Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently confirmed that his intention is to “maintain the rule of law in Canada [and] continue to do [what it takes] to keep Canadians safe.”
In the midst of a diplomatic dispute between Canada and India over the killing of Canadian-Sikh Hardeep Singh Nijjar this past June, there has been some concern that tensions may compromise or otherwise impact Canada’s ability to process visas for Indian nationals.
As of the time of writing, no reports have given any indication that Canada will alter its processes with respect to providing visas to Indian nationals, either when it comes to processing existing applications or accepting new ones.
Application Processing Times
Regardless of nationality, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) aims to process 80% of applications to each immigration/temporary resident program within a defined service standard.
As of today – Wednesday, October 4, 2023 – the following list outlines the average processing time for some of Canada’s most popular visa pathways:
- Study Permit (applied from outside Canada): 8 weeks
- Work Permit (applied from India): 9 weeks
- Visitor Visa (applied from India): 30 days
- Federal Skilled Workers Program (online application via Express Entry): 6 months
- Provincial Nominee Programs (online application via Express Entry): 8 months
Indians in Canada
India plays an integral role in Canada’s immigration/temporary resident system. The following outlines several important figures related to the presence of Indian nationals across Canada’s newcomer landscape. In 2022:
- India represented the second most common country of residence among all Invitation to Apply (ITA) recipients (3,787 ITAs) through Express Entry
- India was the top source country of new international students that came to Canada (226,450)
- India, by immigrant country of citizenship, was Canada’s top source country (118,095)
- 59,503 Indian permanent residents became Canadian citizens, the most of any country
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