Help…Colombian family going to Alaska — Need Visa?

[smellywax]

So I am a US citizen and have Colombian family members visiting and I booked a cruise to Alaska last minute 2 weeks ago that leaves Sunday. The travel agent knew their citizenship but didn’t mention they would need visas. They have cruised before in the Caribbean so it didn’t occur to me they would need one for Alaska but apparently they do for Canada even if they don’t get off the ship in Victoria. Is this correct? I will call NCL tomorrow as it’s closed now but I wanted to see if anyone knew more about this. 

[YoHoHo]

41 minutes ago, smellywax said:

... Colombian family members visiting and I booked a cruise to Alaska ... that leaves Sunday. The travel agent ... didn’t mention they would need visas. ... apparently they do for Canada even if they don’t get off the ship in Victoria. Is this correct?

Getting on or staying on the ship is not relevant; they are in Canadian waters at a Canadian port so have already entered Canada.

 

This tool has a few basic questions such as which country's passport are they travelling on, if they have dual citizenship;  do they have a green card for the USA...

 

https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.asp

 

A quick look at how to obtain one it sounds tight if they are leaving this coming Sunday. Maybe a visa service can help.

 

Hope they can make the cruise as it would be a great trip for them. Maybe they can change to a return trip that is all in the USA. Good luck

[njhorseman]

33 minutes ago, smellywax said:

So I am a US citizen and have Colombian family members visiting and I booked a cruise to Alaska last minute 2 weeks ago that leaves Sunday. The travel agent knew their citizenship but didn’t mention they would need visas. They have cruised before in the Caribbean so it didn’t occur to me they would need one for Alaska but apparently they do for Canada even if they don’t get off the ship in Victoria. Is this correct? I will call NCL tomorrow as it’s closed now but I wanted to see if anyone knew more about this. 

If you go through the process starting on the Canadian government page https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/visit/visas.asp you'll see that a citizen of Colombia needs a visitor's visa to enter Canada, and yes...they will be entering Canada due to the ships' port call in Victoria even if they are not planning to disembark there. You're in Canada as soon as the ship enters Canada's territorial waters.

Unfortunately your travel agent really screwed up.

[Pitzel]

From what I can figure out on the Government of Canada website is that yes, they need a visitors visa...and the current processing time for a visitors visa is 152 days!!!

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/entry-requirements-country.html

[IAcruising]

12 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

 

Unfortunately your travel agent really screwed up.

 

I'm going to go ahead and tag this early for the understatement of October.

 

Best wishes to OP and family, but this doesn't look promising.

 

[Pitzel]

7 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

Best wishes to OP and family, but this doesn't look promising.

 

Agree!

One potential long shot: It looks like Columbian citizens need to apply for a Canadian visa in person at an embassy. Is there a Canadian embassy near them/you? While the chances are not great, they should contact the embassy directly to see what their options are.

[smellywax]

43 minutes ago, IAcruising said:

 

I'm going to go ahead and tag this early for the understatement of October.

 

Best wishes to OP and family, but this doesn't look promising.

 

Exactly because it takes 152 days currently to process a visitor visa with Canada and the agent should have said, “ Do they have visas to travel to Canada, as that is required for the Alaska itinerary?” 

[DCGuy64]

I'm sorry to say your Colombian family members won't be traveling with you. 😞

[smellywax]

6 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

I'm sorry to say your Colombian family members won't be traveling with you. 😞

Nor will I be sailing and the travel agency is putting it all on me. I understand doing research but a good travel agency would know that Canadian visas are required for non US citizens and advise or bring it up before booking you and allowing you to lose $4500 since it’s within penalty. With the current wait of 152 days for a Canadian visa, it is impossible and they are not willing to do anything.

[DCGuy64]

8 minutes ago, smellywax said:

Nor will I be sailing and the travel agency is putting it all on me. I understand doing research but a good travel agency would know that Canadian visas are required for non US citizens and advise or bring it up before booking you and allowing you to lose $4500 since it’s within penalty. With the current wait of 152 days for a Canadian visa, it is impossible and they are not willing to do anything.

Well, try this on for size: Yours truly went to Brazil in 2003 for what was supposed to be a week long Portuguese language course. I (American citizen) was never told by 1) The school or 2) the airline (United) that I needed a visa to visit Brazil. I found out at the airport as I unsuccessfully attempted to check in for my flight. That was on a Friday evening. I had to wait until Monday morning, go to the Brazilian Embassy in Washington (I live in DC so that wasn't as big of a deal) and wait 24 hours for the visa to be processed, so I flew 4 days late down to Brazil. It was all on me.

[DCGuy64]

Also, booking a last-minute cruise can be risky for exactly this reason. If it were next year or something like that, they could apply and hopefully have the visa in time.

[eileeshb]

37 minutes ago, smellywax said:

Nor will I be sailing and the travel agency is putting it all on me. I understand doing research but a good travel agency would know that Canadian visas are required for non US citizens and advise or bring it up before booking you and allowing you to lose $4500 since it’s within penalty. With the current wait of 152 days for a Canadian visa, it is impossible and they are not willing to do anything.

No travel agent is an expert in visa requirements, they’ll have a fair idea of what’s required for citizens of the country they are in when travelling to major common destinations. E.g. a US travel agent probably knows what US citizens need going to Western Europe or the various Caribbean and Central American countries. 
when I worked for a multinational we used American Express’ travel agents but had to work with a specialist travel visa company when we went anywhere outside of USA or the EU. Thankfully I’m Irish and had an Australian passport too (dual citizenship) so if one passport was at an embassy to get a visa for a business trip I still had the other to use for leisure travel and the visa requirements for both are pretty similar. I’ve only had to get embassy issued visas 3 times - Russia, Malaysia and J1 for USA, most others were issued at point of entry or were electronic applications like the US ESTA or Canadian eTA.