Canada's Immigration Department Seeks to Facilitate Certain Business Visitors

The Edmonton Sun reports that meetings among immigration officials are taking place in an effort to find ways to fast-track the admission of certain business-persons to Canada.

"As we recognize that business is important to the economy of Canada, we're looking at streamlining the process for business visitors, where we can use the key links between companies that we know exist and are already well-known to the mission, to streamline those processes," assistant deputy minister Claudette Deschenes told members of Parliament's immigration committee last week.

These provisions are expected to affect employees of companies that have divisions in both Canada and abroad. Ordinarily, for those who are not passport visa exempt, the application process to gain temporary resident status in Canada may take several weeks. The current effort is expected to reduce this to as little as a few days in order to facilitate international business.