Temporary residents can now make Canadian visa applications online

December 23 2009 by Liam Clifford

People living in Canada temporarily are now able to apply for a Canadian work visa, or for an extension to their Canadian visa, online.

The introduction of the new simpler visa application service was announced by Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney on Monday. He said, “extending our online services to more temporary residents will significantly facilitate the application process by providing faster, more accessible and efficient services.”

The new online service will significantly cut the application time for temporary residents as many applications made by mail have to be returned when errors are picked up. This adds time to the Canadian visa process, which could be prevented if errors are picked up online and immediately corrected.

Canadian student visa applicants were the first to get access to online visa application services in June 2008. Since the introduction of the service, student visa applicants have submitted 33,000 applications through the system proving it is a popular choice among those wishing to move to Canada for study. Now Canadian immigration is hoping to put all visa applications online in the future.

The new service is now available for all applications made by temporary residents apart from those applying for co-op programme work permits.

See the latest Immigration News