CIBTvisas – Visa and Passport Service

I had a fine experience — I got everything I wanted in a little under two weeks. It’s expensive but I just wanted it taken care of, so I have no complaints. I liked the guy who handled my application — he was attentive and kept me in the loop throughout.

Unilocal — please add a ZERO! CIBT Inc.
I could go on, on and on here about the horrific service this so called Visa Service supplies, but please read the reviews it has received, because a travel agency directed me to them, I did not.
After receiving my passport and 9-​page application for an Indian Visa, my Visa, and Passport Specialist, an unprofessional and sarcastic individual called J.J.Lasne dragged the process out for weeks and in the end — cost, $ 394.04.

i heard they were banned from processing passports at the United States States Department of State. TODAY.

Lol — what a joke! This place has terrible service. The person on the phone actually encouraged me to cancel my concierge service payment because she wasn’t sure if anyone would get back to me in the time that had been promised. Don’t pay these guys; just do the visa process yourself and safe money and frustration.

CIBT totally left me hanging… wow.
Do it yourself if you can — is my advice.
I had exactly 4 business days before my flight and submitted everything for two work visas –expedited service. I spoke to a few different agents on the phone (their 1 – 800 number) to make sure everything was being received and handled quickly. After 2 days when I hadn’t received my Viet Nam visa I called again to learn that CIBT had not even started working on my visas. They had no apologies, no offers to make it right, they refused to send a courier («we don’t do that» the manager told me) In addition to all the apathy, they were full of misinformation: such as the VN consulate only accepts their visa applications during a small window of time early in the morning, and that the VN consulate takes two business days at the very least, so I was out of luck. (another fib) Some of the people I spoke with were super nice, but completely misinformed about their own services and visas and the rules for each country, and they talk with confidence on the subject. This is completely disturbing.
I finally went to the VN consulate myself at 2:30 that afternoon, where for $ 30 extra (the work visa is $ 150 fyi) I received my visa in 15 minutes. The consulate was full of couriers for other services who informs me CIBT has plenty or couriers, so they were totally holding out on me.
An interesting fact, is that they do not charge you until you receive your visas, so I suppose they feel they have no obligated to follow through on your order if for some reason it gets screwed up.
The «manager» at the call center (based in Texas) said she would call me back in one hour with a solution. She never called at all.
one star for CIBT.

Save your money and do it yourself. It’s worth the trip to the consulate to pick up your own documents than to be ripped off hundreds of dollars by CIBT.
I only used them because my company had recommended it, but I’ll later tell my manager it’s a huge waste of resources. When you start the process, CIBT will tell you the cost will be Visa Cost XX + CIBT fees YY = total cost ZZ. Whatever «ZZ» is, go ahead and add on about $ 200 from completely BS fees that they later tack on.
For example, the CHEAPEST way to post your documents is Next Day Air delivery. LOL, why? I’m applying for my Visa 8 weeks in advance, I don’t need a plane to delivery it the very next day. Secondly, they are parts of the application form that contain tiny checkboxes at the bottom of the page, almost cutoff by the page, and if you DON’T check them, you get charged extra for some BS additional «services.» Yeah, you lot «serviced» my wallet alright.

Customer Service is lacking, rude and certainly not worthy of my future business.
I have used CIBT for years with good success… for Visa’s to Brazil, China, Thailand, Venezula, Saudi Arabia and others.
This occasion was different… received a call from a snotty young man, telling me that the India Consulate was FuXXed up, overloaded and not able to accept documents from their (CIBT) company.
What I ask are you talking about???
…Dude…they have changed who they are using to process Visa’s…they are FuXXed up, backed up so much that they have weeks of applications not even opened… plus they won’t accept applications from us… oh and you didn’t fill out the actual application… you filled out a preapplication… you know, there was a hyperlink to the official application.
Now if your travel plans are flexible perhaps in a couple weeks I might be able to help. You could try in person but I have seen the cops called to breakup a couple fights…
I just can’t believe what I am hearing… what are you talking about?
Rude, condescending… a complete lack of any professionalism. WOW… Where is your management supervision?
Well, you wont see my business anymore!!!

I needed a China Visa and decided to go with CIBT because their prices were pretty competitive and I have a couple of friends who used them in the past. CIBT communicated the status very well and provided tracking numbers for the packages. I am giving one star because of the $ 25 passport replacement fee. I did see on the application (very very bottom) regarding the service and I left the box unchecked. BUT, I didn’t read it carefully… you need to check the box to DECLINE the service. I know, I should have read it more carefully and kudos to those who did read it and checked the box. But I believe this is pretty deceitful. I should have gone with
(VisaHQ)

I delt with some office of CIBT via phone & email. I do not know if it was the San Francisco office. Was trying to get an expedited replacement passport. Extremely poor experience. Waited on hold, twice, for about 10 minutes with their customer service, who never did answer the phone. Sent them an email requesting a return call. Never got one.
Short story is that I needed to supply an old passport (which I had) for identification for a replacement for one that was recently stolen. My question that never got answered because they wouldn’t pick up a call after 10 minutes or honor my request for a phone call was «could I use a very old passport for identification?». With no response, I sent it anyway & lo & behold, it could NOT be used because it was older than 10 years.
So CIBT graciously sent it back to me and charged my credit card $ 39.50 for a mailing label to receive my passport that didn’t work & another $ 39.50 to return it to me overnight. My emails complaining of the fees went unanswered, so I’ll try to get my moneys worth here.
I got this done for $ 125 at the post office & a 1.5 hour wait in line. AND the post office was happy to use my old passport for identification.
My suggestion is to stay far away from CIBT, as many other reviews here suggest.

Super painless. We dropped off our paperwork, and before we knew it, CIBT called a week later to let us know our visas were ready for pickup. It couldn’t have been smoother or faster. And the woman who handled our documents was very pleasant and efficient.
After reading other Unilocalers’ reviews about the $ 25 per person passport replacement surcharge that you have to actively opt out of, I made a point of checking to see that they hadn’t charged us. (They hadn’t.)
Minus one star for being pricey. But I guess it was worth it for the convenience.

As a traveler who has gotten 10+ visas this calendar year alone, I can say this is the worst visa experience I have ever had. Better to send directly to the embassy than to use this service. They did not inform me that payment had not gone through, held my passport for 1 week (so far… and counting!), were not able to process payment after I and my assistant tried repetitively with different cards, still held the passport, made no proactive suggestions. Would not respond to inbound calls or return phone calls. I am considering having them fedex it to another visa service I’ve used before rather than continue to hold my passport hostage.

Fast turnaround time and fairly painless to get a business visa for India, considering the horror stories I had heard about the process. It’s definitely on the pricey side, but it was worth it for me to not have to stand around at the consulate /​visa office for days to get this done. Definitely recommended for work travel, but read the fine print on the application to avoid some of the extra fees (like for passport replacement).

We needed an business visa to travel to India and two friends recommended CIBT. We filled out their online forms and delivered the papers to their office. The woman at the front counter reviewed our documents and advised us of the timeframe. I asked if they could get the Indian outsourcing provider to expedite and she said CIBT could not. She suggested we go directly to the outsourcing provider to request expediting. After we agreed to take care of it on our own she finished reviewing our documents and noticed a printing error on the India visa application. She re-​printed the documents and gave us the address to the outsourcing provider. I appreciate the extra level of service even though she knew we weren’t going to use CIBT.

My company has an account with CIBT. I spoke with someone in the SF office who told me to book my own consular appointment because they couldn’t book it for me until my application was complete. I called the 800# three times to verify. When I arrived in the SF office to drop off my paperwork, I was told not only could they not use my appointment but that I would need to complete an ENTIRELY NEW APPLICATION with the Brazilian consulate because «this record is now associated with that appointment and we can’t use that appointment, so start over.» I lost a week. Ridiculous.

I arrange a myriad of global travel requiring last minute visas and passports and have been for over 15 years for some of the most distinguished travelers. Not only is CIBT one of the most expensive, they have one of the worst communication systems I’ve ever experienced. While they offer you online «real time» whereabouts on the progress of your items, the accuracy is simply not correlated to whats happening in actuality. (800# to call local office, local office too busy to return call) I prefer more personal attention with developed relationships, such as TraVisa who have actual control of the file and are cheaper providing better service.

It’s pricey, but honestly, do you want to go stand in line at the consulate, hand over your precious passport to people of widely varying stages of competence to process the thing, and «hope for the best», just to save some money?
This year’s Chinese visa will be my 8^th visa through CIBT. Flawless execution every time. The ability to monitor exactly where your documents are at is truly key. Can they lower their prices? Of course. So can Apple, but Apple is not going to do that, because they know they make a product that you need, and that you are terrible at executing yourself. I suggest taking the plunge, if only for ease of mind.

Very inefficient and slow. Their systems make you input the same items over and over again. You’re basically filling out all the forms on your own, then they will go to the embassy and return them to you. Try calling them on the phone, and they will put you on hold for 20 minutes then tell you they have to transfer you to another department. Expect you’ll be cut off numerous times before finding the right person to talk to.
I have no issues paying for premium service, but in CIBT’s case, they don’t seem eager to please or make things easier at all. Not recommended.

We have a business account with them so MAYBE I have a bias.
I like that I can drop off the paper work and forget about it. They’re very good for visas to China and super efficient. Also, beats the hell out of standing in line at the consulate all morning. In fact, I’m going to have to walk up there and pick up a business visa today.
I also like that when you drop off paperwork, the receptionist goes through it before you leave to make sure everything’s filled out.
FYI their office moved closer to the Transamerica bldg… so no more window shopping at Loehman’s when I have to pick up paperwork… boo!
I will take a star off becaue they aren’t good for Brazilian visas at the last minute.

FAIL.
Expensive & did not provide good phone support at their 800 number. Refused to provide a local office phone number or transfer me to a local rep so that I could confirm correct address and cut-​off time for courier drop off of passports (was before I realized they were on Unilocal). Demanded 50% rush fees (read $ 500 extra for 4 visas) just to turnaround our applications in 8 – 10 days. What annoyed me the most is they use an outdated, grainy PDF version of the China Visa Application form which is very difficult to fill in online. I ended up doing a search and found a much clearer, more recent version at the SF China Consulate website. I fail to see the point of paying a processor to send me bad forms when I can download them myself for free?
In the end I chose MyChinaVisa processing services instead and was a lot happier. Do your research and choose wisely. There are better services out there than CIBT.

If your company has you use CIBT, then you are in luck. Fill out the forms they hand you over the web. Drop them off with your documents. Come back 4 days later. Get your passport with a visa. Sure beats waiting in line at the Chinese Embassy.