After talking with a polite and helpful representative on the phone, who assured me the passports and visas were handled expediently, I mailed my passport to Travisa. My visa was received and sent to the consulate where it sat for 4 business days. I realize you don't have any power over the speed with which the consulate makes its decisions.
However, what happened with my passport after the consulate sent it back is the reason I will never choose Travisa again, and will recommend my colleagues consider a different service the next time they travel.
I was told over the phone that my visa would be mailed at the end of the business day -- Tuesday, 1/18/2011. I followed my passport tracking on the Travisa website and saw that it was mailed the following day, Wednesday 1/19 at noon. I called the office to make absolutely sure that it had been put in the mail. I had included an envelope for it to be overnighted. I was assured that it had been picked up for mailing and would arrive the next day.
The next day, I continued watching for my USPS tracking number to see when my passport/visa would return to me. When the tracking number failed to update, I contacted the post office and Travisa. Travisa assured me several times that it had been mailed Wednesday, 1/19, at noon. I expected the passport to arrive just in time for me to get on my flight. I was told by Travisa that it was a Post Office tracking error and that the passport was in the mail.
I missed my international flight on 1/20/2011 because my passport had not yet been mailed to me, despite numerous people assuring me it had been mailed, and despite the tracking information on the Travisa site that said it had been mailed.
My passport was not given to the post office until 6:30 PM on 1/20/2011. (I have the receipt and timestamps of this transaction.) This means it took Travisa 36 hours to take the passport from the Travisa office to the Post Office which is just down the road. My passport left the Houston post office at 7:00 pm and arrived to me the next morning at 8:00 am. The delay was clearly not the fault of the Postal Service. Had my passport been mailed the first time I was told it would be mailed, I would not have missed my flight and incurred so may additional expenses.
This is unacceptable. Because of the negligence and dishonesty of the people involved in the mailing of my passport, I have had to pay an extra $500 for my travels and have had to postpone my business affairs for several days.
I am sending this survey information to the Travisa headquarters with a request to be reimbursed for the cost of my airfare cancellation fee ($300 because I had to cancel the day of the flight since I was not told until it was too late that my passport had not yet been mailed), the cost of my expedited mail that was not handled correctly by your office ($18), the $163 fee I paid to Travisa to competently handle my visa, and the additional cost incurred when I rebooked my ticket ($200). I will also report this incident to the Better Business Bureau.
I recommend finding a more professional way of managing the mailing side, and following through with these time-sensitive and important documents. read more
