Become a Canadian citizen in just 6 months with new visa system

Indian citizens can soon become immigrants in Canada in just six months with the express entry visa system, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexandar has said.

Speaking to the media at the Canadian Consulate General office at the World Trade Centre (WTC) here on Tuesday, Alexandar said, “The time it took in the past to process immigration papers was nearly three to five years. But, now, we will not take more than six months to tell you whether you qualify for immigrant status in Canada.”

Also, with the introduction of the online application process, the time taken to process papers will be cut sharply to six months or even lesser, he added. “This is what we call express entry. Indians are a 1.2-million strong community in Canada and we would want them to come and  lead a life in Canada,” he said.

The Bengaluru Canadian consulate office has received 10,000 visa applications in just four months – between September and December-end 2014.This includes applications from outside Bengaluru and Karnataka – primarily south Indian states and a some from central India.

Alexandar said that so far, 1,85,000 visitor visas had been issued to Indian citizens to travel to Canada. Bengaluru’s information technology strength, apart from start-ups, would be a major route through which Canada will conduct economic and business ties with India.
The minister explained why the Bengaluru consulate office was important for Canada. “A burgeoning relationship between Canada and India with focus on economy, education, arts, culture and film and to take these domains forward we need a big team,” he said.

“Canada is keen on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India to promote investment and make investor-trade relations more predictable. All consulates will have a role to play when trade ties are taken forward,” Alexandar said.

The Canadian minister said Canada will also try to help start-ups in Canada to help India grow bigger by making offers of venture capital, early stage seed funding and collaboration between start-ups of both countries. The current trade between India and Canada is around five to six billion dollars and Canada would want to improve on this, the minister said, adding that the start-up culture in Bengaluru was as good as in Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto. A recent acquisition by an Indian-start-up, he said, had links to Bengaluru and more such involvement of Bengaluru firms would be encouraged.

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