While easing travel restrictions, India will continue to maintain some procedures for Canadian citizens as a measure of “reciprocity” related to hurdles before Indians seeking to go to Canada.
While electronic travel authorisation or e-visas are being issued to citizens of 156 countries, Canada has been excluded from this facility. Canadians will also not have access to longer-term 10-year tourist visas, even though those are available to travellers from countries like the United States.
A senior Indian official said the e-visa is not being revived, as a reciprocal measure as there are “long delays in issuing on visas to Indian nationals”, some taking as long as nine months, along with a large number of rejections. The status quo with regard to be e-visas may remain in place “until this is resolved”, the official said.
Canadians can avail of a fresh tourist visa of up to one year in length, but they remain excluded from getting the 10-year visa. At the same time, e-visas issued to Canadian nationals prior to March 2020 continue to remain under suspension and they will not be eligible for issuance of fresh e-visas.
The official said it “becomes harder” for India “to ease it (restrictions) further” till the asymmetry in accessing visas for Indian applicants is resolved and pending backlogs cleared for “easy mobility”.
The quantum of travellers from India is expected to rise as Canada lifts several restrictions beginning on Friday. Fully-vaccinated travellers arriving in Canada will no longer be required to provide a negative Covid-19 test result before entering the country.
There is also no quarantine requirement for such travellers, though they may be selected for random testing on arrival in Canada. Both the major vaccines used in India, Covishield and Covaxin, are approved for travel purposes by Ottawa.
Partially or unvaccinated travellers will be required to provide a negative test result before being allowed to board a flight for a Canadian destination.
