Consulate General of Canada in New York City Review

The worst experience of my life. Ever. How can a developed country have such an awful representation?! It is an embarrassment to the the country!
I am trying to get an expedited visa for my mother for a month already; so that she could visit her ailing father. The guy at the consulate is extremely rude; he wouldn't even listen to anything and grabbed me to show me to the door!!! How can this be happening here, in New York, at a consulate?!

Worst ever! I applied a month ago and there has been no update. And there is no way whatsoever to contact them. What the hell do you guys actually do? bloody incompetent idiots!

The worst consulate ever. The workers are so rude and disrespectful. I only gave them a star because I couldn't give them zero stars.

Just to let people know that this place has positive reviews too instead of all negatives...

I submitted *all* documents properly just the way they were asked. Also I wrote a letter (it is an optional document in the online submission) explaining my documents to the person concerned. For ex: my bank account statement was a single pdf file which i consolidated for two of my bank accounts etc etc and made the online submission on 4th Nov. I got a mail asking me to pay some fee for some things along with a request to submit the passport on 7th Nov. Then there was holidays etc for some reasons and I sent them my passport, money order and other supporting docs on 13th Nov.

On 21st Nov they confirmed to me the receiving of docs, told me that it is being forwarded to Canadian Consulate for for processing and gave me a tracking id of my passport. (Mind you guys, that Canadian Consulate is not the place where we send the docs. We send them to VAC. I am writing the review for Consulate though.. pardon me for that) Bad thing is that even though i have received my passport, it still says that my passport is in transit.

Anyways, I finally received my passport with the Canadian Visa stamp on 28th Nov. So the entire process, end to end, took 23 days for me. The website says that average time for processing was 38 days at the NY Consulate but somehow it happened for me 15 days before the average.

Why I didn't give them 5 stars? They are very very passive to email queries. They have replied to my emails 1 to 4 days late and that too at the end of the day. If it is so difficult for them to reply to emails, please hire 2 more people but they should really improve the customer care (or public relations or whatever).

They are the kindest, most efficient, and most compassionate government office I have ever encountered. Their instructions were explicit and took less time with my application than expected. I cannot say enough good things about this office.

Thank you again for your exemplary service!

Not sure why the consulate gets 2.5 stars. Perfect service for me in getting a temporary travel document and doing a passport renewal. Super nice and she started working on my application 2 minutes after I left - I know because my references told me she called them right away.

It is the worst place ever where embassy is not taking any responsibility for your application and passport. I have applied two months ago in March and then no update. I have tried to reach embassy by phone and emails, but no luck. At this point, I am worried about my passport as I can't afford to lose it. I contacted Canada consulate in canada to inquire whether they have lost my passport or not. If you are planning for H1b stamping and applied for non immigrant visitor visa, have a backup plan when you can not get your passport back after 2.5 months.

The way they treat is really bad.Even-though you have 10 counters they open only one and keep on waiting.The worst of all is they make us wait outside the consulate for 1hr in freezing cold.The security system is bad and the officers are not friendly.

I must admit after seeing the reviews I was a little scared going in. One must realize the process does take a few hours and must be ready for that. The staff was very knowledgable and courteous. Answered my questions to the best of his knowledge and corrected mistakes in my application very efficiently. I received the visa within a week, very very good experience overall

Pathetic, Irresponsible are the minimum explanations these people deserve. I had one of the horrendous experience in dealing with this embassy, which is not expected of any responsible organisation in the world. I applied for a visit visa online on the 8th of Nov 2018. Just after a week on 16 Nov I was notified online to submit the original passports for visa stamping, which I promptly did on the same day and delivered to the embassy on the 19 Nov (Fedex delivery proof available). After this, there was no response or change of status online on the process.

I do understand that there can be problems or a miss in any process, but the issue is how they respond to the issue, demonstrates the quality of that body. I tried reaching them on phone several times, as it is more than 7hrs for me to drive to NY and was not able to reach in person. I repeatedly got a machine answering to me saying that one cannot get any information on the visa process over phone.

Now in the waiting, I lost over a month without knowing the whereabouts of my passports. Repeated lodging of complaints on website and other measures did not give any result. I reached a point, where I was not certain how or if I would get my passports back, getting the visa was least of my concern.

Then after mid Dec'18, in my frantic search for solutions, I came across VFS Global and called them up. While there was somebody to give you a live answer, the answers were same "You got to wait"... Then came the situation when VFS Global told me that I have to fill up some additional forms which was not the part of this Visitor Visa application process and pay additional fee for their services. With no other option I had to pay them and also send them additional self addressed courier envelopes, besides what I had sent already to the Canadian embassy in NY.

Finally after long and tireless phone calls to VFS Global, I managed to get my passports back with the visa after almost about two months. Imagine, if I had an emergency to travel outside the country in the mean period, what would have been my plight with me not having the passports and not knowing whom to contact. One should be ashamed of running such poor service and not even apologizing for all the stress they caused to me and my family. I only wish if there was an option to provide some negative stars, I would have chosen that, unfortunately I have to give them at least a star to post this review, hence I did.

where's the option for ZERO stars? This place is horrendous. We applied for visitor visa to canada for my father in law a month ago and the online application still shows pending. Passport was mailed to them 10 days ago and get this, THERE IS NO WAY TO EXPEDITE OR CALL the embassy. Everything happens through an email which they never respond to. Simply put, terrible and horrible communication and service. As visitors in the U.S., who apply for Canadian visitor visa, why don't you create a call center where people can reach the embassy directly when case is outside of normal processing times.

Instead, there's an "email" that only responds to requests when it is outside of processing times, but even that is absolutely useless as I have emailed them three times with no response. Not a very good way to promote tourism.

I am from a third world country that's better organized than this popcorn convention.

I have never experienced such an incompetent service to apply for a tourist visa in the world. Applied for a visa online 4 weeks ago but I had to miss my travel date because they are so so darn slow. Now I just want my passport back as I will be traveling overseas again very soon. I have sent a prepaid return envelope, it has been more than 5 business days as they promised and I still haven't gotten my passport back! Never apply for a visa here.

It's the most ridiculous visa processing ever! I have applied for a stupid transit visa on June-22-2016 and as for now there's no answer! My trip was in mid-July, which I had to cancel.
Now AirCanada cannot fully refund me because I need a letter of visa refusal!
Becareful trying your visa to this country, they are not professionals and there's no REAL PERSON you can talk on the phone!
Very dissatisfied and disappointed!!!

I was scared i might miss my travel when i was applying for Canada visa during summer.
But the process was so fast and i was approved with 1 week after i sent my passport.

Applied Online 06/11/16
Passport Request 06/14/16
Sent Passport to Vac 06/21/06
Passport recd by Consulate 06/23/16
Passport in transit to vac 06/27/16
Passport and visa received on 06/30/16

I had applied for a Visitor Visa online to attend a conference 3 weeks ago. There is no progress in the application status so far. The conference that I planned to attend has already started, hence I would like to withdraw my application so that I can get the application fee refunded (I learned that I'm entitled for a full refund if the status hasn't changed from "Open" to "Processing"). There's no provision whatsoever to submit my withdrawal request!! Online/Phone/Email, everywhere it's mentioned they don't entertain any request until the normal processing time is over (45 days in my case)!!

I haven't really seen a such an incompetent and stupid immigration system in my life. Now that the original purpose of my travel no longer exists, I run the risk of getting a "Reject" notification (and lose 100 CAD fee), which I don't deserve, if they have a way to accept the "Withdraw" request.

Canadian here. They do not answer emails, they do not pick up the phone, there is zero useful info on their website, fb page and twitter (monthly virtue-signaling posts do not count). Looks like a completely useless government body to me.

worst embassy in nyc , if u making plans to go canada , make it for any other country . if are even a real legitimate applicant they will still reject your application . just sucked my 150 plus vac fees 3 times from last one month . THEREFORE Please change your mind of not going to canada .
thanks

This place is the worst place I have been so far in new york! If you submitted your application by yourself, it takes you two days to get the Visa, if you submitted your application by mail, you have to wait 30+ days and weekend don't count! Same office same place same people to process the application! Is that make any sense? I have paid the same money but I have to wait 1 month+ more than other people just because I submitted by mail?

The security and officer there is super super rude and unprofessional.
I went to their office to submit my application this morning at 7:45. The security let all the applicants wait at the line outside the building we can't even stay in the lobby!!! It is winter!!!! What's wrong with these people?? And we can't get in to the office till 8:15 even they said they open at 8:00.

After I apply to cancel my application and I still have to wait 3 hours to get my passport back. And for such a long time since I submit my application, they did nothing but just took my $150 application fee.

I haven't been block out of the office by the security even the officer called me come to the VISA office to pick up my application. Avoid them!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horrible,Horrible Horrible
Worst Service
No personal response to phone calls or emails
no appreciation of deadlines or any time frames

Nice place. Friendly and efficient. Seems like bad Google reviews are from people who are refused entry to Canada....

Rude!!!!!! and not helpful doesn't matter if you are Canadian or not

MY SISTER IN LAW HAS APPLIED FOR VISITOR VISA AND WAS TOLD TO SEND PASSPORT.SHE WAS REFUSED TO GIVE VISA .REASON THEY SAYS YOU HAVE NOT SUBMITTED YOUR PASSPORT ON TIME. INFECT PASSPORT REACHES ON TIME AS PER USPS TRACKING NUMBER.VAC OFFICE OF NEW YORK HAS HOLD PASSPORT FOR 2 WEEKS SAYS THAT APPLICANT HAS NOT SUBMITTED PASSPORT ON TIME.THIS IS NOT FAIR TO APPLICANT.

This office closed some time ago and moved to 1251 6th Ave.

I got Email to submit passport and the Passport was submitted 3weeks ago.till today i did not get any response from the Consulate.I am trying to reach the staff. i never got connected to the line. Very Very Hard to reach these people.
Does any one have the contact numbers to reach these New York Office.
Atleast i am expecting some communication on Application status.

Submitted my application on a 12/16.Submitted my passport on Dec 21st.Got Visa stamped on Dec 24th.Was a bit apprehensive initially after seeing the reviews.But my experience has been very pleasant.Staff was very friendly and were patient enough to explain the Visa process even though its explained well in their website.
Overall very positive experience.Hope they get better reviews and ratings.

I spent $120 for a 10 years Canada visa, it took 2 months to finish, when I found out myself that it was ready in their system and asked them myself, what a joke!

Terrible, unpredictable visa process.. and there is no way to call them and ask why it s taking a month..