T&T is among 13 coun­tries el­i­gi­ble for visa-free trav­el to Cana­da. This coun­try has been added to Cana­da’s Elec­tron­ic Trav­el Au­tho­ri­sa­tion Pro­gramme (ETA). The an­nounce­ment was made by Sean Fras­er, Min­is­ter of Im­mi­gra­tion, Refugees and Cit­i­zen­ship, in Win­nipeg yes­ter­day. The oth­er coun­tries are An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Ar­genti­na, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Mo­roc­co, Pana­ma, Philip­pines, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lu­cia, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Sey­chelles, Thai­land and Uruguay.

In a press state­ment, T&T For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Amery Browne stat­ed, “Trinidad and To­ba­go has a large Di­as­po­ra in Cana­da and this de­vel­op­ment is im­por­tant for en­hanced trav­el and con­nec­tion for na­tion­als seek­ing en­try to the coun­try.

“This lat­est de­vel­op­ment, the in­clu­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go on the list of coun­tries el­i­gi­ble for visa-free trav­el to Cana­da, is a tes­ta­ment to the strength of the bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Cana­da. A re­la­tion­ship, which is built up­on our shared val­ues, sol­id peo­ple-to-peo­ple, eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al ties,” he said.

He not­ed that T&T na­tion­als trav­el­ling to Cana­da by air would on­ly re­quire an ETA from the Cana­di­an au­thor­i­ties and the High Com­mis­sion of Cana­da in Port-of-Spain will pro­vide de­tails on that process in due course.

Browne added that T&T na­tion­als have a his­to­ry of trav­el to Cana­da whether for ed­u­ca­tion­al or ca­reer pur­suits, tourism, busi­ness or fam­i­ly con­nec­tions. “Cana­da has in­creas­ing­ly opened av­enues al­low­ing greater ac­cess to Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als through var­i­ous pro­grammes such as in­ter­na­tion­al study op­tions like the Stu­dent Di­rect Stream and the Sea­son­al Agri­cul­tur­al Work­ers Pro­gramme.”

While pleased to re­ceive this news, he re­mind­ed the pub­lic of the el­i­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria out­lined by Cana­di­an of­fi­cials. He said this visa-waiv­er arrange­ment will on­ly be ac­ces­si­ble to T&T na­tion­als who have held a Cana­di­an visa in the last ten years or cur­rent­ly hold a valid Unit­ed States non-im­mi­grant visa and en­ter Cana­da by air.

“On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I wish to ex­press our sin­cer­est ap­pre­ci­a­tion to the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Cana­da on this pos­i­tive de­vel­op­ment; this ges­ture will con­tin­ue to strength­en and grow our bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions,” Browne said.

Mean­while, Min­is­ter Fras­er in his ad­dress, said his coun­try was in­ter­est­ed in en­cour­ag­ing more tourism as well as at­tract­ing oth­ers in­ter­est­ed in work­ing and study­ing in Cana­da. The min­is­ter said visa-free trav­el makes the pre-trav­el pro­cess­ing eas­i­er, faster and more af­ford­able.

Ex­plain­ing that ETA is ba­si­cal­ly a dig­i­tal trav­el doc­u­ment to Cana­da, he said it costs sev­en dol­lars, most ap­pli­ca­tions are ap­proved au­to­mat­i­cal­ly and it is valid for five years or un­til the ex­pi­ra­tion of the hold­er’s pass­port. Fras­er said, “To­day’s an­nounce­ment is go­ing to help fa­cil­i­tate the op­por­tu­ni­ty for peo­ple to come and vis­it and the tourism sec­tor, to be re­unit­ed with loved ones more ef­fec­tive­ly and it will have a very im­por­tant pos­i­tive im­pact on im­mi­gra­tion pro­cess­ing as well.”