If you are a passport holder from one of the 13 countries listed above, you will be able to fly to Canada without needing a temporary residence visa.
However, you will only be able to do so if you have had a Canadian visa for at least the past 10 years or if you currently have a valid nonimmigrant visa from the United States. This includes passport holders from the following countries:
Philippines
Morocco
Panama
Antigua and Barbuda
St Kitts and Nevis
St Lucia
St Vincent and Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
Argentina
Costa Rica
Uruguay
Seychelles
Thailand
According to Fraser, IRCC has been working for some time to streamline, speed up, and lower the cost of pretravel screening. Fraser says this decision will take thousands of applications out of Canada’s backlog of visa cases, freeing up IRCC to handle visa applications more effectively.
In 2017, IRCC implemented a similar pilot program in Brazil. According to the minister, the program resulted in an increase of 40% in visitors from Brazil and a 60% reduction in the number of cases in IRCC's Sao Paulo office, allowing IRCC officers to focus on more complex applications.
Visa-free travel to Canada
More than 50 countries are able to enter Canada visa-free, although most of them will need an eTA (Electronic Travel Authorization) if they’re coming by air.
U.S. citizens don’t need an eTA and a visa to come to Canada unless they’re moving to Canada for work or education.
If you’re a citizen of a country that isn’t exempt from getting a visa, you’ll need to apply for a TRV (Temporary Residence Visa).
TRVs, also known as visitor visas, allow you to live in Canada for six months (some foreign nationals may need to apply for more than one).
The arrival of a Registered Travel Vehicle (TRV) in Canada does not entitle the holder to work and/or study in Canada, and the holder may be required to provide evidence that the TRV is only for short-term purposes (e.g. tourism or family visits) at the port of entry where the TRV is registered.
The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is currently dealing with a backlog of the TRV application process. According to the latest TRV backlog data provided by IRCC, 50% of the TRV applications have not been processed within the service standards of 14 days.
"TRV applications were affected by the strike by the public service alliance of Canada," Fraser said. The strike lasted for 12 days, from April 19 to May 1. Fraser said that 100,000 TRV applications that would otherwise have been processed during the strike were not processed.
Fraser added that IRCC expects to be able to “catch up” to pre pandemic processing standards in the next couple of weeks or a couple of months.
