Canadia, eh?

After two weeks of anxious waiting, my passport, complete with multi entry visa to Canadia, arrived.

My huge issue was that I had to mail my passport and application to the Canadian consulate in LA. And if my passport went walkies along the way, I'd be in some serious shi'ite!

Actually, when I opened my passport, I couldn't find the visa. Then I saw the prepaid courier envelope that had the message "Metered stamp not acceptable". Now that was French to me. So I thought that my application was not processed just because the fucking postage stamp wasn't enough. Ah f'fuck sakes - I thought that I would have to repay all the fees to make another application - that's $130 for the application, $44 courier fees there and back, and $14 for two passport photos. Jeez. I almost cried.

But alas, on page 19 of my passport was my shiny new visa, valid 'til 2008.


Just a heads up should you need to ever do this. The Canadian consulate in LA is about as useless SA Home Affairs on a Friday afternoon, just after lunch and just before chaila time. Their helpline has the longest list of options ever {say in indecipherable French accent}: "If you are a non-US citizen, working in the US, and you are right handed with one testicle, Press 20546. *Beep* I'm sorry, you have chosen an incorrect option, bye bye". Sacre bleu!!!! And you never ever get to speak to a real person. And their website is fucking useless - it sends you round in circles!

Amazingly, after receiving my application, they processed it and mailed it back (regular mail) in 4 days or so. Impressive.