Visas

Today's song is: White Room  .. Cream

A bar girl friend of mine recently met a nice Canadian man online who subsequently came to Thailand to meet with her in person and subsequently 'fell' for the young lady and once back in Canada after his week long vacation, bought an air ticket for the young lady as he wanted her to visit Canada for 2 weeks and meet his family. Now there is lots 'wrong' here, that I could discuss at length but it is a very common story and usually does not end well, although I would guess in 10% of the cases it can make for a happy ending (no pun intended).

What I want to discuss is what the young lady was expected to accomplish. I asked her if she had ever flown or been to an airport. The answer was 'no'. I give her credit for having the courage to fly around the world (Toronto) by herself, with no experience, and little command of the English language.

The next question was, 'Do you have a visa?'. To which, she replied that she had gone to a place on Soi 13 with a Thai friend to apply for a tourist visa to Canada. I had previously heard about Thai girls applying for visa's to other countries and I imagine their success rate is abysmal. I think this is a really bad scam to collect a fee for a process that is doomed for failure.

The young lady told me she expected an answer back in 1 or 2 weeks and sure enough, this week she got her rejection notice. Now, what these firms do not tell you, is once you have a rejection on file, it is much more difficult to get an acceptance. To get a visa  .. Go to the appropriate embassy and apply there!

What does Canada want from an applicant? They want to make sure you are going to be a visitor, not someone who gets in, and then manipulates the system to become a permanent resident or work illegally in Canada. Canada is one of the few countries in the world who do not track you when you leave. So, once in, unless you run a foul of some law, or become noticed, you are good to stay.

Secondly, they want to make sure you have sufficient funds in your bank account (for some time) to support yourself while in Canada. They also want to know why you are going (letters of invitation, visit a friend, etc.).

Most importantly they want to know you are a person of outstanding character and not someone who may be a threat to the country, or worse yet, work in the shadows as a hooker, stripper, etc.). Canada's gate keepers probably see themselves as the moral guardians of the country.

By now, you can probably see how, 'I want to visit my boyfriend from a one week stand in Bangkok and BTW, I work as a bar girl and have no reported income.' would not necessarily get you an acceptance.

I know from experience how hard it is to get visas to Canada from my experience with my 2 Russian friends. Russians are probably harder to get visas for. I managed to get visas for both of my Russian friends, 2 tourist visas, one of which was turned into an educational visa. Both of my friends respected the terms of their visas and subsequently returned to Malaysia where they both appear to be happy and gainfully employed.

I suppose it is necessary to have this gate-keeping system in place. I just wish the visa bureaucracy would give a reason why you get refused rather than a 'rejected' notice. There needs to be more transparency to the process but I suppose they would not want to be accused of profiling :-)

After all, we would not want Canada to be overrun by bar girls from Thailand. That would be shocking! Truth be told, most Thais are forever tied to their country and do not want to live in another country for any length of time. However, there are lots of stories and I know about 4 or 5 where bar girls and their partners are living happily ever after in her newly adopted country. The guys are even happier :-)

If you want to read more on the topic of visas this is a good read.

http://www.thailandguru.com/thai-girlfriend-passport-visa.html

TTYL