visa apps and misc paperwork

Well, as my "India list" slowly dwindles, item by item I am checking things off my list, I am finding myself putting the finishing touches on our visa applications. We can't do anything wrong. We can't forget to cross a t or dot an I or they threaten to decline our tourist visas. I was in Vancouver on the weekend so I went to the consulate directly to get the low down about this one clause I had read on the website while browsing for the instructions how to apply. It said that if your passport was not issued within the vancouver jurisdiction, that you need to send in a utility bill in your name and a "reference form" along with your application and all the other stuff. So, here is where the Indian bureaucracy and red tape come in. I initially called the consulate to ask what that meant. Did that mean us? Since our passports were issued in Ottawa? The man on the phone was uncertain so he said it is best to send them both in anyhow, just to be on the safe side. Ok, fair enough. Then my next question was "what is this reference form". On the visa application there is already a section where you fill in your references, but are they talking about a separate form? its sound like it.
So while in vancouver i thought what better thing than to go straight in to their office and find out first hand. Well. After circling the block for parking like 8 times, I finally went in. The office was jammed with Indian nationals getting passports. There is a "security officer" slash front desk door guy sitting at a low desk who looks like he is accepting people's applications. I am advised to take a number. My number is about 35 positions away from the numbers currently being called out. I decide to wait and take my chance asking my question to this officially dressed guy at the door. I am subjected to a couple of cases of the "men first" rule rampant in India. Realizing this. Realizing that the fact that I am in this short line but that I keep getting bumped as men come in front of me. Only one person respectfully lines up after me when they come in. She is a woman. When I realize this, that i am going to have to get a little more aggressive or i might be there all day, i step up and say excuse me, leaving no room for further budging. I present him with my predicament. (The place is a zoo and he is clearly trying to process as many people as he can, as quickly as he can). His advice is that in my case, I only really need the utility bill in my name, NOT the reference form. I argue. "Are you absolutely certain? I mean, why would it SAY that, that i need both, if that wasn't the case? I don't want to mail it all in, only to have it returned to me saying incomplete, and we only have time to go through this process once, since, as always, they date the visa start date from the moment they approve the visa, for 6 months from that date, they don't care when your departure date is. and since i am there for 5 months, i need at the soonest, 1 month before my departure. processing can take 2 weeks, hopefully not more. its a bit of a tight timeline.
So anyhow. We argue. Finally he grabs two forms and thrusts them at me. They are the alleged "reference forms". One for me and one for my mother. "Here you go! he says". and so i thank him and back out, back into the hall. I figure then at that point that it couldn't hurt to just send in both the utility bill AND the extra reference form, just to be on the safe side BUT then i look down at the forms. And across the top is written: ADDITIONAL FORM TO BE FILLED BY NON-CANADIAN NATIONAL!!! AAAAAHHHH!!! I told him I was Canadian, born and raised. he knew this. So why am i now holding this form in my hand? I am not a non-canadian national!!
So that is how i arrived home from vancouver the other day, more confused than when i left. So again today, I phoned the consulate. I explained my situation. The person on the other end was the most competent sounding person out of the three that i talked to. Instead of sounding like he was just trying to get rid of me as fast as possible, he actually asked me all sorts of pertinent questions pertaining to my case And THEN gave me his recommendation. He said yes, both the utility bill AND the reference form, exactly the one i had been given at the consulate. I explained to him how it didn't seem right, since the form clearly stated that it was for non-canadian nationals, which i clearly am not. "i know, i know, it does, but that's ok, just fill out the form please and send it in with everything else". twice we went over this point and twice he assurred me that it seemed wrong but to just do it. and not to just fill out the forms in pen, but to download it online and fill it out on the computer and then print it, so that my answers were typed.
Well that's all fine and dandy but then do you think i could download the document AND then type my answers into it? no, of course, nothing could be that simple. it was an adobe document that is read only, you cannot make changes to it. and i couldn't just copy and paste it to another document because then the fancy consulate insignias weren't transferred. There must be a way, a technologically savvy way, if anyone knows one, let me know. Instead I ended up printing the form and then refeeding it into the printer and printing the answers on it from a separate document a separate time. so ridiculous.
anyhow, so that is that. done. and the finished product looks quite nice i might add. i made one for mom too.
details are getting finalized.