回複：xiaobaitu, pjiang or anyone have experience, please help!

I applied Canada visa in person couple years ago, got it within 30 minutes. I did it in Buffalo.

I don't think if you apply in person will still need to wait three weeks. Maybe that apply to mail in application?
But I am not 100% sure if the policy is changed recently. In my experience Canadian visa is the most easy one to get. I just walk in and apply in the consulate, didn't get any appoinment and the whole procedure took less than an hour, including waiting time.