Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees, and citizenship, has announced that the processing time for temporary resident visas (TRV) for Pakistani applicants has been cut from 802 days to only 60 days, with a potential future reduction to 30 days.

The Minister explained on Twitter that the older applications that were filed under the coronavirus-related travel restrictions are still being processed, which is why Canada’s official website still shows 802 days as the processing time.

Attention Pakistani visa applicants

Visa processing times are not 802 days for new applications. Currently, a complete TRV application from Pakistan will be processed in 60 days, and we expect to hit 30 days in the near future.

— Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) May 4, 2023

He disclosed that from 55,000 to only 15,000 applications were waiting to be processed for Pakistani TRVs. Fraser also disclosed that the Canadian government intends to open a new processing centre in Islamabad to increase the region’s capacity for processing and interviews.

Canada will expedite the businessmen’s visa application process

Leslie Scanlon, the High Commissioner of Canada to Pakistan, informed Syed Naveed Qamar, the Minister of Commerce, this month that the Canadian government is trying to expedite the visa application process for the Pakistani business community.

The ambassador had a meeting with the commerce minister to go about measures to improve commercial ties between the two nations.

The Minister praised the planned Canadian General Preferential Tariff (GPT+) programme for developing nations and expressed hope that Pakistan would benefit from it, particularly for its recently proposed industries like apparel and footwear.