Is it too much to ask for the government to at least post _correct_ office hours?
The jackass security informed me that things close at 3 PM, which isn't exactly the 4:30 PM advertised on the Consulate website.
"Peace, order, and good government" isn't just a platitude, it's supposed to mean something.
Very hard to obtain any useful information. Web site filled with feel-good fillers instead of actionable information.
It opens at 10am, not 8:30am. It's been that way since 2013 as the paper sign in the hallway says. Once they opened at 10am everything went very quickly and the person that helped me was friendly and efficient - knew my name and remembered our previous phone conversations. If I had known about this office I would have come here first before trying to renew my Canadian passport by mail. Overall a positive experience. Now please update your office hours.
SO nice. so friendly and helpful. just be friendly, they will help you as much as they can.
I have a hard time understanding the 5-star reviews here. Not one of the 5-star reviews equal my experience. Are we talking about the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles? Every attempt I made for days to get in contact with someone I could talk to about my urgent visa to Canada where I am scheduled to speak on December 2, at the Neural Information Processing System Conference (NIPS), a very important conference for furthering my computer scientist engineer program, was answered by a prompt referring me to a website and/or email address. I applied for this visa on October 19 and to date I have not received any response nor can I get in contact with anyone at the consulate to inform me of the status of my visa. I m very frustrated and don t know what to do. I m a PH Degree student from China and am finding this experience extremely unprofessional. So I would like to know how did the 5-star reviewers get their excellent service from the Canadian Consulate so that I can follow their footsteps.
I love Canada we right here by the consulate of Canada we came because we always take excellent passport photos at 6363 Wilshire Blvd. print shop by the consulate of Canada professional, coffee included on the house.
Worst embassy!!.. They don't care for people at all.. I would suggest nt to travel via canada bcoz it very difficult to get even an transit visa.
If there was an option to give a zero rating I would have done it without a second thought. They do not have a helpline. They don't respond to emails properly. Sucksssssssss! This really shows how much Canadian people care about service.
I applied for visitor visa, on the site and the center says max 17 days, my passport has been under consideration for 7 weeks !!! I just requested my passport back I cancelled my plan,
Very nice and beautiful place, and excellent people are working there, reception was very nice
I m happy I got my passport in few days . I m pleased with the service I got my embassy excellent . It is not easy to live abroad and need service from home . I even saw my old school mate from back home smalll world.
Worst embassy in the world. Pathetic customer service. Avoid transiting via Canada like the plague.
Worst consulate world wild, un presented level of unprofessionalism and biased.
Contacted for certified copies of our passports and the two staff members I dealt with were very responsive, helpful and got me the documents I needed very quickly.
Excellent service and much appreciated!
Thank you.
Useless government office. Won't answer the phones. Won't answer any emails I have sent. Their website is an utter joke.
Terrible Beyond Description, I got yell at by the receptionist for asking her to give me a couple seconds to grab my pen and paper for a phone number. Seriously, Canada isn't worth that much for just wanting to visit.
My husband's hometown is Long Beach, California. His mother is buried in Long Beach Cemetery. I have been forbidden to cross the Canadian border to go to the Michigan Social Security Office to show them my marriage certificate as requested when I phoned the Veterans Administration hospital in Long Beach, California. I have a SOCIAL SECURITY card and a Medicare benefit given to me at the Bellingham, Washington Social Security Administration office 10 years ago. I have been married to Michael Darcy Moran for 26 years. He is being held in Ontario CANADA by PUBLIC GUARDIAN AND TRUSTEE lawyers in the Office of the ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA without my consent.
Zero stars honestly! We were flying through Canada to Japan and could not get a transit visa on time. Even though the website explicitly says that there is no transit visa fee, after having our passports for more than a week, we get an intimation from the consulate saying, the fee wasnt paid. So, we quickly send cashiers check and send them photos of the check- response being, oh well, the issue of visa is still going to take 15 days! First never fly through/to Canada unless you want your travel to be a gamble!
They are very badly educated. If you call by phone, you only get to see if you are Canadian. Canada has it all automated and nothing is personal. A system disaster.
It seems to be impossible to speak to anyone by phone at either the San Francisco or Los Angeles consulates. terrible service.
Good service, prompt with inquiries, passport services, foreign policies, and diplomatic services.
Contacted them for the study permit of my son and they were very supportive
First off the hours are anyone s guess. They go on lunch for hours and they close well before the indicated time.
Secondly the metal detector might as well be decor because it beeps every time and no one does anything about it.
However the staff was friendly when we went in and no one else was there which helped expedite the process.
Don t expect any extra communication other than in person though.
Overall my friend got a temporary passport in three days which was great!
Visit the excellent library next door if you re going to be there anyways.
this embassy is worth a hate
I applied a Visitor visa on 22nd Nov
and at that time they said they will take 36 days to reply
and Now it is about 55 days they have not even given a answer
Want to be abused and made to feel stupid..GO HERE.
.Uh I am thinking it's a Consulate and not severe high fashion Gallery but Haute Courture and Severe Fashion Galleries they smile. Act helpful.
Not here.
Lady was miffed I walked up to window. Completely strange place. Expert in saying "go online".
Prison Security give it a Nice touch.
Three people but employees acting as if swamped. Seems all reviews 100% on the money.
The worst consulate I have ever seen in my life. Basically they never pick up any calls and never reply any voice message. This truly makes me doubt how bad Canada as a country is.
If you have any questions at all about a process or what you are suppose to do, you might as well hire a lawyer. My girlfriend needed to get a temporary resident permit and had questions on the form but there is no one to contact, no response, only to go through an immigration lawyer. All to get into Canada for one trip to go hiking because of a wet and wreck less 3 years ago where she blew a .07 which is BELOW .08. She can go to ant country in the world besides Cuba and Canada. Pretty ridiculous to me. Now we have to cancel our $1000+ trip. Good work Canada losing out on tourist dollars
Great service! But parking in Los Angeles is costly $$$$ (some parkings are $12/hour) and hard to find if not.
Horrible!! Horrible!! Horrible!!
Worst embassy in the world I have ever dealt with,
Visa processing time as mentioned on their website is 27 days
They have taken all the documents and complete fees but even after 65 days there is no update provided
I have sent them 20 e-mail, 10 faxes and left 10 voice mail, but nobody bothers to reply to any medium of communication.
This embassy has set new heights of unprofessional. I would give them -1 star
Don t respond to all emails and even if they do it s very slow, there s no way to track your progression for your visa, they leave you in the grey areanwithout saying anything. Awful experience.
I would definitely recommend this embassy for visa processing. Process went smoothly till delivery. My wife and I had to move from our old address. They send out the package to the old address and it went back to them because there was no one to receive it. However, they contacted us, kept my wife passport securely and send the passport to our new address.
I've been trying to get my Canadian Study Visa for months now and they're still asking for more documents. Extremely poor way of contacting and lacks efficiency in all departments.
NEVER TAKE A TRANSIT IN CANADA!!!!I need a transit visa for a layover of my flight. Online app said the fee for transit visa was $0, but when I send me passport to this embassy in a prepaid return envelope, it took them forever to process my application. They ended up sending my documents back after 4 weeks with a statement that I did not pay $31.40 for the VAC fee!!! I did not get any notification before I apply!!!
Typical Canadian politics; nice to your face, but just there for show, with no interest in, or ability to help.
I'm a bit biased but I think our embassy has by far the best service for citizens of any embassy in Los Angeles. I was in the worst situation you could ever imagine & they provide me with some Outstanding service ... I could never thank you enough madame: CHANTAL YOU'RE THE BEST !!! THANK YOU sooo much !!!!!
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It always warms my heart to express myself from my country, Canada, but I have to admit that the Canadian embassy is probably the best in town (Los Angeles). I was in a terrible, desperate situation, but the service I received from my fellow citizens was simply exceptional. Madame CHANTAL I have no words to show my gratitude to you thank you once again!
Horrible experience. Cannot talk to anyone, and cannot get any info from them.
The staff in this Consulate should be rewarded for rising above the systems and processes of a bureaucracy to really help people in difficult situations. My wife was not able to board the ship with me and my son for our Alaska cruise because she did not have a Canadian visa. She wrote to them explaining the situation, and within hours the visa was processed and issued on-site. She was able to join us in Juneau because someone read the message, understood the situation, and responded urgently and positively. We have never before received such fast, friendly, and helpful support from any other official agency. Thank you to the staff of this Consulate, and keep up the good work!!
I completely agree with all previous negative comments! Their service as well as the way how they treat their customers are unacceptable!!!! The worst experience ever!!!
The embassy location is convenient, but there is no communication between the embassy employees and the visa applicant about the visa progress. They send applicant passport with the supporting documents to another place in Los Angles without even reviewing the files properly to make sure that he or she will receive the visa. It seems to me that these guys reject majority of the people without proper explanation/reviewing. If you doubt to apply at this embassy, I hardly recommend to not to waist your time and money,,,,, Try somewhere else,,,,,,
Why do we have stars for this Embassy, they deserve shoes and then feedback should be asked for how many shoes do they deserve. There are bunch of idiots sitting at call center, application center and consulate. I had to cancel my entire family tickets to Alaksa cruise due to canada visa didn't give visa on time, lost $9000. then I had to board flight back to India, had to postpone it 2 times with $2000 penalty. All i get to know your visa is under consideration. They take 13 business days and its over 21 days and they have no clue how much more. People who travel on tourism don't have indefinite time and money and patience to listen to this crap. is there any way to sue them?
The automated message says to press 1 to speak to an agent. When I press 1 it automatically disconnects the line. Yes, it was on a working day at a time their office is open.
The most disgusting service ever had.My daughter is stuck in US for the past 3 weeks just because of the delay in processing transit visa. Now we don't need visa as she already missed the flight.Have been contacting the consulate for the past 10days just to return the passport. Never ever....ever...travel via Canada.....worst experience and worst service!
There is no contact information on the website. The online service is always down. Extremely frustrating.
I had spoken to Ani. She was very helpful and gave me some good suggestions in regard to my situation. I appreciate the help .
Great service. I had to get a temporary passport and a permanent one. All the personnel was helpful, very little waiting time and I received all the documents in time, no problem.
Also, I called ahead of time and was able to get all the information that the website did not have.
I read all others' comments, yes horrible experience. they are arrogant, incompetent people who don't need to answer anybody. I am an American citizen, I needed information no body cared. website is worth a pinch of salt. I was so impressed with Canada but their incompetent staff in los angeles ruined all this.
Horrible or shall i say frightening? Never ever going to canada
Very unprofessional. Misinformation given out. No call backs when leaving a message. I feel embarrassed to call myself Canadian when this is what Canada has to offer its citizens abroad.
totally sucks, no one response emails, very slow process, have no idea when I can get my passport back. It seems like a North Korea Consulate.
The visa officer's in this embassy misuse their power.
I love Canada and I am young / note that I am a resident of California / Los Angeles..
I will give them a five star , within minutes of me writing an email to them , I received a response in a very positive light .
Thank you to whoever replied to my message . Wow !! Keep up the good job .
Hours are not 8:30 to 4:30 They don't bother to tell you that they are closed for lunch so their real hours are 8:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 4:30. Put that on your website you idiots
Worst experience ever! Their website is helpless, no phone number, no email. I don't understand who could recommend this embassy, maybe their own people. They are not worth even one star.
I can't believe you don't have any map or guide for your countries for the tourists
WTH ... Spent 13 hours and an overnight stay traveling to this office only to be told that it was closed a year and a half ago. No one except the security guard is out front. Had to go downtown to submit our documents via courier because no one is there to accept them in person.
I've been going to this consulate for emergency passport renewals since moving from Canada to Los Angeles 25 years ago, and I've never had anything but a great experience. Chantal is usually the person I deal with and I've never ever experienced anything but kindness, respect and great efficient service. In and out in less than 15 minutes. For people who are not 100% satisfied I have to wonder whether you showed up w/o calling beforehand to find out whether they can handle your request and if so, what documents are needed to process your request. If you do your homework before you arrive, the experience will be much better in my opinion.
Avoid at all costs. They keep declining my visa without considering any of the evidence that I provide. If you are working in the United States on a temporary visa (e.g., H-1B, O-1 etc.), your short stay visit visa to Canada will automatically get denied. Waste of time and money.
The staff at the Canadian Consulate in Los Angeles are kind, responsive and in a crunch, they'll go to bat for you in a heart-beat. I can't thank them enough for their help in getting me home.
The embassy office is sucks, I called several times, no people answered. The worst embassy I've ever seen.
I had an overall good experience here with replacing my lost passport. I called the embassy 1st and they were helpful. When I arrived, the person at the front remembered my phone conversation. It was a long day, but with their help I was able to go through the process smoothly.
Worst experience of my life everr!!! Its been three months and i have no clue what they've done to my passport. Because my Visitor's visa is expiring in 3 weeks im currently calling the police to report it or else i'll end up being an illegal immigrant :/
I have been there a couple of times. Great service, professional, nice and welcoming staff. Waiting times were 2-3 minutes.
Very disappointed in the staff. Very rude and disrespectful officer. The officer did not even care to listen to my request or ask me why I am here. Actually shocked and how she asked me to leave and contact the visa center! I had booked an appointment for 15 minutes to speak to the consulate. As a Canadian - I expected better treatment. It s quite shameful that such officers represent our country abroad.
An absolute disgrace of a service. No help whatsoever, the security guard sat on the front desk had more interest in speaking to his mom on the phone instead of helping me. Dispite working times showing 8:30am - 4:30pm there was nobody there other than the security guy.
great service -- one young lady made me an everything bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese while another gave me a shoulder rub
I would like to give them a zero if I could. Already wait for my student visa for 12 weeks, even their website shows it only take 5 weeks. They never answer your question and reply your email.
No one pick up the phone!!!!!! I need them to send back my passport but no one pick up the phone and no one reply the email!!! It's suck!
anyone can suggest how to contact them the best? Still waiting on visa app response.
They must to give more attention and jnformation by phone
Never a problem with them, always answer the phone when I called they've always been helpful. Let's make Canada great again!
No human to answer queries. Uninformed and rude staff
Had nothing but great experience. Found myself traveling to US without PR card and they helped me and were very supportive and responsive to my emails! Thank you!
Mercy to the lord! I still can t believe that there s backward system in this technology era. Please revise your work!
Very professional and helpful! I had all my docs ready and 24hrs later I got my temp passport!! Thank you very much for all your help Chantal, you were awesome!!
Idk what they do here but I always see hot guys coming in and out this place
i found the consulate very helpful in my quest for information.thaks very much . thank you. CLiff rose.
I lost my passport while travelling and was so glad to find quick, professional, and friendly help here. Awesome staff and serv ice. Thank you so much Tania!
Most horrific consulate experience I have ever had and I applied visas to many countries, this is the far the worst one. We initially try to do a tourist visa application online as they would encourage on their website. I know my way around computers, however the application process after so many attempts, reading blogs to understand what might we be doing wrong, just could not submitted after working on the online visa application on Canadian website for 4 days. We gave up and printed the hard copy of the application and mailed it to the address given on the website. 2 weeks passed, no news so we decided to drive to Los Angeles from Phoenix where I live It is about 7 hours drive. When we get there, it took them 1 hour to find the application after begging the security guard to provide help as he said this consulate is for only Canadian Citizens and for questions, we need to send email. Before going to LA, I have tried to reach a live person so many times, and numerous emails, no response, no live person on the phone to provide assistance, therefore we decided to drive. Anyway, security guard decided to help us and ask consulate to search our application which took them 1 hour to find. After finding the application, the person works for Canadian Embassy told us that we mailed it the application to a wrong address. We told them it is the address provided in their website and she said the visa office actually moved to a different location. Wait now, you have 2 offices apart 30 minutes from each other handling different consulate matters ? Give me a break. If it is, then why don't you say that in your Website, which is not efficient, frustrating and useless. Anyways, we decided to drive to their new office of visa application center and when we got there, they told us that before our trip which was 2 days ahead, they can not promise to issue a tourist visa which was the purpose of the catching an Alaska Cruise. Unfortunately, cruise line did not accept to refund our money neither give us credit for some other cruise time. Airlines, we got credit, not refund, hotels in Vancouver was also not refundable. This is a terrible experience from a country that I heard many good stories, how liberal they are and how nice Canadians are which I have no doubt, But their consulate is a complete failure.
Great service all around. Not sure what people complain about or why bad reviews exist but I'm pretty sure it's because people missed flights or didn't get their visas/passports which is not the consulate's fault. The American version of this office would not be nearly as nice I'm fairly certain of it. Keep up the great work!
I worked at the SECURITY CONSOLE AT THE KMPG BUILDING WHERE TGE CANADIAN CONSOLANT IS LOCATED
Worst.... worst...very bad, don t ever try to travel via Canada.Had to call every day just to get my daughter s passport back for the past 3 weeks. Very unprofessional.Still waiting to get at least a reply on the status of delivery of the passport.
Find it fascinating that the prior reviewer found it horrible. I found the staff to be the most polite, helpful staff ever. Great experience. I was lucky to find the consulate not to be busy today !
It is essentially impossible to talk to a human being over the phone. After listening to a message that was over 5 minutes long there is no option to actually speak with someone. I have called the Canadian Consulates in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles and there is no way to ask a simple visa-related question. Absolutely ridiculous.
The lady I spoke with was very rude. This leaves a bad taste that tourists do not bother visiting Canada.
