On Monday, July 13, 2009 the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, made changes to the requirements for visitors coming from the Czech Republic and Mexico.  Visitors from these two countries used to be visa exempt and could apply at the border upon arrival, however, they will now be required to have a visa prior to entering Canada

Temporary Visa is now required for citizens of Mexico and Czech Rebuplic

. 

This is causing a huge reaction from the Czech and from Mexico.

The reasoning behind the new rules, is that the majority of the refugee claims are coming from these two countries and it is “creating significant delays and spiraling new costs in our refugee program.” – Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 

According to the Globe and Mail:
”Since the visa requirement for Czech nationals was lifted in 2007, nearly 3,000 refugee claims have been filed. In 2006, there were five.
Since 2005, the number of Mexican refugee claimants has tripled: from about 3,400 to 9,400 in 2008. This year to date there have been 5,500 claims received up to June 30, compared with 3,700 in the same period last year. The acceptance rate has been running at 11 per cent, well below the national average of 40 per cent.”

However, is that an adequate reason to change the visa requirements for the Czech Republic who is part of the European Union, and with Mexico who is part of the NAFTA agreement?

Approximately 15,000 Czech Tourists come to Canada as visitors each year, and these new rules will impact their ability to travel.�
Visitors from Czech will need to apply for a visitor visa from the Vienna, Austria processing times for a visitor visa vary from 2 days to 28 days.  Half of the applications received are processed in less than 2 days. 

In Mexico, 90% of temporary resident visa’s are approved in less than 2 days. So the good news is that processing times are quite quick in comparison to some other countries.  However, this will increase the number of applications being submitted and potentially slow down the processing times.

The Czech Republic is responding by saying that they may now impose restrictions on Canadians who want to travel to Czech for business or diplomatic reasons.  The Czech government replied:
“All the 27 member countries [of the European Union] have no visa arrangements for the Canadians and since it has been violated or Canada decided to behave otherwise to one of the conditions, a decision has to be taken.”

Hopefully, Czech will be the only country to implement rules for temporary visitors, but we will have to wait and see.  Will other countries in the European Union jump on board as well?  Who is the next highest country for refugee claims, can they expect similar rules to be established?  It is never a good thing when new restrictions start a spiral of law for law changes to immigration policies.

By Ruth Mitchell
Immigration Consultant, B.Comm, CCIC
Red Seal Immigration