Canada permits visa-free travel to 13 nations.
Recently, the Minister of Immigration, Mr. Sean Fraser, in Winnipeg, introduced visa-free travel to Canada.
According to the minister, Mr. Fraser, passport holders from 13 nations will soon be able to visit Canada by air without needing a Temporary residence visa.
Notably, this applies to travelers from 13 approved nations who either possess a valid non-immigrant visa of the United States presently or who had a Canadian visa within the past decade.
The 13 approved countries whose travelers are eligible for visa-free travel are:
- Argentina
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Costa Rica
- Morocco
- Panama
- Philippines
- Seychelles
- St Lucia
- St Kitts and Nevis
- St Vincent and Grenadines
- Thailand
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Uruguay
The minister further mentioned in his announcement that the IRCC is attempting to facilitate the pretravel screening process and to make it faster and more affordable for travelers.
Also, the visa-free travel decision will shift numerous applications from Canada’s visa caseload, which will make the visa application processing more efficient for IRCC.
An identical pilot program was launched in 2017 in Brazil. The minister mentioned that the program successfully raised the number of visitors from Brazil by 40 % and reduced the caseload by 60 % in IRCC’s Sao Paulo office. This freed numerous IRCC officers and enabled them to process more complex applications.
Understanding Visa-free travel to Canada.
People from more than 50 countries can travel to Canada without a visa. However, if individuals are flying to Canada, most of these countries need an eTA, Electronic Travel Authorization.
The citizens of the U.S. do not need a visa or an eTA to get access to Canada unless they are visiting for study or work purposes.
Citizens who do not belong to visa-exempt countries are needed to apply for a Temporary Residence Visa, also called a visitor visa.
The Temporary Residence Visa permits individuals to visit and stay in Canada for a maximum period of six months. Note that this period may vary for some foreign citizens.
A TRV or visitor visa does not permit foreign individuals to study or work in Canada. Also, they may be required to reveal the purpose of their visit to the country. The purpose should be only temporary, such as visiting family or tourism.
Currently, IRCC, Immigration Refugees, and Citizenship Canada is handling a backlog of Temporary Residence Visa applications. IRCC’s recent backlog data depicts that 50 % of the Temporary visa applications are not yet being processed within its 14-day service standard.
As per Minister Fraser, the recent Canadian strike significantly impacted temporary residence visa applications. The strike lasted for 12 days, from April 19 to May 1. The minister said that around 100,000 TRV applications could not be processed due to the strike that, in standard conditions, would have been processed. He further added that IRCC is expecting to reach the pre-Covid service standard within a few weeks or months.
