Cana­da’s High Com­mis­sion­er to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Arif Ke­shani, is en­cour­ag­ing na­tion­als of this coun­try to make use of elec­tron­ic trav­el au­tho­ri­sa­tion, which is eas­i­er, faster, and more af­ford­able, to trav­el by air to Cana­da.

In June last year, Cana­da an­nounced five Caribbean coun­tries, in­clud­ing T&T, that are now el­i­gi­ble to ac­cess the elec­tron­ic trav­el au­tho­riza­tion (eTA).

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from the Busi­ness Guardian on whether there has been an in­crease of na­tion­als us­ing this medi­um since it was im­ple­ment­ed, High Com­mis­sion­er Ke­shani said: “When we look at na­tion­als from T&T, his­tor­i­cal da­ta shows that up to 40 per cent of for­mer visa ap­pli­cants are now able to ap­ply for an eTA in­stead of a visa, mak­ing it quick­er and eas­i­er to come to Cana­da.”

He said Cana­da is a des­ti­na­tion of choice for Trin­bag­o­ni­ans look­ing to vis­it, do busi­ness or re­unite with fam­i­ly and friends.

Ke­shani said in­tro­duc­ing visa-free air trav­el makes it faster, eas­i­er, and more af­ford­able for thou­sands of trav­ellers to vis­it Cana­da for up to six months and it helps grow Cana­da’s econ­o­my by fa­cil­i­tat­ing more trav­el, tourism and in­ter­na­tion­al busi­ness. It al­so strength­ens re­la­tions be­tween coun­tries, he said.

The high com­mis­sion­er high­light­ed that T&T is an im­por­tant part­ner to Cana­da as this part­ner­ship is built on shared val­ues, bi­lat­er­al and mul­ti­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion, strong peo­ple-to-peo­ple con­nec­tions, and sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic ties.

Ke­shani not­ed that a sig­nif­i­cant di­men­sion of the two coun­tries’ bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship is the com­mer­cial con­nec­tions: T&T is Cana­da’s largest mer­chan­dise trad­ing part­ner in Cari­com and ap­prox­i­mate­ly 98 per cent of all ex­ports from this coun­try to Cana­da en­ter tar­iff-free un­der the Caribbean-Cana­da Trade Agree­ment, al­so known as Carib­can.

 “You don’t have to look far to see ev­i­dence of Cana­da’s com­mer­cial pres­ence in Trinidad and To­ba­go as promi­nent Cana­di­an com­pa­nies are house­hold names, span­ning all sec­tors.

“As an ex­am­ple, in the fi­nan­cial sec­tor, Cana­di­an banks have been present here for over a cen­tu­ry. In ad­di­tion, Cana­di­an com­pa­nies like Touch­stone, Methanex, and Nu­trien are all world-class com­pa­nies with a well-es­tab­lished pres­ence in TT,” the High Com­mis­sion­er out­lined.

How it works

Asked how the elec­tron­ic trav­el au­tho­ri­sa­tion works for T&T na­tion­als, Ke­shani said un­der the new rules po­ten­tial trav­ellers are el­i­gi­ble to use this por­tal, in­stead of ap­ply­ing for tem­po­rary res­i­dent visa.

“Na­tion­als can ap­ply for an eTA if they have held a Cana­di­an tem­po­rary res­i­dent visa at any time in the last 10 years, or they hold a valid Unit­ed States non-im­mi­grant (vis­i­tor) visa on the day they ap­ply.

“It should be re­mem­bered that if you are trav­el­ling to Cana­da by land or sea you will need to ap­ply for a visa.

Al­so, it is im­por­tant to note that the eTA is for vis­it­ing friends and fam­i­ly, or tourist pur­pos­es. If you are look­ing to work or study in Cana­da, you need to ap­ply for a per­mit first, Ke­shani said.

He said the process is easy for trav­ellers and it on­ly takes a few min­utes, in the ma­jor­i­ty of cas­es, to com­plete. The cost of the elec­tron­ic trav­el au­tho­ri­sa­tion C$7 ($37), com­pared to the C$100 ($529) for a visa ap­pli­ca­tion, and the $85 ($450) for bio­met­rics.

Ke­shani in an in­ter­view with the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter last week iden­ti­fied that the ap­pli­ca­tion process is quite straight­for­ward.

 “Three things are re­quired: your pass­port – make sure it hasn’t ex­pired; your cred­it or deb­it card; and the num­ber of your Cana­di­an or U.S. visa that makes you el­i­gi­ble to ap­ply for an eTA.”

Trav­ellers may ask what is the dif­fer­ence be­tween the cur­rent process and the old method of ap­ply­ing. The High Com­mis­sion­er said the eTA is dig­i­tal, so that means there isn’t a stick­er that ap­pears on one’s pass­port and many ap­pli­ca­tions are ap­proved au­to­mat­i­cal­ly.

“The ap­pli­ca­tion re­quires a client’s ba­sic in­for­ma­tion, like your pass­port num­ber and your date of birth. On the con­trary, when you ap­ply for a visa, you must vis­it a Visa Ap­pli­ca­tion Cen­tre to en­roll your bio­met­rics (fin­ger­print, pho­to­graph), and pro­vide your pass­port for in­spec­tion by an of­fi­cer. The eTA’s rapid on­line process is al­so faster – in some cas­es, it’s min­utes com­pared to the visa process which can some­times take 2 to 3 weeks,” Ke­shani de­tailed.

He said there are in­stances where ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion is re­quired and the process can take longer in these cas­es.

Ke­shani urged trav­ellers not to wait un­til the last minute to ap­ply, as some ap­pli­ca­tions may need more time to be processed.

“We strong­ly en­cour­age vis­i­tors not to ap­ply for the eTA at the air­port be­fore their flight. We en­cour­age you to plan so your trip to Cana­da goes smooth­ly.”

A ques­tion that is fre­quent­ly asked is how long will this visa be valid for? He said the eTA is valid for five years or un­til the ap­pli­cant’s pass­port ex­pires, and it al­lows mul­ti­ple en­tries to Cana­da, so you can come and go on this same eTA, as long as it’s valid.

“We hope that the rapid, low­er-cost eTA makes it faster, eas­i­er, and more af­ford­able for cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go to come to Cana­da to vis­it their friends and fam­i­ly, or tour some of our beau­ti­ful cities,” he said.

The Busi­ness Guardian spoke to two per­sons who used the ser­vice.

Pa­tri­cia St. Louis from Cou­va, who holds a valid Unit­ed States non-im­mi­grant (vis­i­tor) visa, said she ap­plied for the eTA on­line and it was a smooth process.

“I will be head­ing to Cana­da for my nephew’s wed­ding in March. This was a good move to in­clude Caribbean coun­tries,” St Louis said.

Mark Ja­cob from Ari­ma al­so said the process was much eas­i­er and the fee of $7 CAD was a bet­ter fee than be­fore.

Ja­cob said he would be head­ing to Cana­da for the East­er hol­i­days with his wife.

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da is one of the oth­er Caribbean coun­tries that can trav­el on the (eTA) pro­gramme.

Fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment last year the An­tigua and Bar­bu­da for­eign min­is­ter, E Paul Chet Greene said the de­ci­sion by Cana­da is one for which the gov­ern­ment has been work­ing “as­sid­u­ous­ly”, giv­en the bur­den that had been placed by the re­quire­ment to trav­el to Bar­ba­dos or Trinidad to se­cure a visa.

“We are very glad that our ef­forts have borne fruit and that this bur­den has been lift­ed for many hun­dreds of An­tiguans and Bar­bu­dans,” the min­is­ter said.

St. Lu­cia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, have all been added to the list.