Canada electronic visas for visa-exempt nation visitors

Canada, 19th October: A new requirement will have to be cleared by foreigners from visa-exempt nations wanting to fly to Canada.

The latest step will be applicable to all aspiring travelers with the only exception being US citizens.

Canada’s Electronic Travel Authorization—Canada’s Electronic Travel Authorization program is a latest tool for effective management of migration.

It will help Canada identify foreigners who are inadmissible, informs an official spokesperson for Canada immigration minister, Alexis Pavlich.

The ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) program will have a screening for travelers before their departure for Canada.

Canadian government’s aim is to ease travel for foreigners considered to be low-risk and prevent those who are inadmissible foreigners from visa-exempt nations, affirmed Pavlich.

Aspiring air travelers to Canada will get the facility to make an application for an ETA online and with ease. Affirmative answer will be sent to most of applicants within few minutes.

New requirements for foreign travelers to Canada —Following are the new set of ETA program requirements for foreigners from visa-exempt nations wanting to fly to Canada—

• Foreign nationals will be required to fill an online form at Canada immigration’s official website. This will be required to ensure that they have not be red flagged or barred by CIC(Citizenship and Immigration Canada) for Canada travel.(all foreigners from visa-exempt nations except those from the US).

• They will be required to provide providing biometric information under the new ETA program.

• Information, i.e., confirmation or otherwise will be provided to air travelers to Canada within a couple of minutes.

However, in some cases, a visa official may review the applications before any final decision.

• Getting clearance for air travel to Canada will need to be followed by getting a printed confirmation for submission with various travel papers before taking the flight to Canada.

Aims of Canada’s new Electronic Travel Authorization program--New provision will come into effect by the year 2015.

Following are the aims of Canada ETA—

• Preventing foreign travelers considered as high-risk or lacking adequate documents from flying to Canada leading to reduction in costs related to removal of inadmissible foreigners from Canada;

• Efficient and facilitated processing system for foreigner travelers considered to be low-risk for Canada travel.

It may be mentioned that the US already has a similar program to screen foreign nation travelers for reducing security threats well ahead of time.