India resumes visa service in Canada

In a significant development, India on October 25 resumed its visa services in Canada, catering to several crucial categories of travelers. The categories now open for visa applications include Entry visas, Business visas, Medical visas, and Conference visas.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa, Canada, said following a thorough assessment of the security situation, which also considered recent Canadian measures on this matter, it has been decided that visa services for specific categories will recommence on October 26, 2023.

The latest Press Release on resumption of visa service may be seen here. @MEAIndia@IndianDiplomacy@PIB_India@DDNewslive@ANI@WIONews@TOIIndiaNews@htTweets@cgivancouver@IndiainTorontopic.twitter.com/iwKIgF2qin

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— India in Canada (@HCI_Ottawa) October 25, 2023

"If we see progress there, I would very much like to resume the issue of visas. My hope would be that it would be something which should happen very very soon." "Some weeks ago, we stopped issuing visas in Canada because it was no longer safe for our diplomats to go to work to issue visas. So their safety and security was the primary reason we had to temporarily stop the issuance of visas," Jaishankar had said.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa, along with its Consulates General in Toronto and Vancouver, had to temporarily halt visa services in September due to safety and security concerns, and requested Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged a "potential" involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

India had dismissed Canada's concerns regarding India's involvement in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot in June in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb.

Canada has withdrawn 41 of its diplomats from India in response to its claims of India's threat to strip them of their diplomatic immunity.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, in the announcement of the diplomats' return from India, characterized New Delhi's actions as being "contrary to international law" and in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. India, however, has already refuted these claims.

Joly had affirmed that India has communicated its intention to withdraw diplomatic immunity from all but 21 of Canada's diplomats and dependent personnel in Delhi.

Canada now has 21 diplomats in India. The 41 who left were accompanied by 42 dependents.