Why you travel visa application may be denied
If you are traveling to a country with entry visa requirements, you must apply for a travel visa in advance and prepare all required documents properly. Coming from VisaCenter experience, there may be a list of reasons why your visa application may be delayed in its processing or rejected completely.
11 reasons your visa application is delayed:
- Visa application form is incomplete, i.e. while completing it you have omitted one or several items.
- Visa application is not signed and/or not dated.
- Visa application form is not in the required format. Many countries now require that the visa application form be first filled-out on-line and then printed out. Russia, Brazil, and India are examples of countries that require this format. In other cases, such as China, visa application forms must be filled out on your computer and then printed, but not filled out by hand.
- Passport is not signed by the owner. The holder must sign Page 3 of his or her Canadian passport.
- Passport is damaged. This applies to obvious damage, such as torn pages, cover(s) or unauthorized, non-official markings (scribbles made by your child or notes by yourself). In addition, a “washed” passport is also unacceptable. It may seem OK to you, but not to the visa officer at the consulate.
- Photos not in line with requirements. Photo booth photos or self-made photos are not acceptable. You may have your photo taken at any VisaCenter office locations or at a professional outlet, like Wal-Mart, Costco, etc.
- Additionally required documents are not presented, presented incompletely or do not meet the standards. Each country has a different list of documents that must be submitted along with the core ones (passport, photo and visa application form). In some cases it is an invitation from the person or organization from that country, or /and bank statement, printed out itinerary, International Certificate of Vaccination for Yellow Fever, etc. Some consulates are asking applicants to bring an extra copy of some of the documents being submitted. For example, when you submit for Russian visa you must attach a copy of the main page of the applicant’s passport.
- Incorrect payment of consular visa fee, in the case of an incorrect amount or form of payment. Most consulates accept only money orders, so sending them cash or personal cheques is classified as an incorrect form of payment.
- Incorrect mailing address. In many cases, consular divisions of embassies are located at locations different from the address of the embassy itself. If you send your visa application directly to the embassy, you can be sure to expect a delay in processing. In the case of Russia and China, neither the embassy nor the consulate accepts visa applications from the general public. You must use a visa center only – no other choice.
- No return pre-paid envelope/waybill enclosed to return your passport with visa or enclosing the envelope of the service that the consulate is not using. Some consulates, for example, are using only certain courier companies and if you attach a pre-paid waybill from a different company they will not send it back to you.
- Political and/or consulate relations between two countries. Sometimes when the relations between countries are getting worse, this may negatively reflect on visa issuance processing.
Top 5 reasons your application is rejected:
- The country you intend to enter has blacklisted you.
- You have provided false, in-complete information
- You failed to meet additional requirements
- You failed to attend a visa interview at the consulate.
- You failed to pass a visa interview at the consulate.
In the majority of cases, consulates do not provide any explanation or detail as to why a visa application has been rejected and/or you are denied an entry visa.