Mexicans declare 'surprise, anger' at visa application process

Depressing. That's the word that comes to Brenda Kuri Tiscareño's mind when she remembers learning she wouldn't be able to visit her friends in Canada.

Her four-day tourist visa to Canada had been rejected. Immigration officers said she did not have sufficient funds for her stay and that they were not convinced she would return to Mexico at the end of her trip.

Ms. Kuri has been working for the Mexican government for two years promoting her country internationally, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yet, she has a particularly strong connection to Canada: The 26-year-old attended high school in Quebec City from 2001 to 2003, while her mother and sister lived here for four years. Her family even applied for permanent residence, but eventually decided to move back to Mexico for personal reasons.

Two months ago, Ms. Kuri applied for a visa to visit Canada at the beginning of April.

Along with the standard application form, passport, photographs and regular fees, she supplied a bevy of additional required documents: a letter from her employer at the Mexican government granting her leave of absence and indicating her title and salary; bank statements showing her financial history for the last six months; recent pay slips; a copy of her vehicle registration and apartment property certificate to prove her assets in Mexico. She also indicated she would bring $3,000 with her for the four-day vacation.

A "detailed travel itinerary" was also highlighted as mandatory in the application checklist. Ms. Kuri had reserved her plane ticket, but did not want to purchase it before having the visa in her passport.

"I only had a reservation, but the [immigration officer] said she needed to see the ticket," Ms. Kuri recalls. "It's a circle. If you don't have the visa you can't buy the ticket, but if you don't have the ticket, they won't give you the visa."

Ms. Kuri isn't sure how much the fact she didn't have a plane ticket factored into the immigration officer's decision, but she says she never thought she would be refused.

"I think I perfectly showed I don't want to live there and that I am perfectly installed in my country," she says.

"Mexicans are very important to Canada and they are just making it harder for us," she says.

Ms. Kuri's frustration echoes that of other Mexican travellers. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the imposition of visas last summer in an effort to manage a high flow of refugee claimants coming from the country.

After having enjoyed a visa-free regime with Canada for many years, Mexicans have been battling a cumbersome visa application process that is not only tougher than the US one, but is reportedly causing economic and diplomatic damage as well.

Enrique Olvera, chef and owner of the famous Mexican restaurant Pujol, was invited to prepare a guest chef dinner at a Montreal restaurant in February as part of the city's annual High Lights Festival. Mr. Olvera said financial compensation was not part of the event.

He applied for a single-entry, five-day visa, but after having provided all the necessary details about his Mexican businesses, was refused on the grounds that he needed a work permit instead.

There wasn't sufficient time to apply for one, so Mr. Olvera and his sous-chef—who had bought their plane tickets in advance as they knew they should—lost their $1,600 value.

Many Mexicans have taken the travel itinerary requirement to mean they must purchase tickets before applying for a visa—perhaps because immigration officers are specifically asking for them, as they did with Ms. Kuri.

A request for clarification from Citizenship and Immigration Canada on the need to have a purchased ticked was not provided before press time.

"It was more of a surprise, and then a little bit of anger, but you have more things to do rather than spending your emotions on that," Mr. Olvera says. "I think it's denigrating. I don't feel invited to go back [to Canada]. I wouldn't travel there for my personal vacation."

The visa application process has also hit Emma Eileen Jackson de Diaz, a Canadian-born Alberta resident who married Mexican citizen Sabino Alejandro Diaz Villanueva in January 2009.

Mr. Diaz had been trying to apply for a visitor visa to see his pregnant wife in Canada, after being forced to return to Mexico because his Canadian work permit expired. Although the couple included documents highlighting their long-term plan to move to Mexico—and even Ms. Jackson's first ultrasound—Mr. Diaz's applications have been repeatedly refused.

"The application process definitely works as a deterrent for people who want to visit Canada," said one official at the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa, referring to the numerous application requirements.

This deterrence has certainly been felt in the tourism industry. The number of Mexican travellers to Canada each month has decreased by more than 50 per cent, from 22,396 in January 2009 to 10,536 in August 2009, after the visa imposition, according to Statistics Canada figures. In February of this year, that number stood at 9,407.

"It definitely is a deterrent," said Randy Williams, former president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, now CEO of Tourism Calgary. "Now that they need a visa, no matter how onerous it is to complete, even if it is a one-pager that asks for your name, it is more of a deterrent than it was before."

Mr. Williams said the tourism industry would like to see Mexican visitation numbers moving upwards again, but he said he understands the reason behind the minister's 2009 visa imposition decision.

The Canadian visa application process is not more difficult for Mexico than for other countries, he added.

"Canada is certainly not picking on the Mexican people and being more punitive with them," Mr. Williams said, pointing to similar requirements for Chinese applicants.

Mexican travellers, who are not used to such stringent visa requirements, repeatedly compare the Canadian application process with what they say is a much simpler process to obtain an American visitor visa.

Documents mandatory for the Canadian application, such as bank statements, pay slips, copies of property and vehicle registration, and invitation letters, can be sent on a voluntary basis when applying for an American visa.

Although US immigration officers encourage any additional information, the decision to grant a visa is mainly based on an in-person interview with the officer. At the same time, most Mexican visitors automatically obtain 10-year visas, even if—hypothetically—their vacation is only a month long.

Carlo Dade, executive director of the Canadian Foundation of the Americas and co-chief of the Canada-Mexico Initiative, said Mexican travellers have to answer more obnoxious questions on the US application form, "but your annoyance doesn't last beyond the time it takes to answer that question."

By imposing such stringent visa requirements, Canada is turning away potential Mexican travellers who might not want to go through the cumbersome application process, he said.

"Mexicans get a visa with the US because they know they will use it for work," Mr. Dade said.

But not Canada, he said, "so our ability to attract people to come up was to some degree predicated on the lack of a visa. Our comparative advantage for not having the visa was that it put us on the same footing as the US."

agurzu@embassymag.ca

http://embassymag.ca/page/printpage/visa-04-28-2010