Ottawa – Canada’s immigration authorities have detailed a multi-layered, risk-based screening system for inbound visitors that relies on more than 40 national policy criteria to determine country-level visa requirements.
This comes as the country prepares for a projected surge in applications amid heightened efforts to combat fraud and irregular migration.
The information appears in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) 2026 Deputy Minister transition briefing, which was highlighted in an official post on the department’s X account on Wednesday. Officials confirmed that visitor visa applications are expected to reach approximately 5.8 million, driven by strong demand from major source markets including India and China.
According to the briefing, Canada’s Visa Policy Framework employs over 40 criteria to assess whether citizens of a given country require a traditional Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) or can travel visa-free under the Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) program. These criteria operate at the national or country-wide policy level and are not applied as a point-based checklist for individual applicants.
Key factors include safety and security concerns, such as potential threats to public safety; passport integrity and identity management standards; bilateral economic and diplomatic benefits, including tourism and trade; and migration trends, such as volumes of asylum claims, rates of visa violations, unauthorized work or study, and overall compliance history.
IRCC stressed that the 40-plus criteria guide decisions on imposing, maintaining, or lifting visa requirements for entire nationalities. Individual TRV applicants, by contrast, undergo case-by-case assessments by officers who examine purpose of travel, financial resources, ties to their home country, previous immigration history, and other personal factors.
The disclosure comes against a backdrop of tightened screening measures introduced in recent years. These include heightened scrutiny of applications from countries with elevated rates of system abuse, the end of automatic issuance of 10-year multiple-entry visas, cancellation of certain public policies that had been exploited, and the launch of a Global Risk Framework in late 2025. The framework serves as an early-warning system to monitor migration trends and flag integrity risks before significant backlogs form.
Biometric enrolment remains central to the process, with nearly 3.5 million records processed annually across 166 overseas Visa Application Centres. These biometrics are checked against security and prior immigration databases. Enhanced information sharing with partners, including the United States, further supports vetting of eTA and visa applicants.
Officials noted that earlier integrity actions have already produced measurable results, including substantial reductions in irregular crossings, higher refusal rates for higher-risk nationalities, and declines in asylum claims by visa holders. At the same time, IRCC emphasized that the operational goal remains facilitating legitimate travel by genuine visitors who contribute to Canada’s economy through tourism and other activities.
The briefing also referenced past policy adjustments, such as the partial visa requirement imposed on Mexico in 2024 in response to elevated asylum claims and irregular migration, and the full lifting of visa requirements for Qatari citizens in November 2025 following a comprehensive risk assessment.
These measures form part of a broader recalibration of Canada’s temporary immigration system under the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which has reduced targets for new temporary residents while prioritizing system integrity and sustainability. Applicants and observers are advised that decisions continue to rest on both the overarching country-level framework and individualized assessments conducted by IRCC officers.
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