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Canada agreed to lift the visa requirement for both Romanians and Bulgarians after the two countries threatened not to sign a crucial trade deal.<\/p>\n
The Canada-EU Trade Agreement, or CETA, will soon become law after it was voted through by the European Parliament<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n Opposition, particularly from Belgium but also from Romania and Bulgaria, had threatened to derail the deal at the final hurdle.<\/p>\n The deal must now be ratified by Canada\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n The visa issue with Bulgaria and Romania began when the EU changed its rules back in 2014.<\/p>\n Under the rule change, all countries granted visa-free access to the EU bloc had to provide the same privilege in return.<\/p>\n Read More<\/strong><\/p>\n Countries were given two years to provide the access, or face losing their visa-free access.<\/p>\n Canada was reluctant to grant the access to Bulgaria and Romania, with former Immigration Minister John McCallum saying neither met the requirements.<\/p>\n But when the issue became tied to CETA, Canada was left with no bargaining room.<\/p>\n Hamilton tried to separate the lifting of the visa requirement from the CETA negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to dissociate the EU-Canada free trade agreement from the visa aspect,\u201dHamilton said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are complementary aspects, but not identical. I have negotiated with Romania\u2019s government for eliminating the visa for Romanian tourist and this is a separate matter.<\/p>\n \u201cCanadian officials have assessed Romania, they have seen the progresses in the areas such as passports, migration regulation and this is why we trustfully accepted an agreement following which Romanian citizens can very soon travel to Canada without any visa.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada lifted the visa requirement for Mexicans<\/a> from December 1, 2017, and has since seem a marked increase in asylum claims.<\/p>\n The first two months of 2017 saw 440 Mexicans detained at the Canada border, according to figures obtained by Reuters. That\u2019s more than the 410 detentions in the whole of 2016.<\/p>\n The visa requirement was originally imposed in 2008 because of the number of asylum claims being received.<\/p>\n Immigration.ca Managing Partner Colin Singer<\/a> believes the claims could continue to rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re likely to go down the same path as before, which could create a problem for the current government,\u201d Singer said. \u201cThat\u2019s my hunch for what we\u2019ll see once we have the numbers in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada has threatened to\u00a0re-impose the visa restriction<\/a>\u00a0if it receives too many asylum claims, although it has not publicised any limit.<\/p>\n Interested employers:\u00a0<\/b>Kindly\u00a0contact us<\/a>\u00a0here to receive further information.<\/p>\n Interested candidates:<\/b>\u00a0Find out whether you qualify to Canada by completing our\u00a0free on-line evaluation<\/a>. We will provide you with our evaluation within 1-2 business days.<\/p>\n
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