Announced last December, new tighter visa requirements have begun to be applied for certain nationalities as of this week.
As of Wednesday, applicants for visitor, student, work permit visas from Jamaica, Haiti, and Colombia will have to provide fingerprints and digital pictures along with an 85$C fee
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has indicated that the new measures are necessary because of a “rise in global identity fraud” and technological innovations that “make it easy to steal, forge or alter identity documents.”
Eventually the requirement for biometric data will expand to visitors from 30 countries and include places like Albania, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says biometrics will keep undesirables out of Canada
Minister Alexander told reporters “I lived in Afghanistan for six years (and) saw first-hand the terrorist groups that operate in that region. Getting that additional information … is a very helpful tool.”
The fingerprints sent by the applicant abroad will be then forwarded to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to be checked against the fingerprint records of refugee claimants, previous deportees, persons with Canadian criminal records, and previous temporary resident applicants before a visa decision is made.
When the individual arrives in Canada, their biometric data will be checked to ensure that the individual who was approved to travel is in fact the same person who is entering Canada.
Where a border services officer has concerns regarding the identity of the visa holder seeking entry, the officer may decide to request an electronic scan of the individual’s fingerprints at an equipped point of entry for comparison against the prints previously collected and sent from abroad.
The use of biometrics as an identity management tool will bring Canada in line with many other countries that are now using, or preparing to use, biometrics in immigration and border management. These include the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, countries in the European Union Schengen Zone, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.
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