After a few flights around Europe and bus journeys in USA, I was very confident of traveling abroad, until I encountered this strange situation from the Canadian Embassy for a Canadian Transit Visa. Apparently, I booked my tickets for Hong Kong through Air Canada, with a 3 hr transit in Vancouver Terminal M. I was supposed to CHANGE flights from the SAME terminal, WITHOUT getting out in the city. I had a travelled a couple of times before, with transits at the Dubai and Belgium Airport through Emirates and Air India flights. Thus, my obvious assumption, I will not need any Canadian Visa to hop on to my next flight. But, only to discover, that I made an ASS of U and ME-ASSUME !
Luckily, my elder sister-Anita recalled having a conversation with one of her friends, who had a similar itinerary booked. And he told her, that he needed to apply for a transit Visa, which came free of cost. She called me up ASAP and we looked into my flight schedule, called up the Air Canada airline, Travelocity and the Canadian Embassy to get some guidance on the matter. With no useful responses, from any of them, she decided to inquire personally at the Canadian Embassy in New York. All this happened while I prepared and gave my final presentation for the exam. I came home in the afternoon and we looked over our available options.
1.Go to the nearest Embassy in Washington DC and apply for the Visa, commute through taxi or bus, stay at a hotel for a day, or until I received my passport back. I was determined to get my passport stamped with the Visa and not return to Raleigh without it because of the time crunch.
2.Go to New York ASAP, get in line for the Visa at 8 am, travel by trains, stay at Anita’s and wait until I received my passport back., as she knew the city well.
Relieved.
We chose option 2 and I decided to take the over night Chinese Gotobus from Raleigh to New York as 11 pm and asked Vasanth my friend to drop me to the bus stop 5 miles away from home.
Relieved again. But.
Only to my amazement, it was over booked and there were no seats available now. Thus, I printed a 9:20 pm Greyhound bus ticket at 8:30 and requested Sineade, my dear room mate to drive me to Greyhound 2 miles away from home. We ran, as fast as we could, to the computer room, trying to print tickets in a jammed printer at Wolf Village. Once printed, we dashed to the parking lot and she rushed me to the Greyhound stop. I said my farewell to Sineade, as I will not see her again anytime soon :(
Relived, we reached!
But. As soon as I went to inquire about the boarding time of the bus, I heard an announcement-‘’The 9:20 Greyhound bus to New York has been delayed by 3 hrs and MAY depart by 12 midnight’’! I was shocked and cursed the bus company. I spoke to Anita and she suggested, I fly to New York ASAP at night or take an early morning flight, not to miss the Embassy, which closes at 10:30 am. If I missed the Embassy, I would loose a day and be late for my graduation on Saturday, the 13th May. So, I called up Vasanth again to pick me from Greyhound and drop me to Airport, as Raleigh transport is not very efficient at night. We could not find night flights, so I decided to take the 6 am morning flight. Vasanath dropped me home, only to surprise Sineade of my early return!
Relived. Home finally with an early morn expensive flight to NYC.
I reached the Canadian embassy in time to submit my forms and when I crosschecked them, after submission, I found a few mistakes! My heart started pounding! What IF I get a rejection, after spending bucks on a flight to NYC, as getting a full refund on my HK Flight was not possible. I started to chant God’s name and carried on with my work for the day. I was ready for his decision and came to collect the passport next day at the Embassy.
Relieved!
Got my Canada visa to go to China !
Strange, but true!
RELIEVED!
