Applying for Canadian Visa from the US

Decided to write on this given felt that it was one of the most confusing visa's I have applied for.

The following website is a good place to read up on the prelim stuff.
https://www.desi-compile.com/applying-canadian-visitor-visa-step-step-guide/
I, unfortunately, had issues with my browser (Chrome- given it was translating pages and kept redirecting me a million times)

Online application

1. Go to the following page and determine your need for the visa/travel https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/come-canada-tool.html
2. Once done, they will give you a reference code and a document checklist to keep handy and will help you to fill the visa document.  I had the misfortune where my browser kept giving me the following error  



ERROR Message that I kept getting

3. Realized after surfing a million pages and after installing adobe a number of times that it was just a glitch on the system and once you download the PDF (IMM5257E)  it will be sorted out. This means you will get a fillable application.
4. Once you are done downloading the application and filled it in create a MyCIC login via this link
5. Most likely you will have to register for a GCkey (if you have never applied for a visa prior to this)
6. Once logged in choose ‘Visitor visa, study and/or work permit’ service to continue. You will be asked to enter the personal reference code you received in the step above. (P.s.- I kept getting redirected at this point- I finally used internet explorer and then things went smoothly thereafter)
7. Follow instructions thereafter and it should be smooth sailing. You will have to upload documents (travel history and family history etc), pay stubs, employer letter and what not. At the end of this, you will pay for the application and then finally submit it.
8. You will then receive an email stating that they have got your application.
9. Within next 1-2 business weeks (please check processing times online- it depends on the place where you have applied from), you will receive an email from CIC asking you to submit your passport to VAC (Visa Application Center). This indicates that your application was approved and now CIC needs your passport to stamp the visa. (This step is the most confusing part of the process as the email from CIC is not descriptive enough and causes confusion among applicants).

Sending the passport

1. Follow the link in the letter sent by CIC above- https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/account/where-submit-passport.html
2. Find the center based on geographic location. In the USA it is either LA or New York.
3. Find the VAC website which should be mentioned below the options available.

This is the most confusing part of the application.

1. You will have to submit the following in the mail (by UPS)
1. Cashiers check/Money order- Get it from nearby local businesses which might charge 1 dollar to do the same. A bank may charge you 7 dollars which is half the cost of the money you are sending. ($19.90). The fees are listed here. I guess when I submitted my application this place just opened up and hence there was no UPS return fee available, which I expect will change with time.
2. Letter from the embassy
3. TTS services consent form
4. Passport
5. Return shipping label by UPS (go to the nearest UPS store who will help you out with this)

Got my passport back in 2-3 weeks (again no updates from the VAC center regarding the reciept of my passport or no. Thankfully I had UPS on my side and I knew they had definitely received it but still it was nerve wracking waiting for an answer)

Hopefully, this helps a bit. Best of luck!

J1 Visa process by Zeeshan Mansuri

J1 PROCESS (for INDIA)

1. Match day – YAYYYYYY! Match day done and dusted. Now, what’s the next step?

2. Wait for the email from your program coordinator. They will send it by next week.

3. You will receive a packet of your residency contract plus 100s of other forms from your program, which includes the same info to be filled in a gazillion times.

4. For J1, browse the MOH (Ministry of Health) website. Download the Statement Of Need (SON) application (attached with the post) and complete the bond papers and get it signed by 2 people, your father/mother and a gazetted officer (Check the application form for details). The bond basically states that IF you fail to return to India to complete the waiver, you/your Dad/Mom will pay 5 lakh rupees to the Government of India and IF you/your Dad/Mom fail to do so, the gazetted officer who signed the form will be liable to pay. Also, the gazette officer should have more than 7 years left in his/her service and CANNOT be a blood relative. Also, you will also require a sign from the gazetted officer’s boss to confirm that the gazetted officer is speaking the truth and has furnished the correct information.

5. Make sure to sign each and every page of the SON application at the bottom. Make sure to fill all the different annexure forms in the application as applicable.

6. Please plan to travel to New Delhi once they start issuing. They usually will give you a token number and will process only 25 a day (This varies from year to year). If you or your friend can go (your friend will need an authorization letter signed by you, authorizing him to get the SON in your place).

7. No bribing in the MOH office last year. It may change this year. (You get the point!!!)

8. ONCE YOU RECEIVE THE SON, MAKE SURE DATES OF YOUR RESIDENCY, YOUR NAME, SPECIALTY ARE ENTERED CORRECTLY. Remember it’s a Government office and they will be casual and make spelling mistakes.

9. Pay your SEVIS fee early. Your application will be processed by ECFMG by the order u paid your SEVIS fee. Make sure that all required documents are uploaded properly.

10. Send the NOC to the program. They will upload it to OASIS on the ECFMG website. ECFMG will take approximately 1 -3 weeks to send your DS 2019 form. Once you receive in your hand, you can schedule your visa interview after paying the appropriate fee.

11. The interview is very chilled out consisting of 3-5 questions. The visa officer will sign your ds 2019 and give it back to you (if he/she forgets, ask for it and keep it safe).

12. Passport in 3-5 days - bingo!!

13. Book your flight tickets by April 15th. Anytime later than that will hurt your dad's wallet by extra 150-200$. I would suggest going back ASAP.

14. In between, your program coordinator will be sending your more documents to sign and return.

15. All J1 applicants can start from India 30 days before the official start date of your program. (H1B people can start only 10 days before start date).

16. Visit all places you want to go and meet everyone you want to meet. Once you start residency, you will start missing all of that. These next 100 days are going to be THE golden period of your lifetime. THE last big vacation. Enjoy every minute of it!! Feel free to add info, correct anything or ask questions. Cheers! Good luck :) God bless :)

Best,

Zeeshan Mansuri

zeeshanmansuri@gmail.com

SON

“I regret saying that I am denying you visa to the US”

“I regret saying that I am denying you visa to the US”

“Why?” asked me!

“Because your scores are very low and I do not feel that you will be able to do anything with these there”, said a slightly surprised visa counselor.

“Who are you to judge my scores? You are not qualified to do so. I know my scores are not good. But I have done my background research before deciding to commit so much of time, money and effort to this. It is tough but it is not impossible! When there is hope, why should I give up on my dreams?”

There was a whole minute silence. The shock on the counselor’s face was screaming that no visa candidate had ever argued with him like this. But for my pounding heart, it was a do or die moment!

“Ok, you will get one chance and only one to prove what you can do”

And so I got my first EVER international visa stamp, that too into the US and thus my journey to the States began!

Hi all, I was reading Neil's blogs and thought to share my experiences in the USMLE journey so that others who are in similar situations like mine are motivated to see through it until the END!

That being said let me start at the beginning.

In 2013, I was one amongst the thousand's of US residency aspirants and by no means a lucky one! I literally had every hurdle imaginable to an IMG.

Citizenship: I am from a third world country and NEVER visited any foreign country.

Exam scores:  My USMLE step 1 score was below the 90^thcentile and step 2 in low 90s.

Graduation: I had been working for 2 – 2.5 years after medical school and so I wasn’t a fresh graduate. 

Past 'Research' experience: I did do some clinical research work after graduation, but nothing too fancy.

US experience: I had a very short (2 week) observership in one of the University hospital's (from where I was lucky to get a good letter)

Interview call: of the 70 odd pediatric programs that I applied to, I received only 1 interview call.

Match day! – of course, to no surprise for all, I did not match :( 

However, I feel God must have heard my prayers, because on the day after 'Match' day – I received a call from the program coordinator of the hospital I interviewed at stating “One of our matched candidates is not able to make it to the residency program. Are you still interested in joining us?” 

And I was SHOUTING in utter disbelief! “Yes, I am.” J

Finally, when I did go to get my H1B visa stamped, the visa officer who denied my visa in the first place, saw me and looking at me came out, smiled and said: “Well Done!” Oh, the joy of proving someone wrong, Incredible!

So here I am, almost at the end of my pediatric residency and still living a dream! The sole purpose of writing my path to USMLE  is to  encourage you to keep trying! Don’t give up on your dreams, no matter how crazy people think you are! You never know what life might have in store for you. I faced hurdles, extra hurdles, in every step! Every person I knew looked at me as if I am crazy to pursue USMLE further. But I knew what I wanted and I was determined to do all that I can! So saying I end with this  

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

Google Voice and it's uses for USMLE

Did it ever happen that try what you may, your mobile service provider’s voice-mail just refuses to get set-up??!!

I experienced that and I am thankful that it happened, else I would not have stumbled upon Google Voice. The only unfortunate part was that I really did not realized the potential of it until late in the interview season, to be frank towards the end.

So before I go into the details let me explain the reason why this post is here. The first thing that most of us do when our plane lands in the States is to hunt for a USA mobile service provider. Once that is done, it becomes the mode of contact for you and almost everyone else you get in touch with. But have you ever thought that once you are done with your electives, and it’s time to come back how will they contact you or vice versa? I do agree WhatsApp is a wise alternative, but it is generally registered on your home country number, which I do not think you will share with all of them except for the residents or your colleagues. Here is where Google Voice comes to the rescue.

So once you have finalized a decent USA mobile service provider and have the sim in hand, it is the ideal time to set up your Google Voice account. The different options for buying a sim are mentioned in my other post here. Registering for Google Voice is pretty simple and straightforward and the link is here. Once registered, there is an option to opt for a Google Voice mobile number, where you get pretty cool phone numbers to choose from to be frank. My number for example is +1-916-936-3451 (+1-916-93NEIL1). You can try various combinations and options to get a cool one for yourself. Once you have finished fiddling around to get a number, I would recommend you share this number with all your colleagues instead of the USA service provider’s number. The reason being, should anyone call you it automatically gets forwarded to your USA service provider’s number and, supposing you are unable to answer your phone when they call, Voice offers a voicemail service which even transcribes the voicemail to text which you can read when you do check your phone.

The advantage of Google Voice is that it does not lapse like the number that you get from your service provider should you not recharge it for 2-3 months. I mean once you  are back in your home country, why will you want to recharge your US number and not even use it? So even though your US number will be disconnected, should people message or call your Google voice number you will still receive the messages or calls on Voice or Hangouts, whichever is convenient for you. Last but not the least you can also call and send messages (SMS) from your Google Voice number as long as you have a working internet connection.

Hope this post helps future USMLE aspirants who can make complete use of this simple but potentially amazing offering from Google.

Disclaimer – I am not being paid anything by Google for this :P

Visa sponsor letter for Step 2 CS

Find below a sample visa sponsor letter. You can you it to build your own and make it better.

Generally the Notary knows how to do it. But it always better to have your own for backup in case the Notary is a newbie.

DECLARATION

August 21, 2014

I, DAD NAME, S/o Mr GRAND FATHER, aged 62 years, residing at ADDRESS, do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as follows:

My son, Neil Dominic Fernandes, Passport No. 12345, issued from XXX, India, intends to attend USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills examination to be held at Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. I do hereby give free consent and No objection to my son to attend the above mentioned examination at Atlanta, U.S.A.

Furthermore, I do hereby agree to bear all the expenses incurred during his visit to U.S.A. I have attached my bank statements and income tax certificates to show that I have sufficient resources for the same.

The above stated facts are true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.

Father’s Name

F/o Neil Dominic Fernandes

Letter link