The Italian Consulate - Part I

The Italian Consulate in Toronto is only open to the public for a few hours every weekday. So one fine morning I decided to go straight to the consulate before heading to work.

This would only be the second consulate that I have ever been to in my adult life. The first one being the Indian Consulate in Toronto.

I get to the consulate, head towards the Visa office which has a separate entrance at the side of the old Heritage building in down town Toronto. There is no line up.

Italian Consulate - 1

Indian Consulate - 0

One had to get to the Indian consulate 2 hours before they opened to get ahead of the line up and even then there would be about 50 people ahead of you. Once they opened, you got rushed in and had to get a number from the number dispensing machine. Sometimes they actually ran out of numbers and you had to return another day to try again. Plus, the officials were never pleasant, it always seemed like they had spicy curry for the first time ever that morning.

Back to the Italians - so I entered the side entrance and got into a little space with two windows behind which sat the Visa officials. The lady was all smiles and explained exactly what I had been told on the phone the first time I called. This time I got the form as well. But still no info on the DV. I was informed that I'd have to go speak to someone else inside the main office of the consulate for that.

But, I had already spent enough time getting the form and info for the Visa and had to get back to work. So I decided to come back another day. I hopped back on the streetcar and headed to work.

Passive beginning to the story I know, but this is only Part I. Stay tuned.