It all began with an article featured in The Toronto Star Newspaper, February 25th/09, Canada 'Top of the Pops' for Brits.
My father, who was a loyal Star reader was flipping through the paper one morning and noticed this article. He clipped it out immediately and called me to tell me about it because he knew that I was looking for a reputable visa agency to help with my fiance's Canadian visa application. On July 7th my father died very suddenly just one month after his diagnosis with colon cancer. He died ten minutes before my plane landed, I never got to say good bye. I am now residing with my mother and brother in Canada waiting for my husband to be able to join me.
In March we contacted Global Visas and nearly four months later we were still waiting for our second adviser to answer our questions regarding the visa forms so that we could fill them out properly. We sent endless emails to this second assigned advisor and there was no response. We emailed other people in the company including the CEO but still never received any response. When ever we tried to phone a random operator would pick up and would either be very brusque or 'accidentally' disconnect us. They have taken all but our final payment of the nine-hundred odd pounds that they charge as a fee but in this four months the only thing that they had done for us in that four oinths was to email us an immigration package littered with typos (these forms can be downloaded from the CIC website anyway). No one had answered a single one of our questions regarding the forms or the visa process. All the did was send us this visa package and email us to ask if we were done filling out the forms.
In addition to this, within weeks of them taking our first payment our case was moved without warning or reason form the London office to the Cape Town office when we both lived in London, UK and to add insult to injury were with in walking distance of this London office. I finally spoke to the manager at the Cape Town office and when I asked him why if my fiance was English and we were living in London our case had been moved to his office, he replied with 'We are very capable in this office and you will thank us when you get your visa'. I repeated myself because this was clearly not an answer and he responded with 'Well Global Visas don't offer a face-to-face service so it really makes no difference where your adviser is based'. The last time we wrote to our second adviser using her email address and the online email server that Global Visas provide was June 25th. We have yet to receive an answer form her. Instead an anonymous individual contacted us through the Global Visas server and told us just to fill out the forms even though we are having difficulty and send them to the London office and that they would them reassign us yet another advisor at the London office This would be adviser number three! Advisor number 3 failed to respond promptly and thoroughly to our emails (sent through their GV server). Our emails consisted of questions that we needed answered in order for us to complete our forms and supply the necessary documents for the application.
Now nearly one year later advisor number three has sent us an email informing us that our file has been closed because WE failed to provide the necessary documents and that apparently their is a sixty day time limit that we had not been made aware of until now. Their main concern is that we owe them our last payment. We were reluctant to pay this because they had already taken roughly £700 of our money and provided us with virtually no help at all.
In total they charge over £900 for their services. For that kind of money I don't think it is wrong to want a face-to-face consultation with a visa advisor. A consultation of even just 30 mins. This is what they lead you to think that they will provide but they don't! Once you've signed their contract and owe them all this money they start to tell you that they never provide a face-to-face consultation and that everything is done via email through their server. The funny thing is that they can't even reply to their emails! I am writing to you out of sheer desperation.
They have literally run off with our money. I just want to be reunited with my now husband. Global Visas have taken much more than money from us, they have taken us away from each other and they have taken away our hope. We both feel utterly powerless.
At the very least we believe that they should not be allowed to operate in the UK and that people should be aware that they are in fact a scam and do not provide the services that they advertise.
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