Canada Visa - Rude staff at the Canadian Consulate, but quick processing

Visa Type: Temporary Residence (tourist visa)
Issuing Country: Canada
Application Centre: Consulate General of Canada, New York City

Duration of Visa Granted: 7 Years
Time taken for processing:Next business day

Requirements:
Standard documents -- hotel bookings, flight bookings (provisional will do), 2 photos, passport, application form (beware - there are 3 different application forms to fill out), letter from employer, covering letter, marriage certificate, payslips, bank statements. Get details off their website here

Experience:
No appointment needed. Turn up in the morning between 8 and 10.30 AM, go through a security queue, and wait for your ticket number to be called. The officers who collect the documents are not helpful and don't answer any questions. They just say "submit everything you want to submit".

They simply told us to come the next day between 1pm and 2.30 pm to collect our passports.

Now, the collection experience was weird to say the least. They made us queue outside the building by the roadside for 10 mins first. Then the guard led us into the consulate in a line (as if we were school children). After security we were given another ticket and then our number was called after about 30 mins wait.

It was OK for me, but another person had a bad experience in front of me. This lady had lost her ticket (which you are given when submitting the application). The guards refused her entry saying that "if you went to a baseball game without a ticket, would they let you in?" ... my argument (which I voiced right there - to deaf ears!) "This is not a bloody baseball game". The lady was basically denied her passport because she had lost this ticket. She was offered no alternative way to get her passports back. I can only hope she figured some way out. If you try calling the embassy for help, their automated voice system only says "we don't handle visa related enquiries"!! Why bother with publishing a phone number at all! Crazy!

Key points to keep in mind:
1. No appointment needed.
2. Need 30 mins to submit application.
3. Need 1 hour to collect passports
4. Be prepared to stand in line (in the open-air) for 15-20 minutes at collection.
5. Don't loose your application ticket (issued when applying) else you will not get your passport back!

Second time USA B1/B2 visa application

Passport: Indian Passport
Embassy: US Embassy in London, UK
Visa Decision Time: On-the-spot
Visa Appointment Wait time: About 2 weeks
Passport delivery time: About 3 working days
Points to note

• No electronics, not even earphones/cables/key-fobs allowed in the embassy
• You can take a book and/or a snack, but no bags
• Time spent within the embassy: About 1 hour
• You need to complete your online application beforehand, and carry the confirmation page & payment receipt
• Passport delivery costs about £16, you need a credit/debit card to pay for it. No cash.

Documents that they looked at:

• Current passport
• Old Passport with old US Visa
• Application confirmation

I took a slew of documents, including bank statements, payslips, letter from my employer. They didn't look at any of them.

Questions they asked in the interview:

• How long will you be in the US?
• Where did you get your last visa?
• How long have you lived in the UK?
• Where did you live before the UK? What did you do there?
• Are you married? Is you wife in the UK?

Hope this helps!

Visa Free Travel to Mexico - if you have a US visa

I just read on the website of the Mexican embassy in London that people of ALL nationalities do not require a visa to Mexico, if they hold a valid USA visa. Have you tried entering Mexico on a US visa? Please share your experience in the comments below.


Here is the exact wording from the Embassy of Mexico ...
"According to the new regulations, from the 1st of May 2010 it is not necessary to apply for a tourist, business or transit Mexican visa if you hold a VALID VISA for the United States of America -regardless the nationality- . Immigration authorities in Mexico will ask for your US visa and a valid passport when you arrive. "

"Permanent residents in Canada, Japan, The United Kingdom (Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK), The United States of America or the Schengen countries wishing to travel to Mexico do not require a visa to enter the country as a tourists and business visitors for a 180-day stay and as a visitors in transit for a 30-day stay."

This is an extract from an email I got from the Consulate of Mexico in Washington DC: "If you have a valid passport (any nationality) and a valid US visa (any kind of visa) or green card, you do not need a tourist visa to visit Mexico"

Adding my first hand experience below
The wife and I traveled to Mexico in August 2012. We have US L1 and L2 visas, and we also have older B1/B2 visas. The Immigration Officers at Cancun Airport just looked at our US B1/B2 visas, stamped our passports and let us in. No questions, no hassles, no need for a Mexico visa.