IRCC Deputy Minister Transition Binder 2024 – Temporary Immigration: How Visitors Come to Canada

Context

• International tourism generated approximately $16B in 2022. Visitor volumes fluctuate, but the overall trend has been upward year-over-year.
• All foreign nationals seeking to enter Canada are screened for inadmissibility (health, security and criminality). Nearly all visitors are screened before they travel; the level of screening corresponds to the perceived level of risk and is determined largely by a traveller’s nationality.

Impacts

• Visitors generate tourism revenue, reunite friends and family, and also promote social and cultural connections.
• Visa policy is politically sensitive: lifting a visa communicates trust and partnership, imposing a visa negatively impacts bilateral relationships.

Current Program

• Visitor screening is Canada’s first opportunity to interact with travellers before they arrive on Canadian soil.
  • Screening aims to “push the border out,” manage migration, and protect the health, safety and security of Canadians.
  • Screening aims to issue visas only to genuine visitors who can support themselves during their temporary stay in Canada, and will not remain in Canada without status.
  • All inadmissibility assessments require a case-by-case analysis based on the facts of the case and the evidence before the decision maker.
  • Cases may be flagged for additional screening based on information provided by the individual applying to come to Canada, security screening indicators or any adverse information that may be flagged in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) or the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) systems. IRCC may refer such cases to the CBSA or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for a more in-depth review.
  • By law, all visitors require a visa to travel to Canada, unless otherwise exempt.
• The type of screening depends on the potential level of risk posed by a visitor and is determined largely by nationality.
  • Higher risk nationals must apply for a temporary resident visa (TRV) and enrol their biometrics (fingerprints and photograph).
  • Lower risk nationals travelling to or through Canada by air must apply online for a light-touch electronic travel authorization (eTA).
• Temporary resident visa – Applies to the majority of countries
  • Application: Collects comprehensive details and supporting documents
  • Screening: Requires biometrics; includes an assessment of a traveller’s intent
  • Review: Manual review by officer; passport and TRV counterfoil physically inspected
  • Validity: Up to 10 years; multiple entries (in majority of cases)
  • Fee: $100 + $85 biometric fee
  • China and India are the top visa-required source countries
• Electronic travel authorization
  • Application: Fully digital; collects basic, self-declared traveller information
  • Screening: Light-touch (for example, known immigration history)
  • Review: Most applications automatically approved by system in minutes
  • Validity: Up to five years; multiple entries
  • Fee: $7
  • United Kingdom, France and Mexico are the top eTA source countries

Visa Policy Framework

• Canada’s Visa Policy Framework guides decisions regarding which foreign nationals may travel to Canada on an eTA instead of a visa. Over 40 criteria are used to assess risks (such as threats to public safety) and benefits (such as tourism), including:
  • safety and security concerns
  • passport integrity
  • bilateral benefits
  • the performance of the traveller population in question (for example, asylum claims and visa refusals)

Recent Developments

• On June 6, 2023, Canada lifted the visa on known travellers^{Footnote 1} from 13 countries to support post-pandemic economic recovery and tailor visitor screening more toward individualized risk (beyond just a traveller’s nationality). These countries include the Philippines, Thailand, Morocco, Seychelles, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. These are considered “partial visa lifts” because now, these countries produce two streams of visitors: those who need a visa, and those who only need an eTA.
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Visitors Program Modernization

• Improving how visitors, students and workers come to Canada will be an early deliverable under the Digital Platform Modernization initiative and will allow IRCC to keep up with increasing temporary resident volumes. IRCC will shift away from primarily issuing physical documents to issuing digital visas and immigration permits, while improving the data the Department uses for screening.
• A shift to digital visas and immigration permits is critical to our ability to effectively respond to a crisis, better support clients’ needs and expectations for modern digital services, and reduce the Department’s reliance on outdated paper processes that add to processing times. Clients would no longer wait without their passports while we add a visa counterfoil sticker and instead could travel as soon as we approve their application. At the border, it means shorter wait times as arriving international students and workers would no longer need to be sent to a CBSA officer to print a paper immigration permit.
• Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom already issue digital visas, while the United States and the European Union are moving ahead with this approach. This underscores the need for Canada to keep pace in a tight market for international tourism and the attraction of talent.
• To strengthen program integrity while shifting to digital visas and permits, IRCC is seeking to introduce a digital capture feature to accurately collect clients’ biographic passport information and verify the authenticity of their travel documents remotely.
• The Department is also working with the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and INTERPOL to increase immigration information sharing to better screen our clients based on their interactions with our closest allies, and to ensure they hold legitimate travel documents.

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Advice And Representation

• Many foreign nationals seeking to enter Canada receive advice or representation from an immigration or citizenship representative, including immigration and citizenship consultants. Canada has taken decisive action to improve oversight, strengthen enforcement, and increase accountability among consultants.
• IRCC is supporting the development and implementation of a new governance regime for consultants. The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants is an arm’s-length body that is mandated under the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants Act (College Act) to regulate consultants. It opened on November 23, 2021, and is subject to government oversight. The full implementation of the governance regime requires the development by the Department of regulations pursuant to the College Act (anticipated in 2025).
• The Department is also developing an administrative penalties and consequences regime which will allow IRCC to issue monetary penalties to consultants, lawyers and unauthorized practitioners who violate the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act or the Citizenship Act while providing advice or representation. The regime is anticipated to take effect in 2025 through amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and Citizenship Regulations.

Upcoming Milestones

• Canada is pursuing visitor screening based on the individual risk posed by each traveller. Today’s visa policy is largely based on nationality, but countries do not fit neatly into two risk categories—all countries contain lower- and higher-risk travellers.
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• In response to increased visitor demand and modern client expectations, IRCC recognizes that a shift to the digital delivery of visas and permits is necessary to remain competitive. Initial stakeholder engagement with the air industry and Canada’s M5 partners is underway; the goal is to launch a digital visa pilot in 2025.
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