Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has quietly expanded its electronic travel authorisation (eTA) programme to cover “known travellers” from 13 additional countries, effective 27 December 2025 . Nationals of Antigua & Barbuda, St Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, the Philippines and nine other states may now enter Canada visa-free for short stays if they hold a valid U.S. non-immigrant visa or have held a Canadian visa within the past decade.
The eTA costs CAD 7, is linked electronically to the passport and remains valid for five years or until passport expiry. With the latest expansion, 70 nationalities are now eligible, a move Ottawa says will divert low-risk applicants away from paper-based visitor-visa channels and free up officer time for higher-risk files .
For corporate mobility teams the change is more than cosmetic. Managers can now fly regional supervisors or technicians from newly eligible Caribbean and ASEAN markets to Canada at short notice, slashing lead-times from weeks to minutes.
![Canada Adds 13 Countries to Visa-Free eTA Scheme]()
VisaHQ’s self-service platform (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) can be a useful shortcut here: the portal automatically checks whether a passport holder meets the new “known traveller” criteria, submits the eTA in real time and flags any instance where a separate work permit may still be required, giving HR teams one dashboard for both routine and exception cases.
However, eTA holders remain visitors; any activity that constitutes “work” still requires a separate permit. HR should review after-sales service trips and warranty repair visits to ensure they fall within the business-visitor exemption.
Some Caribbean leaders welcomed the “Christmas gift,” noting Canada imposed visas on several islands in 2014 amid document-integrity concerns. Immigration lawyers caution that high overstay rates could see the privilege revoked; stakeholders should monitor compliance data closely.
IRCC has not ruled out future expansions but insiders say additions will depend on biometric-sharing agreements and overstay metrics. For now, the change offers welcome flexibility for Canadian companies with operations in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.
The eTA costs CAD 7, is linked electronically to the passport and remains valid for five years or until passport expiry. With the latest expansion, 70 nationalities are now eligible, a move Ottawa says will divert low-risk applicants away from paper-based visitor-visa channels and free up officer time for higher-risk files .
For corporate mobility teams the change is more than cosmetic. Managers can now fly regional supervisors or technicians from newly eligible Caribbean and ASEAN markets to Canada at short notice, slashing lead-times from weeks to minutes.
VisaHQ’s self-service platform (https://www.visahq.com/canada/) can be a useful shortcut here: the portal automatically checks whether a passport holder meets the new “known traveller” criteria, submits the eTA in real time and flags any instance where a separate work permit may still be required, giving HR teams one dashboard for both routine and exception cases.
However, eTA holders remain visitors; any activity that constitutes “work” still requires a separate permit. HR should review after-sales service trips and warranty repair visits to ensure they fall within the business-visitor exemption.
Some Caribbean leaders welcomed the “Christmas gift,” noting Canada imposed visas on several islands in 2014 amid document-integrity concerns. Immigration lawyers caution that high overstay rates could see the privilege revoked; stakeholders should monitor compliance data closely.
IRCC has not ruled out future expansions but insiders say additions will depend on biometric-sharing agreements and overstay metrics. For now, the change offers welcome flexibility for Canadian companies with operations in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.
