IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2025-05

Temporary Immigration: How Visitors Come to Canada

Context

Canada welcomes millions of legitimate visitors each year who support our travel and tourism industry from coast to coast, with 5M visitor applications approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in 2024.^{Footnote 1}

Recent years have seen a record volume of requests to visit Canada. International tourism generated approximately $22.1B in the first three fiscal quarters of 2024.^{Footnote 2} Visitor application volumes are projected to total 7.2M in 2025^{Footnote 3} and 7.5M in 2026.^{Footnote 4}

Ultimately, Canada seeks to facilitate travel for genuine visitors who spend money in the Canadian economy and contribute to jobs in the tourism industry, without compromising the safety of Canadians or the integrity of publicly-funded programming. This goal requires constant review and recalibration of visitor screening in response to a dynamic migration/threat environment, and to Canada’s economic needs.

Background

• Aside from United States (U.S.) citizens and U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents, visitors are screened before they travel to Canada; the level of screening corresponds to the level of risk a visitor is deemed to pose, and is determined largely (but not solely) by nationality. U.S. citizens and U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents are screened upon arrival at a Canadian port of entry.
• For many cases, a visitor’s intention to travel to Canada is assessed by an officer through the evaluation of key indicators, such as travel history, family ties to their home country, and employment.
• All visitors are assessed for admissibility to Canada (health, security, criminality). Risk screening for millions of visitors is supported by information-sharing with key allies.
• As part of COVID recovery actions, the visitor program facilitated reuniting family and friends. However, it also led to a rise in irregular migration caused in part by COVID (e.g., more organized crime, more fraud, and more non-genuine visitors). In early 2024, IRCC began aggressive measures to combat visitor fraud—these efforts are ongoing.

Impacts

• When risks and benefits are appropriately calibrated, the impacts of visitors are documented in the form of tourism revenue, cultural contributions, and the absence of this population in negative outcomes, such as asylum claims, crime in Canada, unauthorized work/study, and illegal entry into the U.S.
• The number of asylum claims from visitors has risen significantly in recent years—increasing processing costs, adding to backlogs at the Immigration and Refugee Board, and impacting the overall sustainability of the in-Canada asylum system.
• The main source of illegal entries into the U.S. from the northern border stems from visitors in Canada crossing this shared land border. This has been a source of bilateral irritant, media attention, and public rhetoric.
• With millions of visitors permitted by IRCC to travel to Canada each year in a volatile global environment (e.g. conflicts, poverty), negative impacts are inevitable. However, the key is to minimize them in all possible ways, and to avoid any adverse outcomes that flow from facilitative screening, i.e., measures that are within Canada’s control.

Current Program

Visitor Screening

• Visitor screening is Canada’s first opportunity to interact with, identify and screen travellers before they arrive on Canadian soil.
  • Pre-travel screening aims to reduce risks while foreign nationals are still abroad, to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians.
  • Visitor screening aims to ensure that only genuine visitors (i.e. intend to only stay for their authorized temporary period), those who can support themselves during their stay, and who are admissible to Canada are issued visas to travel to Canada.
  • All inadmissibility assessments require a case-by-case analysis based on the facts of the case and the evidence before the decision maker.
  • Cases may be referred for comprehensive screening by the Canada Border Services Agency and/or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
• Like Canada’s allies, and by law, a visa requirement is the rule, not the exception. For over 20 years, Canada’s Visa Policy Framework has guided decisions regarding which foreign nationals may travel to Canada without a visa. Those who do not require a visa instead must apply for a lighter-touch Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA). Canada has the unique ability to fully or partially lift the visa requirement on a country’s citizens.
• Over 40 criteria are used to assess risks (such as threats to public safety) and benefits (such as tourism) of lifting or imposing a visa requirement, including:
  • safety and security concerns
  • passport integrity
  • bilateral benefits
  • migration trends (e.g., asylum claims, immigration violations such as unauthorized work or study).
• Visa applicants undergo a thorough assessment of their intent and personal circumstances. They enroll their biometrics (fingerprints and photograph) to confirm identity and this information is shared with allies.
• Foreign nationals who are visa-exempt and flying to or through Canada apply online for an eTA, a fully digital and automated lighter-touch pre-travel screening tool that screens for known adverse information and does not require client biometrics. It presumes that its clients are genuine in their intent to come to Canada. The Migration Five (M5) all operate their version of the eTA for their visa-exempt populations.

Overview: Temporary Resident Visa (TRV)

• Application: Collects comprehensive details including core identity attributes such as name, date of birth, place of birth, and biometrics, as well as other personal details (such as immigration status, marital status, travel history, family history, work/education history, etc.), purpose of the visit to Canada and supporting documents.
• Screening: Requires biometrics; includes an assessment of a traveller’s intent. Information shared with key allies to support risk assessment.
• Review: Manual review by officer; passport submitted by the client for physical inspection; TRV counterfoil physically placed into passport upon visa approval
• Validity: Maximum of 10 years (subject to officer discretion and passport and biometrics expiry); single or multiple entries (subject to officer discretion).
• Fee: $100 + $85 biometric fee.
• China and India are the top visa-required source countries.

Overview: Electronic Travel Authorization

• Application: Fully digital; collects basic, self-declared client information.
• Screening: Known, or self-declared, adverse or inadmissibility-related information; biometrics not required.
• Review: Most applications are automatically approved by the system in minutes; certain applications require manual review and decision by an officer based on known information or self-declared information. Information sharing with the U.S. on some of these clients.
• Validity: Up to five years or until the passport expiry date, whichever occurs sooner: multiple entries.
• The eTA is valid in air mode only.
• Fee: $7
• United Kingdom and France are the top eTA source countries.

Recent Developments

Combatting Visitor Fraud through the Temporary Resident Integrity Strategy (TRIS)

• In summer 2024, in response to growing misuse of visitor visas, IRCC developed a comprehensive strategy that tackles key sources of abuse, as well as populations of highest risk. IRCC has increased scrutiny, adjusted its use of automation on certain visitor applicants, and enhanced its tools to detect fraud. Results are tracked each month, with multiple indicators of progress. Efforts are ongoing.

Visa Policy

• One of the most effective means of combatting fraud remains the accurate calibration of who does and does not require a visa to visit Canada. Assessments to lift and impose visa requirements are normally successful following a detailed, evidence-based evaluation of criteria in accordance with Canada’s national framework. This approach shares many similarities with that of M5 partners, such as the U.S. and United Kingdom.
• As a successful example, in June 2023, Canada partially lifted the visa on lower-risk nationals from 13 countries^{Footnote 5} to support post-pandemic economic recovery. This historic visa policy change grants eTA access to nationals who have held a Canadian visa in the past 10 years, or hold a U.S. visitor visa, at the time of application. They have previously been screened by Canada or the U.S., and are therefore “known” travellers. To-date, these visa exemptions remain sustainable, due to the rigorous risk analysis behind these decisions.
• In February 2024, Canada imposed a partial visa requirement on Mexico in response to longstanding rates of unfounded asylum intake, unauthorized work, and illegal southbound migration. This has significantly reduced irregular migration over the past year—asylum claims by Mexican nationals at airports are down 98%, and overall claims are down 75%. Illegal southbound crossings into the U.S. from Canada by these individuals are down over 75%.
• IRCC is always monitoring global conditions and migration trends to determine where changes to visa requirements may be warranted.

Information Sharing

• Canada has one of the most robust immigration information-sharing regimes in the world, generating approximately 7.4M queries annually to immigration databases in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. This regime—enabled by a biometric requirement for visa-required visitors—is fundamental to immigration programming by ensuring that officers have the information they need to confirm the identity of applicants, and to validate that they are genuine visitors.
• In addition to biometric information-sharing with M5 partners, Canada also shares biographic information on visitor applicants with the U.S. This activity is particularly valuable for visa-exempt visitors, who currently are not required to enrol biometrics as part of their eTA application.
• [Redacted]

Biometrics and Identity Management

• Canada collects core identity attributes (i.e. name, date of birth, place of birth, and biometrics) from all visa-required applicants (with limited exceptions). This translates into nearly 3.5M biometric enrollments per year, which enable Canada’s extensive information-sharing regime.
• Canada has a robust biometric collection footprint around the world, including 166 Visa Application Centres overseas, 77 Service Canada locations, and 130 U.S. Application Service Centres.
• Biometrics strengthen identity management and enable better informed admissibility decisions by screening against RCMP records of known criminals, past refugee claimants, persons previously deported, and prior immigration applicants. They also enable screening against M5 partners’ databases.

Key Service Delivery Statistics

Temporary Resident: Temporary Resident Visa

Processing Times (in days):

Application processing times by line of business are reflected on their own scale and are shown by quarter for comparative purposes.

Inventory and Output

Temporary Resident: Work Permits – Data up to 2025 (Jan to Feb)

Processing Times (in days):

Application processing times by line of business are reflected on their own scale and are shown by quarter for comparative purposes.

Inventory and Output