What's up Canada?
Thursday, 16. July 2009, 08:29:01
On monday the canadian government established that starting July 14th all mexicans needed visas to visit Canada, that's their right to do, but just one day notice!
The reason was that many mexicans ask for a refugee status upon arrival in Canada, and most where fraudulent, why? because we are not at war, not a dictatorship, just economic issues, and some clever dude is "helping" some people to move to Canada and having full rights pretending to be refugees.
The Canadian refugee program is the most naive in the world, they accept petitions from any country even those that have "good country" status, like the UK or the USA, it is funny also that they better affect the tourism than solve the real problem, just add mexicans to a list of "not eligible for refugee status" and don't affect the tourism that leaves (only from mexicans) $300 million dollars every year, many of my friends visited Canada because they didn't needed a visa.
But the damage was done, so the canadian government was prepared to the visa process... Sadly no!
The staff at the Canadian embassy is not prepared, they don't have the man power, nor the facilites to provide the required visas, so on tuesday morning thousands of mexicans arrived at the canadian consulates and embassy to ask for the visa, only to find out that the only consulate giving them is located in Mexico city, we are a large country and with many international airports, so if you live in Cancun you have to travel to Mexico city to get a visa, that is $300 us dollars for a plane ticket plus all other expenses or 20 hours of driving plus all expenses, and consider that Canada has a consulate in Cancun.
Also the embassy staff is asking to leave all your documents in original including passport in a box at the entrance of the embassy, they don't give any receipt for the important documents, so if they lost them, you are screwed.
How I would had handle this...
If I were the canadian prime minister I would ask for visa to all the traveler that buy tickets after July 14th, people who already has tickets don't need visas, also I would announce this in off season, not at the start of tourist season, in order to not affect the industry. Plus enableling all canadian consulates to give visas, not just Mexico City's consulate, and with a clearer process, the US has a really good process and handles way more people in a more efficient form.
So Canada, I agree that people were abusing you innocent refugee program, but visas aren't the answer, just a revision of the program and a creation of list of countries that can ask for visas.
The reason was that many mexicans ask for a refugee status upon arrival in Canada, and most where fraudulent, why? because we are not at war, not a dictatorship, just economic issues, and some clever dude is "helping" some people to move to Canada and having full rights pretending to be refugees.
The Canadian refugee program is the most naive in the world, they accept petitions from any country even those that have "good country" status, like the UK or the USA, it is funny also that they better affect the tourism than solve the real problem, just add mexicans to a list of "not eligible for refugee status" and don't affect the tourism that leaves (only from mexicans) $300 million dollars every year, many of my friends visited Canada because they didn't needed a visa.
But the damage was done, so the canadian government was prepared to the visa process... Sadly no!
The staff at the Canadian embassy is not prepared, they don't have the man power, nor the facilites to provide the required visas, so on tuesday morning thousands of mexicans arrived at the canadian consulates and embassy to ask for the visa, only to find out that the only consulate giving them is located in Mexico city, we are a large country and with many international airports, so if you live in Cancun you have to travel to Mexico city to get a visa, that is $300 us dollars for a plane ticket plus all other expenses or 20 hours of driving plus all expenses, and consider that Canada has a consulate in Cancun.
Also the embassy staff is asking to leave all your documents in original including passport in a box at the entrance of the embassy, they don't give any receipt for the important documents, so if they lost them, you are screwed.
How I would had handle this...
If I were the canadian prime minister I would ask for visa to all the traveler that buy tickets after July 14th, people who already has tickets don't need visas, also I would announce this in off season, not at the start of tourist season, in order to not affect the industry. Plus enableling all canadian consulates to give visas, not just Mexico City's consulate, and with a clearer process, the US has a really good process and handles way more people in a more efficient form.
So Canada, I agree that people were abusing you innocent refugee program, but visas aren't the answer, just a revision of the program and a creation of list of countries that can ask for visas.
WIDGETIZE