Are you curious to know about the complete process for how to apply for Canada Tourist Visa? This complete guide will make you understand each & every detail necessary to know before applying tourist visa for Canada
What is Canada Tourist Visa?
Canada Visitor visa or Canada Tourist Visa or TRV (Temporary Resident Visa) is an official document put into the passport that allows an international traveler to enter Canada. IRCC can either issue you a tourist visa or eTA (Electronic Travel Authorization) for entry to Canada depending upon your nationality, the country that issued your travel document or passport & type of your travel document you are traveling with etc. However, in some cases, you neither require a tourist visa nor an eTA to enter Canada as in the case of having a US passport.
You must check whether you need a Visitor visa or an eTA to travel to Canada before applying. You can easily check this from IRCC’s Website page: Find out if you need a visa to travel to Canada
Types of Canada Tourist Visa
There are 2 types of tourist visas issued by IRCC:
- Single Entry Visa
- Multiple Entry Visa
Basically, these two are different from each other on the basis of the number of entries allowed to enter Canada. As it can easily understand from the name that Single Entry Visa will allow you to enter Canada only once. While a Multiple Entry Visa can allow you to travel to Canada multiple times. During each entry/visit to Canada, you can stay to a maximum of 6 months period. Usually a multiple entry visa is valid for 10 years or to the period of 1 month less than the validity of your passport, whichever is earlier. Don't worry you don't specially require to make a visa application for choice for multiple entry visa, when you applied for a Canada tourist visa, you are automatically considered for a multiple entry visa irrespective of some special circumstances i.e. you are going to attend a One-Time special event in Canada etc.
Basic necessities for getting a Canada Tourist Visa
There are some basic things you must satisfy in order to be eligible for the Canada Tourist Visa. These includes:
- Possessing a valid travel document
- Availability of adequate amount of funds to meet all the expenses related to the visit to Canada (from entering Canada to leaving from Canada). These funds may be varied depending upon the number of persons wants to visit Canada
- Strong ties to your home country which ensures a visa officer that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay
- You are a law-abiding being & have no criminal activity records
- You are enjoying good health & have no health issues
Apart from these above-said requirements, there are some documents required for Canada Tourist Visa depending upon your purpose of visit to Canada or your occupation etc. You can prepare your own document checklist from these below-mentioned documents based on the suitability to your particular profile:
1. Covering letter - this letter must include all the crucial details related to your proposed visit to Canada i.e. your personal as well family members details (name, DOB, passport number, occupation details & residential address), purpose of visit (going for tourism or want to join some family member or friend or going to attend some event in Canada), duration of your visit, details of accommodation in Canada, list the documents which you are going to provide with the visa application, your relation to the Canadian inviter if someone is inviting you to visit Canada, If visiting for tourism include some destinations which you are going to visit in Canada etc. Include the name of the financial sponsor if someone else is going to fund all your expenses related to your visit to Canada
2. You must include a notarized "letter of invitation" from a friend or a family member, stating that you are going to join them for a specified short period of time. It will surely give a positive look to your visa application. Anyone who is either a Canadian PR or Canadian Citizen can invite you to visit Canada. Along with an invitation letter, while applying for a visa you would also be required these additional documents:
- Rent deed or gas bill or property paper/s confirming the inviter's address
- Proof of the inviter’s legal status in Canada; Canadian passport or copy of PR etc.
- Copy of a document providing inviter’s personal details i.e. most probably a passport copy
- Inviter's bank statement showing the availability of enough funds to sponsor you financially for your visit to Canada, if the inviter is going to fund all the expenses related to your visit to Canada
- Inviter’s experience letter from their current employer
- Income Tax returns of the inviter
(Note: Even, an international student can invite his/her parents or family members to visit Canada. For this along with letter of invitation, he/she has to provide a copy of his/her Canada Study Permit, copy of his/her passport, proof of his/her current residential address in Canada i.e. rent deed or gas bill etc. In case a student is inviting his/her parents to Canada, it is advised that parents/family members must furnish proofs of enough funds to meet expenses related to their visit (from entry to exit) to Canada along with documentary evidence of established business or well paid private/government job or agriculture)
3. Certified copies of passport’s front (page with personal details) & back page (page with residential & parents details)
4. Colored light background digital photo, if applying online
5. Documentary evidence which proves strong personal ties to your home country i.e. property documents, FDRs (fixed deposits), company registration certificate if own a company or agricultural land records/Jamabandi fards etc.
6. In addition to your own documents, you would be required additional documents for each of your family members if they are going to accompany you to Canada. These may include: Certified copies of passport’s front (page with personal details) & back page (page with residential & parents details), Colored light background digital photo and their occupation-related documents if any.
7. If a minor or the child is going to accompany you to Canada, include a NOC letter from his/her school if he/she is studying. Also, you have to provide a notarized parent’s consent affidavit. It would convey that you are solely responsible for taking care of the child during the proposed visit to Canada
8. Application form
for Temporary Resident Visa (IMM 5257) for each person, you are going to include
in the visa application (for example there are 5 persons then you are required
to fill this form individually for 5 persons). Remember to validate this form to
generate a barcode on completely & correctly filling the form
9. Family
Information form (IMM 5707) for each person who is 18 years or older or a minor
who is traveling alone
10. Use of representative form (IMM 5476), if someone else has assisted you to make your visa application
11. Your employment-related documents
12. Bank verified account statement confirming the availability of enough funds for your visit to Canada
Note: Your original passport must have at least 1 completely blank page for visa stamping
Submitting Canada Tourist Visa Application
You can submit your visa application either
Online by creating a GC Key Account at www.cic.gc.ca or On paper at VAC (Visa Application Center).
For submitting your visa application On paper, you just have to gather all your
visa application documents & forms and require to book an appointment at
VAC for submitting your visa application. When you submit your application
On-paper at VAC, you can pay your visa application as well as biometrics fees
either online by using “Pay Your Fee” page of IRCC’s website Or you can make
payment at VAC by using Debit/Credit card or cash. But however, if you are
applying On-paper & paying your fee online, you would be required to
include fee payment receipt received in the Email (the same email ID which you
used while registering yourself for paying fees online).
VFS Canada Appointment
To submit your visa application manually or submitting your biometrics at VAC, you can book an appointment with VFS in your country by visiting the website: www.vfsglobal.ca. On visiting this website, firstly you have to choose your preferred country and then proceed by clicking on the schedule an appointment tab. The best convenient method to schedule an appointment is making it online by creating an account with VFS at this website using a valid/running Email ID. Once you set up an account at VFS Canada’s website, you can easily schedule or reschedule or cancel an appointment for submitting the visa application or biometrics.
Canada Visitor Visa Fees
For successfully submitting your visa application, you are required to pay your visa application fees. Fees for Canada visitor visa for a single person is CAD $ 100 or a maximum of CAD $ 500 for an entire family having 5 or more members applying at the same time. You can either pay your fees online or at the VAC Visa application center by cash or by using a credit/debit card. Along with visa application fees, you are required to pay bio-metrics fees CAD $ 85 for a single person or CAD $ 170 for a family of 2 or more members applying at the same time.
Canada Visitor Visa Processing Time
Roughly giving an idea about processing times for Canada Visitor Visa application is not justifiable as it is usually updated by IRCC from time to time and generally differs depending upon the region/country. IRCC updates the processing time for visa applications depending upon the rush of applications or under some special circumstances. To get an exact idea of processing times, one can visit “Check Processing Times” page of IRCC. By visiting this page you are able to determine the processing times for different kinds of Canada visa applications including visitor visa. For this, you just have to fill in some simple information about your submitted file in IRCC. However, in some exceptional cases, it may be possible that your visa application can take more than the standard processing times as provided by the IRCC. This is in the case where IRCC is making a detailed verification of documents/information provided with the visa application or requires some more information from you to further process your visa application.
Hope this article can help you with preparing your Canada Tourist Visa Application.....
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