Canada Facilitation Visa

A Facilitation Visa is a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV ) variety: an official document placed on a dual nationality Canadian citizen’s foreign passport. Usually, this visa allows for a single entry into Canada, and its validity is equivalent to your travelling period.

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is responsible for handling Canadian nationals abroad instead of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Canadian citizens are referred to the consular section if they desire to travel freely to the country without a passport.

However, in some exceptional circumstances, IRCC can give you a Facilitation Visa as a Canadian nationality with dual citizenship. The visa allows you to travel to Canada with a foreign passport and be considered a citizen.

All you need to do is present your  Facilitation Visa-embedded foreign passport to the airline officials to facilitate your flight boarding to Canada.

Moreover, if your second nationality doesn’t allow dual citizenship, the government of Canada won’t issue a Facilitation Visa.

Page Contents

• What is a Facilitation Visa?
• Why is a Canadian Facilitation Visa issued?
• What Circumstances Might Warrant A Facilitation Visa Issue?
• What Documents Do I Need For My Facilitation Visa Application?
• How Do I Apply for a Facilitation Visa?
• What are the Facilitation Visas Application Fees and Processing Times?
• How Long is the validity of a Facilitation Visa?
• How Can IAS Help?
• Frequently Asked Questions

A Facilitation Visa is only issued under exceptional circumstances. Unexpected circumstances may necessitate your travelling to Canada, and you don’t have a Canadian passport. Due to the short notice, you may not be in a position to process one and hence the need for a Facilitation Visa.

Even so, the government of Canada won’t issue this visa for minor cases such as travelling inconveniences alleviation.

Rather, they’ll only give you this visa if you have a solid and verifiable reason. Hence, you must prove that failure to get the visa will cause undue difficulty to the applicant. Also, the prevailing circumstances must be out of your control to warrant issuance of a Facilitation Visa.

Additionally, IRCC won’t assist you if you’re deceitful or dishonest about your Canadian citizenship, where your second nationality doesn’t allow dual citizenship.

The Facilitation Visa is a single-entry document and is valid up to the end of your emergency visit. Hence,  you must start the Canadian passport processing to avoid the need for a visa in the future.

Also, it’s crucial to keep in mind that you can’t use your Canadian citizenship supporting documents like a citizenship card or birth certificate as a travel document.

Several circumstances might warrant a Facitation Visa issue, including the following:

• When you have an emergency trip and you can’t obtain a new, replacement, or emergency passport. Such situations involve:
• Distressed Canadians whose documents are lost or stolen.
• First-time dual nationals travelling to Canada.
• Dual nationals who left Canada before obtaining a Canadian passport.
• Canadian-born children of foreign nationals who, after going back to their country, don’t wish to affirm their Canadian citizenship by birth.
• Children with citizenship adoption and their country of birth only permit them to leave on their national passport.
• Presumptive Canadian below 18 years coming to reside with their Canadian parents or for compassionate reasons as deemed fit by the visa offer. In this case, you must have a valid foreign passport or travel documents. Also, you must satisfactorily prove that at least one of your parents is a Canadian.  A Canadian citizenship or birth certificate will do.

You need the following documents for your Facilitation Visa application:

• Your Canadian citizenship proof, such as:
• Canadian Birth Certificate
• Canadian Certificate of Citizenship
• Naturalisation Certificate issued before January 1, 1947
• Certificate of Retention (January 1, 1947- February 14, 1977)
• Registration Certificate of birth abroad (January 1, 1947-February 14, 1977)
• A contractual obligation-proving letter from your employer: should state your need to return to your country.
• A declaration Letter to the Government of Canada explaining why you need a Facilitation Visa.
• Proof of your financial readiness for your trip to Canada (Bank statement).
• Proof of substantial reasons for your inability to get a Canadian passport.
• Proof of the emergency of circumstance causing your trip to Canada.
• A resume or diploma to prove your employment or education status.
• 2 photos that align with the Canada Photo Requirements.
• A valid passport of your second nationality.
• Medical examination forms (if necessary)

The visa office may also require you to interview and ask you to provide your biometrics when submitting your Facilitation Visa application.

To apply for a Facilitation Visa, you should submit your application (with all the required documents) to your second citizenship Canadian Embassy or Consulate directly. Although the visa processing differs from the regular Temporary Resident Visa, you use the same forms.

The visa processing office may take several days to process your application, depending on the visa applications in the processing line.

Consequently, the office places the Facilitation Visa in your foreign passport if they approve your application. On the other hand, they return your passport with a refusal explanation if they reject your request.

The refusal reasons for your Facitation Visa application are diverse. If you would like to understand why your request was rejected or prevent that from happening, contact our specialist immigration lawyers.

Generally, the Facilitation Visas application fee is CAN$100. However, there are special cases like consular officers, diplomats, representatives, or foreign countries officials, in which the fee is waived.

Also, you may have to pay an extra CAN$85 if the visa office requires you to give your biometrics.

Since the visa is typically issued for emergencies, the processing time is short. The processing times of the Facilitation Visa aren’t more than 15 days.

A Facilitation Visa has no definite expiry time.

While most Temporary Resident Visas have a validity of up to 6 months, a Facilitation Visa’s validity is determined by how it takes you to accomplish the purpose of your trip to Canada.

Therefore, the visa expires the moment you achieve the goal for which you travelled to the country.

For that reason, the Canadian Embassy or Consulate work in consultation with you to determine the exact duration of your visa’s validity.