|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Glenn
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
Posts: 7
|
 Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 5:31 pm Post subject: Canadian Visa approval |
 |
|
Just got off the phone with a recruiter (Skyline), and was told that Canadian visas can only be approved if the degree is an English Major. I have a BAA in Media Communications with English being a mandatory study each year. Is there any truth to this?
thanks
g |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
|
| Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 6:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| A BA in Mass Comm isn't likely to qualify as an English major. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Glenn
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
Posts: 7
|
| Posted: Fri May 02, 2014 7:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Thanks for your input. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
|
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 7:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Saudi visas were reportedly being issued in Canada on a more restricted basis. Many posters reported that only those with relevant degrees were processed and there were complaints about delays. Try a SEARCH here.
Should the title of the thread not be re-phrased ? It is hardly a "Canadian Visa" ! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
|
| Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 7:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| scot47 wrote: |
| Saudi visas were reportedly being issued in Canada on a more restricted basis. Many posters reported that only those with relevant degrees were processed and there were complaints about delays. |
This degree requirement is likely a carry over from this three-year-old "feud":
Saudi Arabia unhappy with visa processing time: “The Canadian government’s lack of response was not satisfactory.”
By Kristen Shaney, CIReport | Nov 30, 2011
Source: http://www.cireport.ca/2011/11/8982.html
Saudi Arabia is deliberately prolonging the processing of Canadian visas in a retaliatory move to protest what it says are too-slow processing times of Saudi visas to Canada.
The Saudi mission in Ottawa says officials brought the issue up to Canadian authorities on “numerous occasions.” “The Canadian government’s lack of response was not satisfactory,” said the head of the consular section of Saudi Arabia’s Ottawa embassy in an email to Embassy.“The Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to apply the principle of reciprocity in order to send a clear and strong message to our friends in Canada that the current situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue, hoping that they will understand and value the relationship the two countries share.”
The Saudi decision, which went into effect Sept. 1, means processing of Canadian visa requests takes between 30 and 45 days. A message alerting Canadians to the change appears on the Saudi embassy website. “[T]he waiting period for issuing a visa to Canadian citizens wishing to enter the Kingdom has been prolonged to meet the same amount of time it takes Saudi citizens to obtain a visa from the Canadian embassy in Riyadh,” wrote the spokesperson, who did not give their name.
There are no other changes to the usual visa requirements for Canadians, which are already quite tight. Whatever a Canadian’s reason for going to Saudi Arabia, they must get a visa. Visas must be sponsored by a Saudi citizen, company or organization. Upon arrival, the Canadian must surrender their passport to their Saudi sponsor and receive a residency card, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade website.
But the added delay is already having an impact on some Canadians, said one director of a company that helps facilitate the visa process, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about the situation. “The Saudis were very blunt; they said this is retaliation,” said the director. “We used to be able to get visas same day—walk in at 10, pick it up at 2, at the Saudi Embassy.” Now, the company says approved Saudi visas are being received weeks after drop-off, whose date stamps show they were processed in the same week the applicant submitted their documents. “We have personally seen a drop to just about as low as it can get in Canadians seeking Saudi visas. It was never a rush, but it’s now down to almost nothing,” said the director. “The international oil companies are redeploying their Canadians elsewhere, oil fields that can use Canadian specialists but don’t have the Saudi problem. And then they’ll put in, say, Brits, people who’ve worked in the North Sea, because it doesn’t take as long.”
Saudi Arabia isn’t the first country to retaliate against Canada using visa policy changes. Its neighbour in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, slapped new visa requirements on Canada last year during a dispute with Canada over landing rights at Canadian airports for its airlines.
Student complaints
The Saudi embassy says the “significant delays” its citizens are experiencing in receiving visas from the Canadian embassy in the country’s capital, Riyadh, affect Saudis coming to Canada to undergo medical treatment, do business, study, or as part of official delegations. It says some Saudi citizens have to wait more than three months to get a visa. Thousands of Saudi Arabian students come to Canada to study in Canadian universities every year, many through the kingdom’s generous King Abdullah Scholarship Program. The Canadian government’s current processing time for study permit applications stands at about six weeks, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Mohammed Alsharif, a public relations officer with the Saudi Students Society of British Columbia, which receives funding from the Saudi Cultural Bureau in Ottawa (affiliated with the Saudi government) came to do his master’s in business administration at Simon Fraser University in December 2008. Every Saudi student coming to Canada has to get a separate study permit and entry visa. But they sometimes expire before the student is set to finish school, so they have to be renewed. Mr. Alsharif said every time he has had to renew his permits, he has waited no longer than about a month. But it recently took his wife three months to have her study permit renewed. He is heading home to see his family in December, and will send away for another entry visa to get back into Canada as soon as he arrives in Saudi Arabia (he can’t start the process until that time because the Canadians need his passport, which he needs to travel). He said he hopes all goes well, or he may need to skip his next semester of school, even though he has a valid two-year study permit.
“I love Canada, love my Canadian friends, like the country and it was a great experience to study in Canada, and to get to know Canadian friends here, but this situation with the CIC and the visa officer is getting me frustrated actually,” he said in a phone interview. He said he’s hearing of processing times that used to be three or four weeks are now two to three months. Other Saudi students tell similar stories that they or their friends faced.
(…)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokesperson Nancy Caron explained the reason for the delays as “a sudden and unexpected increase in the number of applications received during the summer of 2011 for temporary resident visas at the Canadian Embassy in Riyadh.” She wrote in an email to Embassy that “the extraordinary processing times seen in the summer 2011 were a temporary phenomenon.” Since Aug. 1, she said, processing times have “improved significantly.” Regarding requests for study permits or permit extensions for foreign students already in Canada, she said “our inland processing centres have been working diligently to reduce processing times, including the introduction of a night shift.”
The processing time for those permits is now about 11 weeks. But a student who is renewing their expired permit can still study in Canada; their status remains until a decision is made on their renewal application. The Saudi Embassy says its government has discussed the delays with “various official Canadian delegations visiting the Kingdom,” the Saudi ambassador in Ottawa, Osamah Al Sanosi Ahmad, has also talked to high-ranking Canadian Immigration, Foreign Affairs and parliamentary officials. But “no positive steps were undertaken,” so the Saudi government imposed its “reciprocity principle.”
Ms. Caron said CIC officials met with Saudi government representatives both in Ottawa and Riyadh. “Those meetings have been productive exchanges of information,” she said, adding “as processing times have improved, there has been a substantial decrease in the number of concerns raised.”
But the damage could be more long term. Mr. Alamri said he is going back to Saudi Arabia soon to give a presentation to prospective international students on his Canadian study experience. “I’ll talk to them about the visa issue, it’s not easy to renew…your study permit and entry visa,” he said. “I have to be honest with them.”
(End of article) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
