WINNEPEG: Canada has announced the addition of 13 countries to the electronic travel authorization (eTA) program.
Travellers from these countries who have either held a Canadian visa in the last 10 years or who currently hold a valid United States non-immigrant visa can now apply for an eTA instead of a visa when travelling to Canada by air. Effective June 6, eligible travellers from these countries can benefit from the program:
· 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
The eTA is a digital travel document that most visa-exempt travellers need in order to travel to or transit through Canada by air. IRCC first expanded its eTA program in April 2017 to include eligible Brazilians, Bulgarians and Romanians. Canada lifted the visa requirement for all citizens of Bulgaria and Romania later that year. Today, eligible Brazilian nationals continue to enjoy visa-free air travel to Canada.
The eTA application is used by Canadian officials to conduct light-touch, pre-travel screening of air travellers. It costs CAN$7 to apply, and most applications are automatically approved within minutes.
To apply for an eTA, travellers need only a valid passport, a credit card, an email address and access to the Internet.
Almost 20.9 million eTAs have been issued since the eTA program was introduced on August 1, 2015.
Introducing visa-free air travel will make it faster, easier, and more affordable for thousands of travellers to visit Canada for up to six months for either business or leisure. It will also help grow Canada’s economy by facilitating more travel, tourism and international business, and by strengthening Canada’s relationships with these countries while keeping Canadians safe.
This decision will also divert thousands of applications from Canada’s visa caseload, allowing us to process visa applications more efficiently, which will benefit all visa applicants, said Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
Individuals who already have a valid visa can continue to use it to travel to Canada. Those who are not eligible for an eTA, or who are travelling to Canada by means other than air (for example, by car, bus, train and boat—including by cruise ship), will still need a visitor visa.
Travellers can visit Canada.ca/eTA to find out whether they’re eligible for an eTA and how to apply for one.
