Canada has quietly broadened its electronic travel authorisation (eTA) scheme, allowing “known travellers” from 13 new countries—including Antigua & Barbuda, St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and the Philippines—to enter visa-free for short stays, effective 27 December.
To qualify, travellers must either hold a valid U.S. non-immigrant visa or have obtained a Canadian visa within the past 10 years. The eTA costs CAD 7, is linked electronically to the passport and remains valid for five years or until passport expiry.
VisaHQ, an online visa-services platform, can streamline the eTA application process for both individual travellers and corporate mobility teams. Its dedicated Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) offers guided forms, document checks and dashboard tracking, helping applicants secure authorisations quickly while allowing HR managers to monitor multiple files in one place.
![Canada Extends Visa-Free eTA Privileges to 13 Additional Countries in ‘Known Traveller’ Expansion]()
The move brings the total number of eTA-eligible nationalities to 70 and aligns with Ottawa’s goal of diverting low-risk applicants away from paper-based visitor-visa channels.
For Canadian employers, the change simplifies last-minute visits by regional managers or technicians from the newly eligible countries, reducing processing times from weeks to minutes. However, eTA holders remain visitors; they cannot work or study without separate authorisation. Mobility teams should verify that short-term activities (e.g., after-sales service) qualify under the business-visitor exemption to avoid inadvertent work-permit violations.
Some Caribbean leaders welcomed the “Christmas gift,” noting that Canada imposed visas on several islands in 2014 over document-integrity concerns. Immigration lawyers caution that travellers rejected at the automated eTA stage will still need to submit a full visitor-visa application.
IRCC has not ruled out further eTA expansions, but sources say future additions will depend on overstay rates and biometric-sharing agreements.
To qualify, travellers must either hold a valid U.S. non-immigrant visa or have obtained a Canadian visa within the past 10 years. The eTA costs CAD 7, is linked electronically to the passport and remains valid for five years or until passport expiry.
VisaHQ, an online visa-services platform, can streamline the eTA application process for both individual travellers and corporate mobility teams. Its dedicated Canada portal (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) offers guided forms, document checks and dashboard tracking, helping applicants secure authorisations quickly while allowing HR managers to monitor multiple files in one place.
The move brings the total number of eTA-eligible nationalities to 70 and aligns with Ottawa’s goal of diverting low-risk applicants away from paper-based visitor-visa channels.
For Canadian employers, the change simplifies last-minute visits by regional managers or technicians from the newly eligible countries, reducing processing times from weeks to minutes. However, eTA holders remain visitors; they cannot work or study without separate authorisation. Mobility teams should verify that short-term activities (e.g., after-sales service) qualify under the business-visitor exemption to avoid inadvertent work-permit violations.
Some Caribbean leaders welcomed the “Christmas gift,” noting that Canada imposed visas on several islands in 2014 over document-integrity concerns. Immigration lawyers caution that travellers rejected at the automated eTA stage will still need to submit a full visitor-visa application.
IRCC has not ruled out further eTA expansions, but sources say future additions will depend on overstay rates and biometric-sharing agreements.
