Immigration Alerts & Events

CIC ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE TRANSIT WITHOUT VISA (TWOV) PROGRAM Effective July 30, 2009

2010-03-16

Effective July 30, 2009, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in cooperation with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), has announced the formalization of the Transit Without Visa (TWOV) pilot program into a national program. This program will now allow eligible travelers destined to the United States (for which they hold a valid US visa), to transit through Canada without a visa.

Typically, citizens who require visas to enter Canada must first obtain a transit visa even when arriving for a stopover in the country, regardless of their ultimate destination. Under the TWOV program, however, certain travelers may be exempt from this requirement if they hold a valid US visa and are travelling on a designated airline to the United States. Currently, the TWOV is available to citizens of Indonesia, The Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. In addition, for the next one year, the TWOV will also apply to citizens of China who are travelling to the United States from one of the following six cities: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Manila, or Taipei.

In order to qualify for visa-exempt transit under the TWOV program, the foreign traveler must meet all of the following criteria:
1. Be a citizen of one of the designated countries:
2. Be in possession of a valid visa to the United States;
3. Be in possession of a valid passport issued by the authorities of a participating country;
4. Hold a confirmed onward ticket for a connecting flight to the United States that departs Canada immediately;
5. Be arriving in Canada on an airline that has an up-to-date TWOV Memorandum of Understanding with CIC and CBSA, including one of the following: Cathay Pacific Airways, China Airlines, or Philippine Airlines; and
6. Be transiting through a Canadian airport that has U.S. in-transit pre-clearance facilities and an up-to-date TWOV Memorandum of Understanding with CIC and the CBSA.

Currently, the TWOV program is only available to eligible travelers transiting through the Vancouver International Airport. With this announcement, however, it is expected that the number of eligible airports will increase.

This document has been created for informational purposes only and does not contain a full analysis of the law, nor does it constitute a legal opinion of the Bomza Law Group.

For further information regarding this update or any other Canadian immigration matter, please contact the Bomza Law Group.