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In an effort to attract more traffic from India, Canada will now be granting 10-year multiple entry visas to all those Indian national who have been there or the United States at least once in last 10 years, even as it is planning to overhaul its immigration system.
"We have seen how the relationship between India and Canada has grown over the years. There are complementarities on both sides. This is the latest in our immigration programmes, especially for the economic immigrants. We have decided to grant 10-year multiple-entry visa to Indian nationals, be it students, businessmen or even tourists within five days from the day of application," Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander told Business Standard in an interview.
The only criteria required to be eligible to obtain this visa is that the individual should have visited Canada or US at least once in last 10 years. The Canadian government has offered such a programme only to two other countries - Mexico and China.
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Indian nationals rank in the top 10 source countries of international visitors to Canada. In 2013, more than 130,000 visitor visas were issued to Indian citizens, and nearly 14,000 Indian citizens were issued student permits.
Between January and June 2014, almost 95% of visitor visas issued to Indian nationals were multiple-entry visas, allowing travelers to visit Canada as many times as they want for up to 10 years.
"We believe that such a move would not only help in boosting travel between both countries, it will also propel bilateral trade between both countries," Alexander said.
On the other hand, the Canadian government is also planning to overhaul its entire immigration system as far as their 40 year-old programme; Temporary Foreign Workers' Program (TWFP); is concerned.
The proposal has already been made in the budget implementation bill and the new law is expected to be effective from 2015. It is believed to be the strictest action ever taken by the government on the controversial matter concerning employment to temporary foreign workers.
"This will be mostly for the lower-end workers and the number of Indians working in that segment is very low. The matter has become sensitive and it needed more scrutiny. Employers were seen misusing the programme, which have had an explosive growth. But this will be mostly for the low-rung workers," the minister, who is on a two-day visit to India, stated.
The Canadian government is also planning to put a cap on the number of foreign workers a particular company can employ. The basic idea is to hike the cost of hiring foreigners in provinces that have higher unemployment rate.
