Not a typical computer related problem, a travel visa application. This was one of our most recent and satisfying jobs. My client is going to Canada to visit his family. Being South African, he needs a visa to get into Canada. The initial part of the application is online although there are real life steps to get through too: medical checkup and biometric data to be gathered and handed over.

Nothing out of the ordinary then. That is until my client started negotiating the cruel and unpredictable labyrinth that is the website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. There were 2 main issues that were impeding his progress along the road to Toronto: incorrect PDF reader setup (making it impossible to open and complete the digital application forms) and a login process that leads the applicant into an inifinite loop of the desperate re-entering of their username and password.

There was also the added challenge of having to upload multi page supporting documents as single files- not staightforward if you don’t have a fancy scanner setup.

Getting logged on, downloading and completing the application after updating the PDF reader and uploading the application and supporting documents took about 3 hours. My client is pretty organised and had most of the required biographical information to hand (they want the full life story), but we had to do a final sitting the following day.

All correspondence regarding the visa is only accessible via the applicant’s online account with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. They notify the applicant by email but you must access the online account to get the actual instructions and updates. Getting logged on remained touch and go throughout the follow up period but I did manage to tweak my browser settings so that a 2nd or 3rd logon attempt would be successful.

Mission accomplished!!

The whole process took from 2 March to 14 April 2022: online application, trip to Cape Town (from Eastern Cape) to submit biometric info, sending the passport by courier to get the visa document stuck in it and returned.

Budget for the following costs to the Canadian government and their service providers:

• CAD100 (about R1200) for the initial application upload
• CAD80 (about R960) for the biometric application
• Trip to Cape Town and back
• Courier costs for passport, estimated R500

Please contact me if you need help with your visa, residency or passport application.

I have had specific experience with:

• UK visa and residence, citizenship applications.
• EU residency and citizenship via Portugal- D7 visas provide a realistic residency option that don’t require the large sums of cash required by the “golden visa” schemes.