Canadian Consulate General

By far the most incompetent people you’ll ever come across. I applied for a Visa on April 20, have not heard anything till today. Was supposed to board a cruise to Alaska today with my family. Unfortunately the cruise stops in victoria, Canada so I wasn’t allowed to board. Thanks Canadian embassy for ruining our family vacation. I hope the same fate for anyone who works there.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that diplomats are the scum of the earth. But even amid such fierce competition, Canadian diplomats excel.
The prospect of a visit to a dentist to have a root canal is exceedingly delightful compared to the dread of realizing the approach of the expiration date on my Canadian passport. We canadians constantly, and need others to constantly, repeat how great Canada is just to ease the horrendous pain involved in renewing our passports and having to deal, if only for a few seconds, with a Canadian diplomat or civil servant. You just cannot imagine my happiness in knowing that i will be getting my US passport next month! No more Canadian passport renewals! Yeah!

If there was an option to leave 0 stars, I would. The number for the Canadian Consulate General of New York, 212−596−1600 mailbox is currently full, and even of it was not full, they do NOT accept any messages pertaining to immigration inquiries, such as a status of a VISA that was submitted within the past 30 days.
Also, I think they might have been closed without warning prior to the Christmas holidays. Like Miles Y stated below, most likely the worst consulate in the world!

The worst EVER. I have not had such a terrible experience with any other government body in my life! And I’m from India!
1. The website is archaic and terribly slow. I took 6 hours to complete an application for a visitors visa
2. Their are not at all approachable. Emails are never responded to. Phone calls are not entertained. And once you apply online, going to the consulate for any information is entirely useless because the consulate will cannot look into online information
3. TERRIBLY SLOW! My passport is stuck with them for 2 weeks now, and I don’t know how to track where it is.
All in all, I’m sure this isn’t a trip you can choose not to take, so just be prepared to no expect anything quick or straightforward.

This is the worst consulate in the world ever!
I came here last Wednesday at 11:00 am and was told the consulate was closed. I was so so surprised because I even didn’t look up the working time since I thought 11:00 am on Wednesday was such a normal working time. However, I was wrong, they only work from 8:30 am to 10:30 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Surprise? Not finished yet.
Ok, I understand that different countries have different lifestyle. This morning I went there at 8:40, there was a pretty long line outside the building. I waited until 9:00 am to get in. It was raining when I was waiting on line outside the building. They told us they were gonna work from 8:30 am, but they weren’t. So a lot of people had to wait in the rain without an umbrella before 9:00 am after 8:30.
Oh, by the way, I applied for the visa online 2 months ago, I just got an email to let me hand in my passport last Wednesday. They took 2 whole months to review my several papers. Really fast.

I don’t know about the consulate yet as I have mailed my application but it has been 6 weeks since the consulate has received my documents but there is no word on the outcome, and they do not reply to inquiries even for emergencies.
If you are a foreign resident, like I am, DON’T APPLY VIA MAIL, because apparently they sit on your application and you are left without a passport for god knows how long.

Worst consulate ever… The security guards have the worst attitude. No one knows anything about the procedure. I will avoid going to Canada just because of what I experienced at this consulate.

God ! This guys are complete assholes !! I can’t believe that they represent the beautiful country of Canada ! I applied for a visa and they told me that I had not delivered some documents THAT I ACTUALLY HAD ! since there is no one you can talk to to clear your doubts they just tell you to go away… re-​apply and give you no help what so ever !! Now I’m gonna miss my brothers graduation and these douche bags don’t even care. fuck them very much… Needless to say, I will have to re-​apply and pay for the fee again (150 bucks).

Disclaimer — I actually had a *relatively* painless experience procuring a harmless little visit visa from this embassy, and I am so happy with the security guard who remembered me a day later and called me pretty (blussh!)
Ahem, Ahem. On to the review. This place, apart from the efficient security screening, runs like a joke. Here’s what’s wrong:
–Too few counters for too many people
–No indication of expected wait
–The staff doesn’t seem knowledgable — When I went to collect my passport, there were about 6 people ahead of me int he line. Not one of them walked away with their passport. Overhearing them, most of it seemed to be inefficiencies/​misunderstandings on the consulate’s part where they had called the person or given him/​her a timeline and not stuck by it.
Some tips:
–They do not take 100 dollar notes
–If you forget to collect your passport (yours truly did) don’t panic, they won’t pain you about it
— Some people around me didn’t have the right sized photo/​receipt. They’re pretty accomodating.