Canada expects to process only half of the visa applications from India by end of 2023

Canada Immigration Minister Marc Miller has said that the department will be able to process only about half of the visa applications filed by Indians by the end of 2023. While the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) was expecting to process 38,000 visas by December, it will now process only about 20,000 visas due to limited on-the-ground resources in India, CIC News reported.

As a result, IRCC expects there will be approximately 17,500 Indian applications in backlog at the beginning of 2024

This comes as Canada said earlier that it has withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Khalistani terrorist on Canadian soil. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly made the announcement, adding that Ottawa would not take retaliatory steps.

The remaining five IRCC staff in India is now focussing on essential tasks within the country, including urgent processing, visa printing, risk assessment, and overseeing key partners such as visa application centers, panel physicians, and clinics that perform immigration medical exams.

Senior IRCC officials say the government is working to return to normal processing for Indian applications by early 2024, the CIC News report added. IRCC said that all in-person services at consulates in India have been temporarily paused until further notice, but they will continue to accept and process applications from India.

Tensions flared between India and Canada in September following Trudeau's explosive allegations of a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on his country's soil on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

India angrily rejected the allegations as "absurd" and "motivated" and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, arguing that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in the mutual diplomatic presence.

New Delhi had suspended the visa services in Canada and for Canadian citizens worldwide. However, in a release issued on Wednesday, India’s High Commission in Ottawa stated that the services will resume for entry, business, medical and conference visas. The release said the decision was taken after a “considered review of the security situation that takes into account some recent Canadian measures in this regard.”

Canada has temporarily suspended visa and in-person consular services in Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai. The same will be available only the Canadian High Commission in Delhi.

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