Visa Application Blues
I've been busy for the last few weeks helping about ten Iraqi professors fill out their Canadian Visa applications for a trip to Montreal in August. There is a big Wetlands Conference there.
I've become quite an expert at this ... atleast with the Canadian application process. I've said before that it's a good thing that the Canadians don't make Americans go through this process ... otherwise no one would visit Canada (but truth be told, the American application process is nastier).
Here are the following lists of forms required:
1. Temporary Resident Visa (Where they ask nice little questions like, "Have you ever been involved in the commission of a waqr crime or crime against humanity, such as: willful killing, torture, attacks upon, enslavement, starvation or other inhumane acts committed against civilians or prisoners of war or deportation of civilians?")
2. Additional Family Information (where they ask for information on your parents, siblings and children ... I've no idea why this is necessary)
3. Use of a Representative Form (since they are applying to the Canadian Embassy in Amman and they are all in Baghdad ... I'm their representative)
4. Supplementary Information Form (A four page questionnarie including some of the same questions listed in No. 1)
5. Military Form (where they, if they were ever in the Military, list their military background
6. A CV
7. Copies of their passport pages
8. Two passport-sized photos
9. And last but not least, their invitation letter from the schmuck that is putting them (and me) through this hell.
On top of all this, they have to do just about all of this in English (or French, if they want ... since Canada is bi-lingual) ... and here I am in Amman, hundreds of miles away from them, trying to corral all these people and get them to fill the forms out correctly ... repeating the same instructions over and over again ... such as,
I've been at this for over a month ... and there doesn't appear to be an end of it any time soon!
I've been busy for the last few weeks helping about ten Iraqi professors fill out their Canadian Visa applications for a trip to Montreal in August. There is a big Wetlands Conference there.
I've become quite an expert at this ... atleast with the Canadian application process. I've said before that it's a good thing that the Canadians don't make Americans go through this process ... otherwise no one would visit Canada (but truth be told, the American application process is nastier).
Here are the following lists of forms required:
1. Temporary Resident Visa (Where they ask nice little questions like, "Have you ever been involved in the commission of a waqr crime or crime against humanity, such as: willful killing, torture, attacks upon, enslavement, starvation or other inhumane acts committed against civilians or prisoners of war or deportation of civilians?")
2. Additional Family Information (where they ask for information on your parents, siblings and children ... I've no idea why this is necessary)
3. Use of a Representative Form (since they are applying to the Canadian Embassy in Amman and they are all in Baghdad ... I'm their representative)
4. Supplementary Information Form (A four page questionnarie including some of the same questions listed in No. 1)
5. Military Form (where they, if they were ever in the Military, list their military background
6. A CV
7. Copies of their passport pages
8. Two passport-sized photos
9. And last but not least, their invitation letter from the schmuck that is putting them (and me) through this hell.
On top of all this, they have to do just about all of this in English (or French, if they want ... since Canada is bi-lingual) ... and here I am in Amman, hundreds of miles away from them, trying to corral all these people and get them to fill the forms out correctly ... repeating the same instructions over and over again ... such as,
No, "Residential Address" is the place where you live, not the place where you work.
I've been at this for over a month ... and there doesn't appear to be an end of it any time soon!
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