Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller has said that the department will only be able to process about half of the visa applications filed by Indians by the end of 2023.
Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller has said that the department will only be able to process about half of the visa applications filed by Indians by the end of 2023. While Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expected to process 38,000 visas by December, it will now only process about 20,000 visas due to limited resources on the ground in India.
As a result, the IRCC expects to have a backlog of about 17,500 Indian applications at the beginning of 2024.
This comes after Canada announced earlier that it had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a row over the killing of a Khalistani terrorist on Canadian soil. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly made the announcement, adding that Ottawa would not retaliate.
The remaining five IRCC staff in India will now focus on essential tasks within the country, including emergency processing, visa printing, risk assessment and oversight of key partners such as visa application centres, panel doctors and clinics that conduct immigration medical examinations.
Senior IRCC officials say the government is working to return to normal processing of Indian applications by early 2024. The IRCC said all in-person services at consulates in India have been temporarily suspended until further notice, but they will continue to accept and process applications from India.
Tensions between India and Canada flared in September after Trudeau made explosive allegations about the “possible” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on his country’s soil in British Columbia on 18 June. India had designated Nijjar a terrorist in 2020.
India angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, arguing that there should be parity of strength and equivalence of rank in each other’s diplomatic presence.
New Delhi had suspended visa services in Canada and for Canadian citizens worldwide. However, in a press release issued on Wednesday, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa said services for entry, business, medical and conference visas would be resumed. The release said the decision was taken after a “considered review of the security situation, taking into account some recent Canadian measures in this regard”.
Canada has temporarily suspended visa and in-person consular services in Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai. The same will only be available at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi.
