Visitors’ exit rates not tracked

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2011 (5256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GUESS how many foreign visitors who got into Canada using temporary visas never left.

No one knows for sure because no one keeps track, the federal government says.

“Canada does not systematically record the departure of travellers from Canada at this time,” a Citizenship and Immigration spokeswoman said in an email.

“Given today’s technology, you’d think you would be able to do that,” Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux said.

He has many constituents whose loved ones in India and the Philippines aren’t being allowed into Canada to visit, and he’s launched a national crusade and petition for visa reform.

Potential visitors to Canada are often told their application has been rejected because the visa officer doesn’t believe they will leave Canada when their time is up.

There’s no basis for that belief, though, said Auryn Goze of Winnipeg. She just learned her brother in the Philippines was not allowed to come to Winnipeg for her son’s wedding this month, even though her brother visited Canada previously and left before his visa expired.

Lamoureux said the government is keeping visitors out and families apart for no good reason.

“It does surprise me. You would think that government decisions and policy decisions would be based on facts. In this case, they’re not,” he said.

Visa requirements are regularly reviewed as part of Canada’s visa policy process, an Immigration spokeswoman said.

“Canada’s visa-policy decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and seek to ensure there is a balance between welcoming visitors to Canada while protecting the safety, security and health of Canadians,” she said in an email.

Various criteria are considered in making a visa policy decision, including immigration violation rates, asylum claims, the integrity of travel documents and the co-operation of the country or territory in question when removals are necessary, the spokeswoman said.

For instance, the federal government started requiring that Mexicans have visas because so many were staying in Canada and applying for refugee status.

“The visa has been effective in allowing genuine visitors to come to Canada while discouraging those who are not,” she said.

Lamoureux said the existing policy is keeping too many Manitobans from their loved ones.

“It’s tragic in the sense you are denying people the opportunity to come to Canada who should be able to come to Canada,” said Lamoureux.

The economic impact should also be an incentive to welcome visitors here rather than have Canadians spend their money abroad visiting rejected relatives, he said.

“It costs $10,000 for a family of four to visit the Philippines. It’s a huge cost and a significant economic impact.”

The federal government doesn’t track the number of visa jumpers, but the Canada Border Services Agency said it is looking at moving toward “exit measures” being taken by Great Britain, the United States and Australia.

Canada does record the number of successful and unsuccessful temporary visa applications from different countries.

For instance, no one from the Central African Republic or Guadeloupe was allowed to visit Canada last year. Seventy-six per cent of the people from Somalia who applied were rejected. Sixty-five per cent of Eritrean applications and 60 per cent of Afghan applications were not approved.

Visitors from some other countries were 100 per cent welcome. In 2010, Nauru — the second least-populated country after Vatican City with just 9,265 residents — Palau, Kiribati, Western Samoa, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Monaco, Swaziland, Tuvalu, Liechtenstein and Germany had the highest visitor visa acceptance rate at 100 per cent.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

 

Who can come?

Canada’s most welcome visitors in 2010:

 

Nauru 12 applied for temporary visas, 12

approved

Western Samoa 6 applied, 6 approved

Luxembourg 1 applied, 1 approved

Not so welcome:

 

Somalia 100 applied, 24 approved

Eritrea 550 applied, 191 approved

Afghanistan 919 applied, 364 approved

 

— Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada