OTTAWA – Canadian Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Ahmed Hussain has assured to accelerate visa processing for Pakistani students and businessmen for cementing people-to-people contact.
The assurance was given during a dinner hosted by High Commissioner Tariq Azim Khan at the Pakistan House Ottawa on Saturday, where the Canadian official was briefed about Visa difficulties being faced by Pakistani students and businessmen.
According to a communique issued, Azim Khan said the stringent and lengthy visa processing delays for bonafide students from Pakistan has been discouraging.
He also informed the minister that the existing trade relations between the two countries need to be boosted in a bid to allo genuine traders to visit Canada to meet with their counterparts.
He urged the minister that bottlenecks in processing of visas to students and traders should be removed.
Responding to the grievances, the Canadian minister said as a matter of policy, the government was working to reduce backlogs and speed up the processing of visa applications in order to allow genuine students and traders to visit Canada.
Hussain assured the high commissioner that he would personally look into the Pakistani applicants during his upcoming visit to the processing centers in the region.
He informed the high commissioner that progress has been made to speed up family re-union cases.
