Introduction

One day in March this year, my boss suddenly delivered some bad news: there was a meeting in Canada in early April, and asked whether I wanted to go along. In a moment of poor judgment, I somehow said yes. As a result, I had to cancel my spring break trip to Cancun with friends and start the painful process of applying for a Canadian visa. At that point, there were actually less than three weeks left before departure, so the visa timeline was very tight. On top of that, I kept secretly hoping the visa would be denied so I could reasonably skip the meeting and go on vacation with my friends instead. Unfortunately, the visa process went quite smooth, and I received my Canadian visa in under ten days.

After getting the Canadian visa and finishing the meeting, I discovered a hidden benefit: you can also conveniently renew a U.S. visa in Canada. So in May, I planned another visa-run to Ottawa. I arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa for my visa interview on Tuesday, and it took less than 20 minutes from lining up to approval. By Thursday, I received an email saying my passport was ready for pickup. I ended up with a five-year F-1 visa, which was dramatically better than flying back to China for renewal. And since Canadians do not need U.S. visas, the U.S. consulates in Canada are, in practice, heavily used by Chinese applicants. At the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, the visa officer even chatted with us in Chinese. Other than the image below, there is really nothing that can better express how I felt at the time.

America's Wallace is on a whole different level from yours.
Figure 1: America's Wallace is on a whole different level from yours.

Getting back on topic: this post is a guide for Chinese citizens holding F-1/J-1 visas who want to apply for a Canadian tourist visa in the U.S. and renew a U.S. visa in Canada.

How to apply for a Canadian visa

Canada currently offers all Chinese citizens a multiple-entry tourist visa valid for up to 10 years. I say “up to” 10 years because the visa validity cannot exceed your passport validity. In practice, the Canadian visa usually expires one day before your passport expires.

What documents do you need?

To successfully apply for a Canadian visa, you need:
  • A passport that will still be valid for at least 90 days beyond your planned departure from Canada, with blank pages remaining.
  • A valid F-1/J-1 visa and the corresponding I-20/DS-2019 form.
  • Some funds in the bank.

Canada's financial requirement is quite low; you only need enough to cover your travel expenses in Canada. Other than the materials above, things like flight reservations and hotel bookings are generally not required at all.

Step-by-step application process

There is no interview required for a Canadian visa. You simply submit the application materials online. Once the visa is approved, the consulate will send you a letter asking you to mail in your passport. After you send your passport to the Visa Application Center (VAC) in NYC or LA, you can just wait for the visa to be issued. The process is as follows:

Online application process

  • On this page, select apply online for a visitor Visa. You will then be asked a series of questions to determine whether you need, and are eligible, to apply online for a Canadian visa. After completing the questionnaire, you will receive an Application Number. Be sure to save it.
  • On MyCIC, click Continue to GCKey and register for a GCKey account. During registration, you will be asked to set several security questions that can really make you reflect on life for a while (your most memorable person, your most memorable date). After registering, follow the instructions to link your Application Number to the account, and then you can upload your application materials.
  • Just submit the required materials as instructed.
  • First, you need to submit two forms: IMM5257E and IMM5645. Fill them out truthfully. The only thing to note is that neither form needs to be signed. When you submit the application after uploading the materials, the website will require an electronic signature, so there is no need to sign the forms beforehand.
  • Other materials that may be requested include a bank statement, offer letter (as proof of income), travel itinerary, and purpose of travel. The travel itinerary does not have to be a flight reservation, since many people in the northern U.S. drive to Canada, so requiring flights would not be very practical. A rough outline of your planned route is enough. The same goes for purpose of travel. When I applied, I was pretty casual about it and just created a Word document with one sentence: “I am going to Toronto for fun in early April,” and the visa was still approved. (At the time, I did not mention the meeting because I was worried they might ask for a meeting invitation letter or similar documents, which would have been more trouble.)
  • You also need to upload scanned copies of your passport (the biopage and all pages with visas and stamps), I-20/DS-2019, and I-94.
  • Submit the application and pay the CA$100 visa fee with a credit card, then wait for a response.
  • The day after submitting my application, I received an email saying there was a new message in my MyCIC account. I logged in and, sure enough, it was the approval letter asking me to mail in my passport.

Mailing your passport to a Canadian VAC

  • The letter requesting your passport will include detailed instructions on what to send, so please double check it yourself. Generally, the package includes the passport request letter itself, a consent form, your passport, a copy of the Money Order used to pay the Passport Delivery Fee (the original must be mailed to a different address), and a return envelope.
  • You need to write your name on the back of the Money Order. (Just write it outside the endorsement area; no endorsement is needed.)
  • Note that the Passport Delivery Fee here is not the fee for the VAC to mail your passport back to you. It is the fee for the VAC to forward your passport to the Canadian consulate, so a return envelope is still required. You can check the exact fee on this page. Note that the only fee you need to pay is Passport Delivery/e-application, which is currently US$31.99. Since you submitted the application yourself online, you do not need to pay the VAC Service Charge for having the VAC submit the application on your behalf.
  • There are two VACs you can mail materials to: one in LA and one in NYC. They do not have separate jurisdictions, so you can choose either one. Since I was short on time and had heard that the LA VAC processed materials faster, I mailed mine to LA even though it was farther away. Later, however, I heard that the NYC VAC can also return passports within a week.
  • If you choose to send your materials to LA, the original Money Order must be mailed to Salt Lake City. If you send the materials to NYC, the original Money Order must be mailed to Philadelphia. For the exact addresses, please check this page.
  • One final note: the Canadian VAC says it does not accept return envelopes from courier companies such as FedEx/UPS, and recommends using USPS instead.

If nothing unexpected happens, all you need to do is wait for your passport to come back. If additional materials or fees are required, the VAC will email you. Under Canadian consulate rules, the VAC cannot hold an applicant's passport for more than about a week. If the missing documents or fees are not provided in time, the VAC must send the passport back to the applicant. As a result, the VAC is very efficient when requesting extra fees: you can simply buy a money order, take a photo of it, email the photo over, and then mail the original to Salt Lake City or Philadelphia. You should also keep a close eye on your email so the VAC does not accidentally send your passport back without the visa stamp.

How to renew a U.S. visa in Canada

Compared with applying for a Canadian visa, the process for a U.S. visa should already be familiar to most readers. You fill out the DS-160, pay the $160 visa interview fee, schedule your interview, and then show up. For the Canada U.S. visa application website, click this link. Beyond that, there are only a few points we want to remind readers about:
  • Many people know about the Auto Revalidation Policy for travel from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, and certain other places: even if your F/J visa has expired, you may still be able to re-enter the U.S. legally from Canada or Mexico within 30 days. However, Automatic Revalidation Policy requires that you must not apply for a U.S. visa while in Canada or Mexico. Therefore, if your U.S. visa has already expired and your renewal is denied (I know many friends who went to renew and have never heard of anyone being denied), or your case goes into prolonged administrative processing and you decide to withdraw and get your passport back, then you cannot re-enter the U.S. using the Auto Revalidation Policy. So we do not recommend renewing in Canada if your visa has already expired and you have a relatively high risk of administrative processing, unless you are prepared to remain in Canada for an extended period, return to China, or go to a third country. If your case goes into administrative processing, you generally can request your passport back, and then submit it again later for visa stamping once the processing is complete.
  • The photo on your DS-160 must have been taken within the last six months. Staff at U.S. consulates in Canada really do ask about this. In most cases they may suspect an older photo but have no proof, but do not accidentally reuse the photo from your previous visa application.
  • The U.S. has embassies or consulates in Ottawa, Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Québec City, Calgary, and Halifax. Not all of them offer visa services year-round, so please register, log in, and link your DS-160 on this website, confirm that appointments are available in a particular city, and only then finalize your travel plans. Since you must specify the application location when filling out the DS-160, you may need to complete a new DS-160 if you cannot find an appointment slot.
  • When entering Canada, it is best to tell the border officer directly that you are going there to apply for a U.S. visa. From what I saw, everyone in Ottawa—from border officers to security staff to taxi drivers—was very familiar with this practice (because many people do it), so there is no need to worry.
  • The visa fee can be paid by credit card. No more CITIC Bank!

That was my experience and guide for applying for Canadian and U.S. visas. Have you had any similar experiences you would like to share with us?