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The High Commission of India in Ottawa said it did not yet have any official guidance on the matter.

“We have written to our national Reserve Bank. We are waiting for their response,” said Prem Selwal, attache consular with the commission.

A number of Canadian residents who have the discontinued notes, either left over from past travel, received as gifts from Indian friends and family, or kept as spending money for future trips back to their country of origin, have spent the last few days frantically trying to exchange their rupees with little success.

Some have explained that they haven’t typically exchanged their rupees in Canada in the past due to the unfavourable conversion rate.

Now, however, they’ve been left with banknotes that have no cash value.

“I personally feel it’s a complete wastage of my money,” said Sachin Jindal, a Toronto resident who tried to exchange his rupees at multiple locations since Modi’s announcement.

Jindal explained he typically keeps about 15,000 rupees — roughly $300 — on hand for travel to India so he has money available when he lands in a country where a large amount of daily transactions are conducted with cash.

The 30-year-old has no plans to travel back to India for at least a year, which means he would miss the Dec. 30 deadline to turn in the old bills at an Indian bank, as well as a March 31 deadline to bring the bills in to certain special offices with a declaration form.

“It’s very much frustrating,” he said. “If the government has to take these steps, at least for the people living abroad who don’t have access to the banks, they should be provided with some minimum time amount or they should be provided with a place that they can go and convert it.”