The Day I Offended a Canadian Officer Without Knowing It.

I thought the hardest part of the interview would be speaking French and English. I never imagined a simple coat would change the entire room.

More than two decades ago, I had my visa interview at the Canadian embassy in Bogotá.

I am from Colombia,.I emigrated through a French-speaking region, so the interview was conducted mostly in French.

When the immigration officer greeted me, I felt completely lost. I was in a very large, empty room. At the back, there was a table with two chairs for applicants, one chair for the officer, and a computer. On the sides of the table, there were many boxes filled with documents.

Bogotá is usually cold, windy, and rainy.That day I think it was raining, and I was wearing a simple jacket.

When we arrived at the desk, the officer asked me if I wanted to take off my coat. I said no. He asked me again if I wanted to take off my coat, and again I said no. Then, reluctantly, he told me to sit down. At that point, I still had no idea that something so small had already shaped the tone of the entire interview.

As the interview began, he was furious; his face was red and he yelled the first question at me. I had no idea why he was so mad, but I decided that was his problem. He might have wanted to throw me out before the interview had even started, but that was not going to happen.I had worked too hard to get to this point, and I wasn’t leaving without even trying.

I answered in fluent French with a well-prepared and strong response. The next three or four questions were the same. By the fifth question, his tone softened and the conversation became more fluid.

He had been so mad and yelling at me, while I stayed calm and focused, answering the questions.

The interview went on for a long time, mostly in French, with a few questions in English. In the last questions, there were words in French that I didn’t know, so I said them in Spanish, and he had no problem with that.

At the end of the interview, he began to review my documents, diplomas, and work certificates. He took my diplomas and checked them against the light, feeling the seals and signatures. I stayed calm. Then, he took a folder, pulled out a document, and signed it. He stood up, shook my hand, and said:

    “Welcome to Canada. Your application has been approved. Congratulations!”

He gave me the document he had just signed and explained the next step in the visa process.

As we were leaving, crossing that huge room, I was already walking on air and had no idea what he was saying, even though he spoke in Spanish.

When we reached the office door, he said:

    “In Canada, when you enter an office, you must take off your coat because it is considered impolite to keep it on.”

That was the moment everything finally made sense. We both laughed, and the tension of the interview dissolved completely.