Canada-India relation strain creates uncertainty for visa applicants

As tensions escalate between Canada and India, visa applicants find themselves navigating uncertainty amid the political fallout.

On Monday, anxiety deepened when both Canada and India drastically cut their diplomatic presence. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs then issued a statement saying it “reserves the right to take further steps” in response to what it calls the Canadian government’s efforts to fabricate allegations against its diplomats.

Kuldeep Bansal, an immigration consultant with two decades of experience, anticipates the diplomatic expulsion will lead to immediate and significant delays in processing.

“If normal processing was four-to-six weeks, expect it to double during these high times,” Bansal said. “Anybody planning to fly in December, January; they should be applying right now,” he advised.

Bansal adds that delays will likely affect not only tourist visas, but also work permits, student visas, and spousal applications. He says that’s especially disheartening news for couples with wedding season approaching in India, as well as for Indian students seeking education in Canada, who now face yet another hurdle after international student visas were capped for a two-year period this past January.

“Whenever there is a situation like this, there is no given timeframes for the processing delays,” Bansal noted.

The ambiguity follows India’s near eight-week suspension of visa services for Canadian citizens last year, triggered by accusations from Ottawa about India’s involvement in the Surrey assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In a statement to 1130 NewsRadio, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says it’s “working hard to mitigate any impact on applicants from or in India by continuing to share the workload across our global processing network. The large majority of applications from India are already processed outside of India, with well over 90 per cent of India’s applications processed in Canada”

“IRCC staff who remain in India will focus on work that requires an in-country presence, such as urgent processing, visa printing, risk assessment, and overseeing key partners, including visa application centres, panel physicians, and clinics that perform immigration medical exams,” the IRCC added.

Canada remains a top destination for Indian immigrants, processing thousands of applications annually. Data from the National Foundation for American Policy indicates Indian immigration increased by approximately 326 per cent from 2013 to 2023.