It’s 8:30 a.m. on a chilly Friday morning in Surrey, B.C., and a queue of people snakes around a strip mall in the Metro Vancouver suburb.
They’re not here for the mall’s sweet shop or the Filipino fusion restaurant. Most of them have been waiting hours for an Indian visa at the BLS International Visa Application Centre.
Dozens of people lined up outside the BLS International Office in Surrey, B.C., on Friday, Nov. 18. It comes amid widespread reports of delays in the Indian visa processing system. (Lyndsay Duncombe/CBC)
Arminder Bajwa is one of hundreds of Indian visa applicants who say backlogs in the system are leaving people like him in limbo as visa applications have spiked amid a drop in global travel restrictions. He’s been here since 5:30 a.m. when temperatures were near zero.
Indian visa applicants are calling for the return of an electronic visa program that allowed online applications and was in place in Canada before the pandemic, as well as more staffing to address reported processing delays across the country.
“I’ve spent like $8,000 on tickets,” Bajwa says from the queue, surrounded by dozens of others trying to keep warm. “For my sister’s marriage … that’s my sister, and I have to be there because that’s like a tradition.
“That situation, inflation and everything … $8,000,” he repeats.
Arminder Bajwa is one of dozens of applicants, some of whom had been lining up outside the visa office since 3 a.m. He’s already booked tickets, which cost him thousands of dollars, so he and his family can go to India. (CBC)
But Bajwa’s passport has been with authorities inside the BLS office for over 17 days, and he’s getting desperate.
Another person in line said they had been waiting over two months — despite the Indian consulate’s stated timeline of 30 days for a visa.
Before the pandemic, applicants like Bajwa had access to an electronic visa application that was entirely virtual, a program that was brought to a halt amid travel shutdowns.
And though the program has been restored to over 156 countries, it hasn’t been restored yet to Canada, despite India’s status as the largest source of new Asian immigrants to Canada since 2016.
The Indian high commissioner-designate, Sanjay Kumar Verma, said that visa applications have spiked to dramatic levels but denied widespread delays.
But a voicemail from BLS International, to which the Indian High Commission has outsourced its visa applications, says that “processing times have been increased.”
The company did not return a request for comment. But an acknowledgement of delays is little consolation for Bajwa and others in his situation.
“The population in Surrey, Metro Vancouver, is ballooning. It’s, like, increasing day by day,” he said. “They need more offices. They need more people.”
Travel agent says e-visa should be restored
Manpreet Grewal, the manager of the My Dream Traveler agency in Mississauga, Ont., says that BLS should consider opening more offices across Canada and Ontario.
She says she’s been hearing of delays in the system for months and has even published multiple TikToks for visa applicants seeking advice.
“These days, there’s only one location in Brampton for the whole GTA,” she told CBC News in an interview.
Currently, there are nine BLS International offices across the country — the only centre that processes applications for Indian visas in Canada. They’re concentrated in the largest urban centres, even as more immigrants make their way to smaller communities. This means those who live away from urban centres either have to mail the BLS centres their documents, or make their way there in person.
Grewal, and the Indian Association of Tour Operators, have called for the e-visa program to return. The program allows those in qualifying countries to fill out the application and get an electronic travel authorization (ETA), before having their e-visa stamped on their passport at their destination.
Manpreet Grewal, a travel agent in Mississauga, Ont., has made a number of TikToks with advice for people needing Indian visas. She says it’s difficult to get appointments, even for people who need them immediately because their Indian relatives have died. (CBC)
If applicants have Canadian citizenship, even if they’re born in India, they have to get a visa to return, as India doesn’t allow dual citizenship.
“The main reason [for] the delay for the visas is because they are not opening e-visas,” she said.
High commissioner cites strained resources
The high commissioner-designate denied there were significant delays happening across the system, though he conceded there were massive increases in application volumes that had tightened resources.
“If I look at Ottawa … October 2022 [visa] submissions as compared to October 2021, submissions have increased by 605 per cent,” Verma told CBC News in an interview.
He said the comparisons were similar for Vancouver and Toronto, with respective increases of 203 and 188 per cent since last October.
Sanjay Kumar Verma, the high commissioner-designate, said applicants should use the drop-off service at BLS International sites — which are only located in Canada’s biggest cities — to avoid long queues. (CBC)
Verma encouraged applicants to look at visa application timelines on the commission’s website and said that those waiting in queues at BLS offices were walk-ins without appointments.
“As far as we are concerned, we are processing the visa applications and granting the eligible applicants’ visa much, much faster than people otherwise realize,” he said.
As for the e-visa program, Verma said the program was being restored “country by country, looking at the constraints on resources.”
“There are discussions. There are considerations. There are movements in that direction. When it is finally decided by the two governments, then, of course, we’ll hear the outcome,” he said.
A request for comment from Foreign Affairs Canada was not returned by deadline.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
