The US Treasury at Scotia Bank?

[ladykelia 0]

Today my fiance and I recieved a letter from the Vancouver Consulate. It informed us that effective July 1, 2007, instead of bringing $100 cash to our interview to pay for the visa application fee, we will have to print out deposit slips from www.amcits.com/deposit.pdf and visit a Scotia Bank to deposit the funds into their bank account instead.

It seems legitimate, as the URL is indeed the US consulate website, and they have our case number. Otherwise though, I would have thought the thing to be a huge scam. "just deposit 1 million dollars into our swiss bank account, when we hit it big you will get your money back 3 fold!" I also find it strange that they decided to distribute this letter only a couple of days before the change. Our interview isn't until the 9th, but imagine if we had missed this memo. yikes!

Has anyone else with an upcoming interview recieved this letter? And can anyone explain why they might do things this way? If they are afraid of theft at the embassy, why don't they just get a credit card machine and join the modern world? I find this sooo bizarre.

[ladykelia 0]

Whoops, I should have done some more searching. Apparently other people have gotten this letter. It still is very weird . I just think that the fact that there is an account named "US Treasury" at Scotia Bank is hilarious beyond belief. I am easily amused though.

[ramos96 1]

Hi there,

My Fiancee Nancy in Hong Kong had to do the same thing in April before her interview. It probably makes things easier for them and they don't have to worry about money being at the consulate, which we all know can lead to all kinds of temptations.

Sincerely,

Ramos

[~Nini~ 2]

Yeah, I just received this letter the other day too. We had a thread about this a week or two ago. I'm not sure why they're starting to do this for the U.S. consulate though - I guess to reduce paperwork on their end?

Quite honestly, I wish they'd stuck with the old system. Rushing to a bank to deposit your fee for the visa seems a little inconvenient, especially for those that have to travel long distances for the interview. But it's a small gripe.