Applying for Canadian Visit Visa from the UK

Being a non-British, I do need to apply for a visa if I plan to visit Canada. Below is an account of my experience of the overall process. Please note that below is not an immigration or application advice in any way; just an account of how I applied for my visa.

Canadian visa applications can be submitted in-person, by-post or online. I would have preferred in-person if I was living close to London, but I wasn't. The next preference was to apply online as post usually takes days and I personally don't like the (albeit slim) chances of getting mail lost.

I found out that online applications are submitted via Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website. A lot of scanning is required if you don't have the documents scanned already. On the other hand, in-person applications probably need photocopies; they are submitted via VFS Global's Canadian Visa Application Centre (CVAC) in London. As far as I know, in-person applications can only be submitted in London. The CVAC website has a lot of information about the application process.

Step 0 - Getting Ready

One needs to gather all documents required. In my case, I found that the following should be sufficient to support my visa application:

• Invitation Letter from Canada
• Sponsorship Letter from the Current Employer
• Old and Current Passport
• Biometric Residence Permit
• Recent Payslips
• University Degree
• A few months' Bank Statement
• Photograph (although this is not really used in some cases, as stated later)

Step 1 - Online Application and Scanning Documents

If you are applying online, you'll need to generate something called a GCKey. This will be the id to login to the online application system.

Application forms are available for download as PDF. One of the things that I found that the application form needed details of all family members, including spouse, children, parents and siblings.

As I said earlier, a lot of scanning was required. The online application form has various categories and only one file (such as a PDF or JPG) is accepted. This means that for something like "Travel History", if I need to scan multiple old passports, all of them should be submitted as a single PDF. Moreover, there are restrictions on the file size too. One of the tools that I found very useful in merging scanned documents is PDF Joiner.

There are special requirements for submitting a photograph online. One needs to read the file size, resolution and other details carefully.

Step 2 - Pay and Submit Online

I submitted the application with supporting documents online. In my case, I need to pay the application fee as well as the biometrics collection fee via credit card.

The application processing times based on application centres are listed online.

Step 3 - Biometrics Collection (Surprise, Surprise)

Once I applied online, I received a message to submit biometrics collection. I found out that I did need to visit CVAC in London for this. This was a surprise for me because the whole idea behind the online application was to avoid taking time off from work just to visit the application centre. Any ways, I had to do it. The online documents that I took with me were my passport and a print-out of the biometrics collection letter. I found out that there is no need to book an appointment.

If you are planning to visit, make sure that you are not planning to visit on a public holiday/ closure date. Also, do make a note of the opening timings and the address.

At CVAC, they will take the collection letter and passport from you. They will take your fingerprints and a photograph, and return your passport after a while. This will be forwarded to the CIC authorities directly by CVAC.

Note - Security Regulations
Although there is a long list of prohibited items, I found that CVAC doesn't have an airport like security system. Coming from a different city, I did need to carry a mobile phone and keys, which didn't cause any problems at security. Previously, visiting the US embassy for a different purpose, I did find out that even taking a set of keys could be problematic, but not with CVAC.

Step 4 - Sending Your Passport

If your application is successful, you will need to send in your passport, once again via VFS Global's CVAC. I am not sure if there are multiple ways of sending the passport, but what I did was as follows: I sent my passport and additional fee (detailed next) to CVAC, who forwarded it to CIC. The additional charges cover the cost of forwarding the passport to CIC as well as the return postage. They payment this time has to be as postal order, bank draft or demand draft. Service charges for the two items can be found on CVAC's website.

Is Coding the new Latin?

When New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced in 2011 that learning to program a computer was one of his new year resolutions for 2012, people started wondering if Coding is the new Latin.

Is it really important to learn to code, even though you don't intend to pursuit a career in computer programming?

Some people agree, while others think that it's just a hype. I somewhat tend to agree with the former group. Even though learning to code might not help you directly in your career, it will improve how you think about problems and make you a better computer user, if nothing else.

Whether you agree or not, it's true that some of the most influential (and rich) people in the recent history had something to do with software development. Below is a video prepared by code.org which features Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and several others. The theme is "Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code."

With the advent of Web 2.0, interactive e-learning has become fun and immersive. The best part is being able to learn programming right from within your web browsers! Below is a quick round-up of extra ordinary resources for learning and polishing your programming skills.

The criteria used here is that only sites with free courses, which are either interactive or provide an instructor lead sessions are included.

Introduction to Programming

Code Academy: This is perhaps the most famous of "learn to code" web sites. The main page of this web site starts interactively, and before you know it, you start programming! This is a good resources for coding in general but more importantly, there are several "track" courses such as those for learning JQuery, JavaScript, PHP, Python and Ruby. The non-track courses cover a diverse set of topics such as CSS Selectors and Evernote API.

Code Academy is a nice resource if you already know programming and would like to teach others!

Code School: Code School is really meant for people who already know the basics of programming and want to take the next step by building expertise in web technologies. There are courses available on Git, Backbone.js, SASS, Rails, JQuery and several others.

Learn Street: Like Code School, Learn Street also focuses on JavaScript, Python and Ruby.

Improving your programming skills

Code Learn: If you have done web development in the past, you would know that Ruby on Rails is getting popularity day by day. The aim of Code Learn is to teach you Ruby on Rails.

AppShed: With smart phones, "mobile application development" has made a number of people rich. The aim of AppShed is to teach you mobile application development.

Learn X in Y minutes: This is a community driven site, which provides an extremely quick overview of different programming languages. This could be very useful to get a quick grasp of common construct in a new language.

The Boss in Leeds (or why politicians love industrialists)

So, The Boss visited Leeds this week. Bruce Springsteen was the first one to play in the newly completed £60m Leeds Arena. Previously, he is said to have visited the city in 1985 where the concert was held in Roundhay Park.

Bruce Springsteen - Leeds Arena - 24th July 2013 by Bradford Timeline

In another side news, some traffic warden issued parking tickets to the lorries carrying equipment for Bruce Springsteen's performance at the arena. Leeds City Council felt very embarrassed about it, and cancelled the tickets afterwards. This is what Leeds City Council had to say about the cancellation of the fine:

We accept this is a little embarrassing but the attendant was doing his job - if a little too efficiently," said a council spokesman. "When you prepare a city to open and host a huge, state-of-the-art new venue, you're bound to get the odd teething trouble ... Having considered the special circumstances, [Bruce's] tickets were quickly cancelled.

I wonder what's so embarrassing about it, and why weren't their clear instructions about it in the first place? If I am a ticket warden and my duty is to issue tickets, why would my boss be embarrassed about issuing tickets?

And when I wonder, my mind wanders...

Why is it that politicians are so much "in awe" of industrialists and capitalists? If a political figure is representing a common man, and they all surely claim to do so, why he/ she be so humble and flexible for those who are clearly not common?

(Comic) Does money give corporations more access to government? [yes] by mysticpolitics

Well, it surely has something to do with money. But not all politicians are corrupt; may be not entirely corrupt. But their love for industry and capital is ubiquitous.


So, this is what finally makes sense to me: A politician, even a genuine well-wisher-of-common-man type, wants to decide the fate of people; that's why he/ she is in politics in the first place. To do so, they require money. And the money comes from "big shots." The collective tax collected from common man must be peanuts as compared to sales and other corporation taxes collected by the government. So, modernisation is in the favour of politicians---it empowers them with more money to make decisions about the life of others; they will always like to do so, even if the common man is better off without the "modernisation" that they want to impose.

Google's Chairman's Mystery Visit to Pakistan

Sans any media campaign, Google's Chairman (and former CEO), Eric Schmidt, visited Pakistan in mid June for a 2 day trip. He met now-ousted Prime Minister of Pakistan in Islamabad and a selected group of people from business and technology sectors. 


There is no official word from Google explaining the purpose of his visit but the Pakistani government did have an official word about the discussion that took place. It's said that the Prime Minister discussed Google's support in tracking cross-border movement between Afghanistan and Pakistan; 


Isn't that very different from Bill Gates visit to Bangladesh a few years ago?


In his post titled "Pakistan and Its Image Problem", shared across Google+, Eric Schmidt writes

In meetings last week with the senior General, Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, they made the case for a new and updated image of Pakistan: one of the largest democracies in the world, with a vibrant and open press, an upcoming demographic dividend of hardworking young people, and a highly educated elite leadership of the country.  Islamabad and Lahore, where we visited, were relatively safe and certainly safer than Afghanistan.  It was clear to us that Pakistan has an image problem.

He also met a selected group of technology and business related people over a dinner at an undisclosed location. This group also included Mian Mansha [1], officially the richest man in Pakistan as well as Hussain Dawood [2] (of Engro corporation) and Amin Hashwani [3]. 

Left to Right: Amin Hashwani, Muhammad Mansha and Hussain Dawood

This group of 20 or so professionals also included

• Lars Christian Iuel, CEO, Telenor
• Dr. Adil Najam, VC LUMS
• Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman Punjab, IT Board
• Mussarat Misbah
• Jehan Ara
• Badar Khushnood
• Haris Nadeem

As I said earlier, there is almost no apparent reason for Eric Shmidt's visit to Pakistan. He was certainly not here to set up a development centre or anything. The widely held opinion is that he was in Pakistan to get first hand experience of the country, its systems and its people. Perhaps, he is more knowledgeable about the country than any other billionaire CEO's in the US. In such a social gathering, he could boast that he has personally visited the country and his experience is a first-hand one, and thus, he would be more imposing and impressive in his talk!


The more I think about his visit, the less sense it seems to make.

But there is one thing in Eric's post on Google+ that hints me that he was there to see if Google could go beyond solutions for individual and corporate web users, and provide solutions at government level. The second paragraph of his post at Google+ says, 

Pakistan also has a power problem, as in electric power.  Power is now off two hours out of three all day and all night.  Estimates are that the country has enough generation capacity (hydro and oil based) to handle all the load, but corruption, power stealing, poor payment rates and the classic mistake of underpricing power compared to its real generation cost means that industrial production is threatened.  Everyone of means has a UPS, and the air-conditioning seldom works on a 45 Celcius day.   Our meetings often were literally in the dark, a common enough occurrence that people did not even remark about it.

He mentions power problem right after the opening paragraph! This could certainly be an area of interest to Google. Has anyone heard of Google Power Meter? It's now a retired project but certainly somebody in Google thought of it to be the next big thing: 

PowerMeter included key features like visualizations of your energy usage, the ability share information with others, and personalized recommendations to save energy. We partnered with device manufacturers and utilities around the world.

Google has invested almost a billion dollars in the renewable energy sector. Countries like Pakistan could certainly benefit from that!


Well, this is just one of the areas where Google might like to go beyond enterprise solutions for corporates towards enterprise solutions for Governments. Well, there is already a Google Federal and Google Apps for Government!

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[1] Mian Muhammad Mansha
[2] Hussain Dawood
[3] Amin Hashwani

$1 Trillion Minerals Found in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has been called "Saudi Arabia of Lithium" because of huge lithium reserves. Interestingly, Pakistan also has world's 5th largest gold and copper reserves.

Sony FP85

I recently bought a Sony FP 85 photo printer from Bahdarabad (Karachi). The printer cost me Rs. 14K without the cartridge. A cartridge with paper to take 40 snaps was bought for an additional Rs. 1,200/-

But the more interesting thing is the shopping experience. Firstly the guy there was knowledgeable about the gadget but he didn't have any other model to compare. He compensated that by quickly taking a snap of me with a nearby Cybershot and printed it through the printer. The print quality, however, was not good enough. Any ways, when I decided to buy it, that's where surprises started to happen.

"After" creating the invoice, they told me that they didn't have the model readily available in the inventory---despite the fact that I confirmed its availability just before making the decision. Then I was told that this could be arranged from the Zamzama outlet but I'd have to wait for 2 hours. Another option given to me was that they would deliver the thing at my home. Since I had to give that as a gift to my wife, I opted for this choice. The next surprise was that they charged 2.1% extra on my credit card.

The delivery time given to me was 9pm. Before leaving I insisted upon punctuality and the response from the manager was that "the delivery guy won't come before 9pm" but for late arrival he couldn't set an upper limit.

What an interesting country!

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PS: The results of this printer are good enough for an amateur photographer, and the printer itself has some excellent value-added features.

PS 2: The cost of printing a snap is around Rs. 30 (includes paper and cartridge), which is quite expensive in my opinion.

A Tale of Two Holy Cities

A quick 26 days tour of Makkah and Madina during Hajj 1431 taught me some new things in life. Each foreign visit broadens up your vision of the world, and tells you a few things you never learn from the media and the books.

Makkah Mukarma turned out to be very different from the image I had in my mind. To my surprise, it's a hilly area with very warm weather; it felt hot even in November. At the least, the area surrounding the Ka'aba consists entirely of mountainous terrain. There is almost no greenery, which makes me wonder where did they keep camels in this city!

Besides the hot weather and the relatively difficult terrain, there were thousands and thousands of pilgrims, which to some extent made it challenging to move around during rush hours---mainly the five prayer timings.

Amongst other impressions modified by this visit includes the commonly held belief that "Saudis, because of being Wahabi's, have lack of empathy for other sects/ interpretations of Islam." While this remains true to a large extent even today, I could witness some completely unheard of events: A group of young Shiites (perhaps Hezbollah members?) slanting "Labaik Ya Hussain" while performing Tawwa'f of Khana-e-Kaa'ba; Ayatollah's from the US; a huge gathering of Lebanese Shiite's on 7th Zilhajj and recitation of Sura-e-Baraat by them. Very rarely but surely one could find Muttawas holding and beating pilgrims who, according to them, were performing acts of shirk.


Madina left an impression very different from Makkah---firstly, it wasn't too populated since Hajj days were over; secondly, the weather was chilly. There was a sense of peace and calm in the city, and the city also seemed to be much more developed as compared to Makkah.

I specially liked the area around Masjid-Zu-qiblatain; extremely peaceful environment with modern shopping arcade at some distance and a small, very beautiful park close by. Yet, the visit to Madina wasn't without surprises either. On 18th Zilhaj, when we tried to go to Masjid-e-Nabawi (Salallaho Alay'he Wa Aal-e-hi Wassalam) after Isha prayers, we were not only stopped from entering the mosque, rather forcefully pushed away by Saudi Army. The mosque was sealed by Saudi armed forces and people were being drove away! After some time, we realized that only Irani passport holders were allowed to enter the mosque and the rest of the nationalities were forbidden. This was one of the most unimaginable thing for me.

Later, it was found out that on this particular night Irani pilgrims pray Dua-e-Kumail, and they are handed over the mic of the mosque for a few hours! The army was there to make sure that Iranis do not go beyond what's agreed with the Saudi government.

And the complete list of surprises includes the flood in Jeddah as well as the threat now Saudi government feels from Yemeni rebels.

A bonus informative point is that Madina hosts Sheikh Amri. Getting more information on this person is worth your time!

Israel and Gaza

"The Big Pitcure" at boston.com tells you a graphic summary of the recent news.

Boycott Intel?

Somebody posted against Intel supporting Israel. The email's context was current Israel-Palestine fiasco, giving a link to Boycott Intel.

A quick search revealed an interesting news item from July 2008, with very though provoking comments. The web is full of how Israel saved Intel and how Intel's investment is causing boom in Israel.

$50 billion scam!

It seems that Double Shah's don't exist only in Pakistan. Our world is very prone to risks: see this $50 billion scam!

Gold Rush and Martial Law

The world has entered a dangerous zone: Who could have predicted The Gold Rush? And is there a remote possibility of Martial Law in the US?

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill.

Some interesting videos are available on YouTube if you search for "martial law."

Was sitting on a wall, and now having a great fall; who am I?

I am still in Bahrain and don't know when I'll go back home. The last two and a half years have let me set foot in Gothenburg/ Stockholm, Oslo, Skagen (Denmark), London, Sheffield, Dubai/ Abu Dhabi, Doha (Qatar), Kuwait and lately in Bahrain. Every place is very different from the other. Dubai, for example, amazes me with how much its residents are impressed by the construction going around them -- which they have little to contribute to. Bahrain, as another example, amazes me when I see hordes of Saudis driving into it every weekend. There are many interesting things about Bahrain. Chan'ad Bahraini and Bandar Gate Scandal could be a good start to know more about the politics of the country.

The year is about to end. Amongst the targets for this year, I have achieved only the following: got a driving license & saved more money then I spent on my education in Sweden. What I couldn't achieve includes learning Arabic, arranging a trip of the family to Dubai and of course, being a better human being.

Somehow, I feel that it's time to move ahead with life. Where to? I don't know. I need to re-analyze my priorities. By the way, The Rhythm of Life is a nice book. Get hold of it.

Work, RSI and UAE

Recently a friend showed concern if I was alive. I wish I didn't have to devote that much time to work. Actually, I do get some free time everyday but I don't want to spend that punching keys on the keyboard, i.e., replying to emails, updating this blog or working on the many volunteer projects I had opted for.

I have developed Repetitive Strain Injury; something I was suffering from before leaving for Sweden. But studies had the good affect of keeping me away from my computer. I'm back to work and thus, back to RSI as well.

For the sake of completion, here is Dubai's Dark Side.

Downtown Dubai

It's more than a month since I arrived here. This place is crazy and getting crazier. Property prices are shooting up like anything. Traffic congestion is an every-day experience. People travel for more than an hour to reach their office. And they are constructing buildings like these (yet to be occupied) in such traffic congested areas:



Dubai Marina

All this construction is going on in the desert. I know nothing about geography but the mere thought that they are extracting oil from the underlying earth just scares me!

Even more scary is the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

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As a side note,

• Salman Kasbati was here for a few days. I met him after two years!
• Earlier, Umar Siddiqi was here as well. I didn't have time even to see him. Alas!
• Meanwhile, the so called "developed" world continues trying to control every aspect of our lives. This is the worst form of terrorism.

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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
("Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost)

Bill Gates visits Bangladesh

Re-edited.

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He was on a one-day tour and visited Dhaka on Monday. A Bangladeshi friend shared the following picutre.



Bill Gates visits Bangladesh

Another friend, Fawad Halim, remarks:

Regarding the photo, I can't decide if
* BillG's head shrunk drastically
* BillG's spending all his spare time in the gym
* That's a doctored photo

But this news post confirms the authenticity of the picture above. Bill Gates will visit three Indian cities starting from today.

Child Prodigies

In case you missed this story on Slashdot (or in the other case if you are not a regular Slashdot reader), an eight year old Korean boy has been admitted to Physics department of a Korean university. Not surprisingly, both his parents are teachers. You can find the original news here.

In terms of family background, the story is not very different from that of Muhammad Hussain Tabatabai of Iran, who memorized (and understood the meanings of) complete Quran by the age of 5. Both his parents know Quran by heart. The same is true for the child from Vietnam who is a chess grandmaster at the age of 10 - his parents used to play chess amongst themselves and he picked it from them.

There is a story on TIME Asia which tries to analyze "if prodigies can be created?" You might also be interested in knowing about a family of child genii in England, born to a Pakistani father (and Malaysian mother) - though, one of the girls, Sufiah Yusof, has run away from home due to her father's over-ambitious attitude. Perhaps, BBC wrongly reports that both the parents are from Malaysia.


Does that mean these kids get a natural lead in the race of life? Well, how is it different from a child born with a silver spoon in his mouth - one who can spend a life without caring about hunger, insecurity, etc? Perhaps, one needs to analyze the definition of "finish line." Perhaps, we all have different start and finish lines - it doesn't matter if somebody has started ahead of us.

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Ejaz Asi reports his views about the earth quake casualties.

Google Code Jam 2005

I have become interested in puzzles and problem solving. A few days ago, a friend emailed me details of Google Code Jam; the registration of which is closing today.

I tried the practice tests and got ranked at 113 out of 1000 participants after solving 1 of 3 problems. I have to do 2 more but I feel very tired for that.

In fact, the last 800 coders have 0 score (it might be that they have not attempted any problem at all?) while the top coders have astonishing scores. The speed at which the top coders have solved the problems is more than average earthling's typing speed, i.e., even if an average typist already knows the solutions, he can't type that fast. Or it might be that they have cheated by solving the problems once and then re-registering with a different id; then, you just need to copy-paste your old solution.

At some point in time, I didn't like these competitions. I was always bad at coding against time or perhaps, I was afraid of losing. Now, the situation is very different.

But some people enjoy programming competitions! See Mansur's Trash Can, for example. I am trying to motivate myself to the level where I start enjoying such activity.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

[The title of the post has been shamelessly copied from a Jim Carry's movie with the same name. The title doesn't have much to do with the post itself.]

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of The Art of Living is visiting Gothenburg this week - there are ads in the newspapers and posters have been put up everywhere in the city. Quite interestingly, there is an entrance fee for listening to him. He will also visit Chalmers and there it will be free for students.

While he has some devoted fans who are eager to attend his lectures, I am a bit skeptical. As always, I find some marketing elements in such things. Those who work for world peace and service of humanity are like Mother Teresa or our very own Abdul Sattar Edhi. And contrary to what some people will like you to believe in, life is not full of joy! Suffering and grief are as much part of it as are happiness and blessings. Tell the prisoners of Abu Gharib to be happy or say the same to someone who has lost a close relative.

However, there is a difference between real suffering and self-inflicted suffering. Let's see if Ravi Shankar differentiates between the two when he says that life is pure joy.

Brainbench Games

Brainbench offered free tests between 21st Mar and 4th Apr, with the name of Brainbench Games. The idea was to rank different countries according to the number of certified people and also, to choose the best people in each type of certification.

The Leader Board shows the results. As anyone related to the field of IT would guess, India is at the top, followed by the US. Pakistan is at 12th position; not bad, but if you think of all that Operation Badar hype, then it should have been in top 5. Or at the least, there should have been someone from Pakistan taking the highest score in a Java related exam - speaks bad of Operation Badar.

What might be more surprising to some is the number of people from countries in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Latvia, Bulgaria, Belarus, etc. which are ahead of Pakistan. Also, if you look at individual scores these countries have quite a few people in the highest scores.

People from these relatively poor but not-so-densely populated countries are very hard working and they are living at the brink of Europe. These statistics are also supported by the general quality of programmers from Bulgaria, Estonia and Ukraine at Rent A Coder. Compare to Pakistanis at Rent a Coder - it's our attitude that doesn't make Pakistan a preferable outsourcing spot.

Of course, there are other factors that affect this result, mainly how far the word had spread. I got time to try it the last day and got C++ and C++ Fundamentals; I failed VC++ which tells me that I don't know MFC and COM+, amongst hundreds of other things that I should know.