If you already have a valid U.S. visa, there is no need to use an agent or middleman. Applying online by yourself is also quite fast.

Documents You Need to Prepare

If you already have a U.S. visa and are applying for a Canadian tourist visa, you need to provide the following:

  • A passport valid for at least 6 months with at least one blank page
  • 1 electronic copy of a Canadian visa-standard 2-inch (3.5cm * 4.5cm) color photo with a white background taken within the past 6 months (it can be uploaded online; the website says a physical copy is required, but I actually never used one. I even reused the digital photo from my U.S. visa, and it seemed to work.)
  • Form IMM5257 for travelers applying for a Visa from outside Canada, which must be submitted during the online application
  • Family Information Form IMM5707, which must be filled out during the online application
  • Your travel history shown in the passport (previously issued Visa pages, entry/exit stamps, expired or valid Visa)
  • Your passport (you need to provide the main bio page showing your date of birth and nationality, plus any pages with entry/exit records, Visa, or any markings)

I did not need the ID card copies, household registration book copies, or proof of financial resources mentioned on some tourist visa information pages.

For the full checklist of required documents, see this related link.

Application Process

The general process is: apply online - go to the visa application center for biometrics - go back to the visa application center to submit your passport - wait for your passport to be mailed back.

Visa application center information in French, English, and Chinese

Online Application

Online application link: Click here to start the online application

  • Step 1: Create a GCKey account to log in to the Canadian visa application system. (If you have an account with a financial institution such as BMO or TD, you can use that for quick sign-in. Those institutions will provide your personal information for login purposes. To see which institutions are supported, click here.)
  • Step 2: Follow the website instructions and accept the agreement.
  • Step 3: Click “Visitor Visa, study and/or works premit” to formally begin filling out the application information.
  • Step 4: Based on your information, the system will determine whether you are eligible to apply for a Canadian visa. If you see a prompt like the one below, it means you are eligible to apply for a Canadian tourist visa.
  • Step 5: Continue filling in the detailed information, such as whether you are applying alone, whether you have equipment at home to scan and upload documents, whether you have previously received a U.S. visa, and so on. It is pretty simple—just answer truthfully.
  • Step 6: Submit the documents. At first you will see some notes, then a checklist of the documents to upload. As shown below, that includes Form IMM5257, Form IMM5707 (these can be downloaded as PDF files and filled out electronically), entry/exit pages, Visa pages, passport information page, and digital photo. There seems to be a difference between the checklist for unmarried and married applicants. I am not sure about the married version, but it seems to include items like a marriage certificate and authorization letter.
  • Finally, pay CAD 185 (CAD 100 visitor fee + CAD 85 biometrics fee) and submit the application.

Submitting Biometrics (Fingerprinting)

Once you receive a message in the application system and a related email telling you to submit biometrics, the first thing you need to do is call to make an appointment—this is very important. The phone number is 400-088-6637. During the call, you will be asked for your name and other information, and you will choose a suitable time and the nearest visa application center (I chose Hangzhou; to see which cities are available, click here). You will also need to provide an email address to receive the appointment notice. (I strongly recommend using a simple email address. A QQ email made up of only numbers works well. The Canadian appointment hotline staff were polite, but if your English is very basic, even saying words may not work—you may have to spell everything letter by letter. When I said the letter s, I even specifically said “s as in snake,” and she said okay, no problem, but in the end she entered it as x... so I never received the appointment notice.) Another annoying thing is that the visa appointment phone line has way too much prerecorded information at the beginning, and you cannot skip it.

Step 2: After receiving the appointment letter, print it out! Be sure to print it. Some staff at the visa application center are very strict. If you just show them the appointment code from the email attachment, they may not accept it—you must print the appointment notice.

Step 3: Print out the form requesting biometrics collection for use at the visa application center.

Step 4: Print out the latest version of the center service consent form. This part is especially frustrating. According to the staff there, even they think it is unreasonable: the English instructions tell you to print this form, but the Chinese instructions do not mention it. If you do not bring the consent form, the visa application center can provide one, but it costs 5 yuan or 6 yuan. The download link for the latest consent form is here: https://www.vsfglobal.ca/canada/china/pdf/Consent-Form.pdf Then sign your name and fill in your information on pages 2 and 3.

Step 5: Bring your passport and all these documents. It is also best to bring 10 yuan in cash (just in case they charge some miscellaneous fee; the visa application center only accepts cash) and go to the center to submit the documents. Sounds easy, right? Naive! After arriving at the visa application center and taking a number from the front desk, just prepare to wait. From what I later learned, sometimes people’s fingerprints are too faint to scan; sometimes their “high-end Canadian imported” system crashes and they have to re-do it; and sometimes there seems to be no clear reason at all—something that should take 5 minutes per person ends up requiring more than an hour, which is incredibly frustrating. My fingerprint appointment was at 1:30, but it was around 4:00 before I finally finished. I was relatively lucky: I just had to say my name and date of birth to the camera, my fingerprints were collected once, the system crashed twice, and I was done in a little over 10 minutes. ORZ

The Hangzhou visa application center is very small. Here is the entrance and front desk.

After your information has been collected, the staff will give you a VSC long receipt, which you need to bring the next time you submit your passport; a biometrics ID sheet with a barcode (valid for 10 years and needed when entering Canada); and a checklist of the documents required when submitting your passport after an online application. I will cover the specific documents in the next section.

The information they gave only mentioned bringing that letter and the passport; it did not mention appointments or printing the appointment notice at all. Bad review!

Submitting Your Passport

I was fairly lucky. Less than about two weeks after giving biometrics, I received the “original passpor request” message telling me I could submit my passport.

This time there is no need to call and make an appointment—yay, no more annoying phone call. Just bring the items on the checklist: the latest center service consent form (remember to sign and fill in pages 2 and 3), the printed passport request letter, the printed biometrics request letter (yes, you still need to bring that too), the long VAC receipt, your original passport, and 80 yuan in cash, then go to the visa application center.

Checklist; there is also the 80 yuan cash fee listed further down. If someone is submitting on your behalf, Form IMM5476E for representative information is required, but I cropped that part out.

After arriving at the visa application center, tell the front desk staff that you are submitting your passport. They will give you a number, and then you wait again. While waiting, you can tell the staff that you do not want to come back another time (mainly because the wait is so long) and ask for an EMS mailing form to fill in your address and phone number. This time I waited more than 40 minutes before my turn came up. Once I went in, the passport submission itself took just 5 minutes.

Inside the Canada visa application center in Hangzhou

Waiting for the Passport

I submitted my passport on 6/24. On 6/27, I received an email saying the visa had been approved and the passport was being sent from the visa application center to the Canadian Embassy/Consulate visa office. On 7/3, I received another email saying that the Canada Visa Application Centre had received the processed visa application and had handed it over to EMS for mailing that same day.

I received the package on 7/4, which was very fast. So from passport submission to receiving it back, I waited a total of 10 days, within the promised two-week period. Thumbs up.

Summary

Overall, applying for a Canada visa is indeed much easier if you already have a U.S. visa, and no extra asset or financial documentation was needed. There were still quite a few downsides throughout the process: many visa application center staff were arrogant and cold, the procedures were rigid, the machines crashed frequently, the wait times were too long, and the information provided was incomplete, which meant missing documents sometimes had to be purchased at the center (and the fees were not cheap). Still, if you generally follow the process I outlined here—and make a few extra trips if needed—the overall application experience should still go relatively smoothly.