Has anyone (a non-EU residence B-permit holder) tried applying for a visa to visit a country that normally would need a visa to enter? What was the outcome?

I'm sure if you felt inclined to read through my previous posts you would hear my story, but I'll summarize for you.

My boyfriend is from the Dominican Republic (so obviously non-EU passport holder) and has a residence B-permit in Switzerland. We would like to apply for him to get a visitor visa to visit me in Canada but have never bothered until now because the probability of a Dominican getting a visitor visa for Canada is highly unlikely (Dominicans unfortunately don't have a good track record for leaving the country at the end of their visa).

I have heard that his chances of being approved increase quite a bit by having the B-permit, but we don't really feel like donating $75 (visa fee) to the Canadian government to be instantly denied, hence my inquiry if any other people have gone through the same type of experience.

I'm guessing that if there is a canadian consulate general in Switzerland and your boyfriend is currently resident in Switzerland, then that's where he can go to apply - if he smiles sweetly (or sends them a really pleasant email) they might answer his question without him having to pay a fee...

Hi swisspea...

They have to apply at the Canadian Embassy in Paris either in person on by mail...that's a good suggestion though, he may be able to find someone at the consulate in Bern who would care to give a guess at what the officer in Paris who is assigned his file will decide. At the end of the day it's really about how the immigration officer feels about my boyfriend and his application.

It might help your boyfriends case if he was to submit additional documentation concerning is situation here in Switzerland to show that he really would have not financial motivation to stay on over there:

- Copy of permanent employment contract for Switzerland
- Swiss residence permit
- Letter from employer confirming that he has a permanent and well paying job to come back to and so on.

Good luck with that,

Jim

I find it easy to get visa to travel anywhere if you submit the required docs, i have had visas to lots of countries from Australia, Asia, South America but i still got denied a visa to the US, the counselor agent said he's not convinced i will return from the US after visa expiry, which i really find is weird reason cause i have stable life here, permit B, a good job in Switzerland, have a good salary, married & have a kid in Switzerland since 3 years at that time (they were not traveling with me), my company's HQ is originally in NY and i were actually going for a work related conference.

So to answer your questions, in the US and probably in Canada too, countries that have bad history in immigration can still be refused regardless of the evidence you submit and you can't really do anything about it.

End of it's not only about the 75$, but more about getting refused as this might affect the approval of other countries visas in the future.

__________________
Silence is an argument carried out by other means.

It is true that you can do nothing about it, but your US employer certainly can. If they are aggrieved they should complain to their Congressman. Indeed, they can also complain to the Ambassador.

Hi Jim - thanks for your suggestions...we had actually already gathered up all that and more. I think we'll be going to Paris in person to submit the application since there is a posting on the embassy's website stating that a postal strike is slowing delivery of mail to their offices and we'd like to have my bf visit in July if we can.

Mowvich - thank you very much for your comments. You experience is exactly what I was curious about. I wish you had better things to say about getting the visitor visa in the USA...but all we can do is try for Canada. My bf has no prior visitor visas granted to him so we are deffinitely working an uphill battle...but we'll keep our fingers crossed!

Cheers, Emily

So, we did it - went to Paris and went through the whole process to apply for a visitor visa for my Dominican citizen/Swiss B permit holding boyfriend and I am overjoyed to report that he was APPROVED!

They asked some questions about the status of his job and his status in Switzerland in general and even called him back to ask some more questions after the initial interview, but in the end we walked out of the Canadian embassy with a visa in his passport!

We are both shocked and amazed as this NEVER would have been possible before he received his B permit. It is well-known that Dominican citizens have little to no chance of being approved for a visitor visa for Canada...so yay!

Thanks for everyone's input and advice!

PS: If you choose to do this make sure that you arrive at the embassy right when it opens and be prepared to wait several hours. We arrived at 8:30am and didn't get out of there until after 1:00pm.

Thank you very much for reporting back, not many people bother!