Eligible travellers from 13 more countries can skip visa to come to Canada

It’s about to get easier to visit Canada. The federal government announced passport holders from 13 countries will now be able to travel to Canada without requiring a temporary residence visa.

Travellers from these countries who have either held a Canadian visa in the last 10 years or who currently hold a valid U.S. non-immigrant visa can now apply for the electronic travel authorization (eTA) program instead of a visa when travelling to Canada by air.

The 13 countries are:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Argentina
• Costa Rica
• Morocco
• Panama
• Philippines
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines
• Seychelles
• Thailand
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Uruguay

“Today’s announcement is going to help facilitate the opportunity for people to come and visit in the tourism sector, to be reunited with loved ones more effectively, and it will have a very important and positive impact on immigration processing as well,” said Sean Fraser, minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship.

Canada introduced the eTA program in 2015. It’s a digital travel document that most visa-exempt travellers need to travel to Canada by air.

The government says more than 20 million eTAs have been issued since the program’s launch and it’s anticipated that more than 200,000 visitors from these 13 countries will come to Canada in the next year.

“This means that more people are going to show up and participate in the tourism economy. This means that more families are going to be reunited at a cost effective way and far more quickly,” said Fraser.

“With the exception of people who come from Indigenous communities, every family’s opening chapter in this country was written by a migrant.”

The Filipino Canadian population is around one million in Canada. About 100,000 of them live in Manitoba. Kevin Lamoureux says the visa-free travel extension to these new countries is vital.

“People that are coming from countries like the Philippines have so much to offer in terms of supporting families, supporting our economy, getting out there enhancing our heritage,” said Kevin Lamoureux, MP for Winnipeg North.

The visa-free travel expansion will divert thousands of applications from Canada’s visa caseload. It is expected to allow Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada to process visa applications more efficiently.

“You can imagine the thousands of people from coast to coast to coast that are now going to have an opportunity to be able to within minutes get that eTA. It’s a wonderful thing,” said Lamoureux.