers at Mexicans, because this happens EVERYWHERE and by EVERYONE. Even Canadians working for cash IN CANADA is illegal, and believe me, there are THOUSANDS of those.
Also, canada has been the only Country to treat me as if I swam across the river to get there and as if I should be kissing their immigration officers feet to thanks them for the opportunity.
They should be giving ME a thank you card because i have spent about 100,000 dollars in Education and living expenses in canada in 8 years, and that money came FROM MEXICO. what do I get in Return?, I slap on the face with their racist treatment at the airports and arrogance as if they were better than me cause they hold a Canadian Passport.
Canadians need to remind themselves, THEY ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS AS WELL!
I know some of hardworking Mexican friends. I wish they can visit Canada whenever they like to. But, I also learned that illegal immigrants, lot of them do come from Mexico, make very big economic black hole in US economy;
Neverless the social and crime problems. For example, there are so many volient crime cased in most of the state in USA that every police has to learn to speak spanish. One day I go to the court in US, from the judge to the police, from the procecusor to the defendant, everyone speak native or not so good spanish.
Besides, there are widely known fact of how the school, the hospital, the social warefare are abused by those illegal immigrants. Califonia governement already bankcrupted, and there will be more problem comming to US. No body dared to openly talk about this issue.
Well, if Canadian know what is waiting ahead, why not just shut down the door!
One Mexican comes, there will be 20 or more claim as family member, and all of them requiring social assistant. Canada is a small economy, much less than the USA. If USA is in deep water, how can Canada save those Mexicans?
Sorry, shut down the immigrantion door, please hurry!
Yep. The whole visa requirement is a big hassle. The Canadian immigration system needs a total revamp. More personnel, more offices, more funding to process applications in a timely and due manner.
I mean, if people from around the world are paying to come to this country as visitors or immigrants, why should they not deserve and demand to be served better? Canadian immigration is the gateway to labor importation and tourism dollars from the third world.
The unions in Canada should make this issue of substandard treatment of visitors and immigrants a rallying point to the Canadian government to boost up the quality of services and the rights that Canada offers to immigrants and visitors.
Chris, I am not opposing to visas for Mexicans. I also know why they require these documents, but there are better ways you know?
Seriously, how many of you would feel comfortable with your T4s, bank statements and pay stubs floating around in Mexico?
If I were a crook, I'd be stealing envelopes addressed to the Canadian Embassy and make more money than working illegally in Canada by thieving identities because in one envelope you will have SIN numbers, bank accounts, employment information and original car registrations and property deeds.
I hate to make comparisons but the American Embassy requires candidates to go in person and never lose sight of their precious documents.
Other countries request the hosts to bring their confidential documents to designated immigration offices in their city, after the immigration officer inspects the originals, a bar code is issued which is then sent. No one asking for a visa then has to know how much you make or handle your financial information.
There are ways and there are ways, WHY CAN WE COPY THE GOOD INSTEAD OF INVENTING A SYSTEM THAT WE THINK WILL WORK?
SADLY, THIS ABRUPT AND ARBITRARY IMPOSITION IS BREAKING MY FAMILY APART.
If our immigration system is so efficient why can't families like mine a get a document so they can come and visit us? They have almost 15 years of holiday visit records under their arm and nobody has stayed to work or claimed refuge, ever!
To 'Mexican in Edmonton', regarding your closing comment about all Canadians being immigrants.........Don't be ridculous! And what exactly does this have to do with visa requirements for Mexicans?
I was born in Canada as were my parents & some of my grandparents. Therefore, I am not an immigrant.
You wouldn't dare say that anyone of Spanish extraction born in Mexico is an immigrant, would you?????
To Dear Canuck, Spaniards conquered Mexico, they came to Mexico, the conquistadores had something better than a visa to enter Mexico they had guns, and unless you are native canadian you and your ancestors yes, your great great Grandparents are immigrants who settle in this country and took this land from Native Canadian Tribes so your ancestors had the same kind of visa as the conquistadores.
A real Canadian advocates Human Rigths and waht the Canadian government has done is wrong.
Look around you Canuk you are becoming minority,
So in the future would you like to be treated like a Mexican??
I'm mexican born, and I'm currently living in Canada (more than 11 years) I've realized that almost all immigrants living in Canada, think deserve a better life that's the reason, all come to Canada, but contrary, they aren't thankful with Canada or canadians, just like all of you people living your harmful comments. Get this Mexico.
Canada or canadians don't need your mexican pesos, they don't need to kiss tourism asses to survive, the reality is most mexicans try to work they way to work and stay here in Canada, yes! I was one, but what makes me different from all of you, I'm thankful.
And if mexican sovereignty would be in jeopardy, every mexican in Mexico would be bitching and barking, but as hypocrite as we are, we question canadian government's right to protect canadians and their sovereignty, and it doesn't surprise me, why mexican government is still stirring this requirement visa for mexicans.
Of course our government can't resolve our problems thats why we try to force somebody else to do it.
Keep the visa, just improve the system to get it, faster, better, and wihtout loosing documents.
Learn from the USA embassy in Mexico City, they charge for everything, but are efficient, in less than 30 minutes you have your visa (or not if denied)