Trade, business groups decry business visa process By Anca Gurzu Published September 1, 2010

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When Amina Gerba started organizing last year's conference for African business leaders, Forum Africa, she thought there would be about 100 participants. In the end, only about 40 managed to obtain their business travel visa, while the rest were unable to convince immigration officers that they planned to return to their home countries.

Ms. Gerba is the director of Afrique Expansion, a Montreal-based communications company that helps organize the Forum Africa conference every two years. This unpredictability in visa granting is not uncommon, she says.

Last year she expected of delegation of 15 participants from Nigeria, but only two obtained their visas. One of them was Bamanga Tukur, the president of the Africa Business Roundtable, the continent's biggest private sector association. However, officers denied Mr. Tukur's personal assistant a visa.

"When he heard that, he decided not to come anymore," Ms. Gerba said. "He said 'How can they refuse it to my own assistant? That means they don't have respect for what I say.'"

In order to prevent such situations from happening in the future, Canada's six most influential business associations and lobby groups have outlined in a recent report some of the most serious challenges business travellers from developing countries face when trying to obtain a Canadian travel visa.

The groups say the current cumbersome application process for business travellers places Canada at a competitive disadvantage, especially as emerging markets become increasingly important to this country's trade diversification goals. The groups recommend a fast-track processing system for business travellers that would see them being placed in a different category than usual visitors.

The report, entitled Facilitating Business Travel to Canada, was compiled and signed off by the Canadian Council on Africa, the Canada China Business Council, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, the Canadian Eurasia Russia Business Association and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

The groups released the report in May and sent it to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan.

One of the main concerns outlined in the report is the slow processing of business visa applications. This is an issue cited frequently by companies doing business in countries like Russia, Panama, Nigeria and Kenya, among others.

"Having to factor in weeks of waiting for visas to be issued before business visitors can be brought to Canada constitutes a significant impediment for Canadian companies operating abroad," the report reads. The timeliness issue also discourages foreign companies from doing business in Canada.

"Deals and business discussions take place rather quickly and to sustain a possible business transaction, especially in an era of globalized business opportunity, it is important that investors and purchasers of Canadian goods and services are able to visit Canadian companies on a regular and timely basis," said Peter Harder, president of the Canada China Business Council and former deputy minister of foreign affairs.

The request for excessive information in the applications is another element highlighted in the report as a burden to business travellers.

"Not surprisingly, many business visitors choose not to apply for a visa rather than being deprived of the ability to travel during the time it takes to process their application," the report states.

In contrast to the extensive demands for information, the business groups point out that when visas are refused, immigration officers only send out "vague form letters with tick boxes," which are insufficient in helping firms avoid a similar outcome in the future.

The unpredictability in obtaining a travel visa, especially with high refusal rates in certain countries, is another major factor for companies operating in an increasingly globalized world. In Africa, the report reads, "there is a longstanding and near universal perception of unwarranted, overly high and arbitrary visa rejections."

Lucien Bradet, president of the Canadian Council of Africa, said every time he organizes a conference for African companies in Canada, there are always some business travellers who complain about the visa procedures. Furthermore, he said he recalls having similar conversations with people during his visit with the governor general to Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Cape Verde in April.

"They talk about this as a big issue," Mr. Bradet said.

The report also recognized the challenges faced by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration in issuing visas. Since Canada faces "migratory pressures" and the number of overall refugee claims is high, concerns about criminality and security are also high. This means CIC acts both as a "gatekeeper" and "gate opener," the report reads.

However, the six groups that have signed the report also point to other countries like the United States, Australia and Western European countries, which they say have expedite processing for business travellers' visas.

Furthermore, they also point to a Canadian success story in India, where CIC launched the Business Express Program in April 2008, which the groups say can serve as a model for other parts of the world. The program lists a number of large corporations with strong trade relationships in Canada and India that, just by being identified on the list, go through simplified application procedures and express service.

The report argues Canada should extend such a system to other regions. It recommends distinguishing business travellers from the regular tourist flow, by prioritizing their application processing.

It also calls on the government to allow business to be part of the visa decision process, allowing them to vouch for the validity of business visitor information in exchange for rapid service.

"The people that deal with Canadian companies and come on missions here, we consider them very serious people that are not in the mode of saying they are refugees," Mr. Bradet said.

Lastly, it also recommends the creation of fee-based services for companies wishing to sponsor business visitors to come to Canada.

Both Mr. Harder and Mr. Bradet say the business groups have not received any feedback from the government yet, but are hoping to meet with Mr. Kenney soon.

Alykhan Velshi, Mr. Kenney's director of communications, wrote in an email that the minister has read the report and "looks forward to discussing it with them directly."

agurzu@embassymag.ca