India expands visa services in canada adds 3 new centres

India expands visa services in canada adds 3 new centres

These centres will accept passport, visa, Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card and attestation applications through appointments or walk-ins.

Toronto: Less than 45 days since it normalised issuing to visas in Canada, India has expanded its footprint for such services in the country, adding three new centres.

While the firm BLS International Services Canada Inc, to which India outsourced several visa services, had nine centres operating in the country, it has now increased to a dozen, with the opening of facilities in Regina, capital of the province of Saskatchewan, Halifax, capital of Nova Scotia and the town of Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). These new centres became functional on January 1.

These centres will accept passport, visa, Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card and attestation applications through appointments or walk-ins.

‘In the new visa and consular service outsourcing contract, there are three new centres, which have become functional, in addition to the 9 which existed earlier. The outsourcing contract also provides for taking a decision on a later date to have a new centre at any other city in Canada, depending on stable demands for visa and consular services,’ India’s High Commissioner to Sanjay Kumar Verma said.

‘Premium services offered by the outsourcing centres, including seasonal visit to a Canadian city, as per its terms and conditions, are also a part of the contract,’ he added.

Demand for these services have increased along with the population of Indo-Canadians, which grew from about 1.8 million five years back to approximately 2.4 million now.

‘With considerable increase of immigrants from India into Canada, the demand for consular services is on an increase,’ Verma said, adding, ‘Similarly, demand for Indian visa is also displaying a healthy trend.’

Visa services were only normalised on November 22 when India restored e-visas for Canadian citizens across all categories.

The opening of e-visas, which can be applied for online, was the latest relaxation in visa issuance for Canadian citizens after they were temporarily suspended on September 21, in the aftermath of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement in the House of Commons that there were ‘credible allegations’ of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of Khalistani figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

On October 26, India resumed visa services in four categories: entry, business, medical and conference visas.

In a release prior to that relaxation, the High Commission of India had said that it, along with the Consulates General in Toronto and Vancouver ‘were constrained to suspend visa services temporarily because of safety and security considerations’.