No more visa for Asians visiting to Canada for stay up to 90 days

No more visa for Asians visiting to Canada for stay up to 90 days

Updated 20/11/2016: The story from CBN-TV below is fabricated as reported by Sbs.com.au. Asians still required visa to Canada including Malaysians and Singaporeans.

Yesterday, CBN-TV reported that the Canadian government has scrapped visa requirements for Asian visitors. We are still unable to confirm the authenticity of the news as there are no words from the officials yet. However, there were talks about relaxing visa requirements for Asians traveling to Canada in the past.

According to CBN-TV, 2016 Tourist Arrivals and Receipts report noted that Asians were 80% contributors to Canada’s tourism revenue with only 2% immigration risk.

Bardish Chagger, the Minister of Small Business and Tourism of Canada, said – “So we expect the immigration risk to reduce and also have revenue contributed increased in the coming years. Allowing them free on visas would make it more attractive, hence increase in arrivals and receipts.”

Visa free travel for Asians would take effect from 1 December 2016 and this is part of the third phase of Canada’s visa policy.

Our brother lives in Vancouver and for Malaysians to visit Canada, we need to apply the Canadian visa and the process takes around two weeks to a month. Our parents flew to Canada once in a few years so we went thru the tedious visa applications. We really hope there will be no more visa for Asians as it will definitely boost tourism from Asian countries. It will be easier for us to visit our brother in Vancouver too.

We checked on the High Commission of Canada in Malaysia website and there is no official statement on this ruling yet. We will update the post if there is any updates.

Wilson Ng