Visa Appointment

At 10am this morning I arrived at the Eaton Centre, early by a long shot but I've either never been to the Eaton Centre or I just can't remember ever going, so I explored. Neat place! I dislike elevators that shoot from 0 to 25 though, very awkward feeling that. At 11:15am I was at my Visa Appointment, sitting at a desk when I received a paper about the most common reasons visa's are denied. Top of the list, lack of evidence of financial support. Uh oh.

When I finally got to the processing desk, I ask the girl working there what could I do? I hadn't received anything from OSAP stating I was to receive funding, I certainly wouldn't see the funds for a few more weeks. I was nervous and worried, maybe I was going to be rejected. She looked over my documents, asking me a few questions, I asked if I had everything else that was needed. She asked, did you fill out Appendix 8? The blank stare on my face likely gave it away, I hadn't even heard of it, she told me where to go to find it. Okay! More questions, I tell her it's for an exchange and my fees would mostly be paid to a Canadian institution, so she said she didn't need anything to show I could pay my fees, but she still needed proof to show I had the money to pay for rent, food and all that fun stuff. Back to needing proof from OSAP. I also learned I needed a letter of registration from Algoma, my home university and the transcript used in my application from exchange. Oh my.

She told me I could either reschedule my appointment, or I could mail everything in myself after gathering it. If I chose the second option, I would have 10 business days to do so. Doable, I thought, gotta be. OSAP document will be the hardest, I think. She sends me on to the next counter, where my picture is taken and my fingerprints are taken down digitally for reference for when I cross the border. Then, all done. My boyfriend had mentioned there was a nice bookstore there, and I need to calm down and get something to eat anyways so I explored the Eaton Centre a bit more since my first look around I had to keep an eye on my watch. Huge Indigo! It was awesome, I'd like to go back. Then, all that's left is to go home on the subway, which is easy enough.

After the subway, I made a few phone calls to Algoma (ow long distance), Nicole (financial aid office) was able to print off the OSAP document I needed right away which was awesome since I thought that would be the most difficult part. Mark was also a big help, getting the documents I needed plus some just in case, and having them all together in time for my boyfriend to come by and grab them. So a big thank you to those who helped, Nicole, Mark and Michael.