Ten-year multiple-entry visa: better use of government resources and easier travel to Canada

Toronto, July 20, 2011 — Improvements to make it easier to visit Canada are coming soon, announced the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. A new ten-year multiple-entry visa will make applying more efficient for applicants and better use government resources.

“More applications and higher expectations mean that Citizenship and Immigration Canada needs a more responsive and flexible processing system,” said Minister Kenney.  “To achieve that, the Department is providing applicants and staff with the right tools to deliver on those expectations.”

Citizens of certain countries require a visa to come to Canada temporarily. Currently, the maximum validity period of a multiple-entry visa is five years. However, increasingly, countries are issuing passports which are valid for ten years. In light of this, CIC is changing its policy for visa issuance. Where applicants apply for multiple-entry visas, they may now be issued to the maximum validity according to the length of the passport validity (up to ten years, minus one month).

This practice, already recommended for parents and grandparents with sponsorships in process, may now be extended to other clientele, such as business visitors.

As Canada is becoming a preferred destination for visitors and business travellers alike,CIC continues to balance the need to facilitate this travel while responsibly managing our borders. We will increasingly focus attention on applications with the greatest potential for threat and vulnerability, while streamlining low risk cases. Further limitations on validity may apply on a case-by-case basis.

The ten-year visa will be an option available to more low-risk travellers who are citizens of visa-required countries. As of Monday, the technical changes needed to issue it were in place.

Canada is the Third Best Place to Start a Business in the World

...according to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index.

Canada also ranked third in the closing a business category and ranked fifth for protecting investors.

The World Bank's Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations for local firms in 183 economies and selected cities at the subnational level.

According to the detailed data on starting a business, starting a business in Canada requires only one procedure, it takes on average five days to register a firm, and the cost, as calculated in percentage of income per capita, is 0.4 percent.

Compare these figures to a country such as Greece, where starting a business requires 15 procedures, it takes 19 days to start a business, and costs 20.7 percent of income per capita, and we look really good.

The worst place to start a business in terms of jumping through hoops is Equatorial Guinea where an astounding 20 procedures are necessary to start a business. And if you have any thought of starting a business in Suriname, you better get started; it takes 694 days, just short of two years, to get one started there. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the most expensive country to start a business; it costs 735.1 percent of income per capita to set one up.

And where is it easier to start a business than in Canada? New Zealand ranked number one, followed by Australia.

Overall, Canada came in seventh for ease of doing business, following Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Denmark - perhaps because of our low scores on enforcing contracts and trading across borders.

By Susan Ward, about.com guide


 

Related articles

• Survey ranks Canada as No. 3 country for entrepreneurs (ctv.ca)
• Canada among top three countries for entrepreneurs (theglobeandmail.com)
• How to Start a Business in Canada (brighthub.com)
• Is Canada becoming a safe haven? (business.financialpost.com)