Here is a jolly little sidewinder slipped under the rug by the Canadians, no fanfare, no public announcement just a discreet email.
I received an email from BA about updating info on my flights home next month.
Buried deep within it, several sub pages in, it transpires a British passport is no longer adequate to visit Canada, one must have an electronic permission to travel on top of that. This is true for all nationalities with the exception of an American passport holder. (They can’t afford to alienate them there might be similar reprisals and then where would they shop?) One is of course charged a sum for this electronic document! A princely $7.00.
Of course the form required is full of the usual blah and required even for transit through as I do. And then, right at the bottom of the form in 2pt unreadable one gets to the nub of the whole thing. Refugee documents, laissez passe, and UN documents are no longer able to be used for travel without the electronic confirmation!! My my what a surprise! In other words undesirables are to be stopped from travelling to Canada rather than arriving and having to be sent back or more likely put in accommodation at the expense of the State. Interestingly this only applies to air travel to Canada and is not applicable at ports or land borders. But then most don’t arrive that way do they? Not too many boats from Afghanistan to Canada are there? But, by not announcing it from the govt. the Liberals can maintain their squeaky clean image. But you will be interested to know that they have trumpeted from the rafters that they are withdrawing their 6 jets from the bombing raids on Isis and are going to concentrate on humanitarian aid in the future.
Nice one Canada glad to see you haven’t lost your touch!
It would have been seriously easy to miss this gem and arrive at the airport only to be denied entry by the airline! Whoops, one wonders how many will get caught out?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Acceptance appears to have been instantaneous, presumably unless your name was Abdul Bin Liner, so one presumes this is a new tax to pay for the Syrians already admitted up there. Most of whom appear to have ended in the Maritime Provinces where they have spare housing, no jobs, foul weather and most have already left!
Canada and the motley collection of wankers to its south have treaties which oblige at least similar entry requirements. The US has required electronic pre-authorisation to travel for years now and Canada has held out for as long as it can. Ask any European, British, Australian, Japanese, etc. traveller about entering Sub-Canadian North America without it. You would not be able to. At last, Canada has been obliged to require similar documentation by orders of Sub-Canadian North America. If you want to blame someone, blame the Yanks. The reason why US citizens are exempt from this is because Canadian citizens are exempt from electronic pre-clearance to the US by virtue of their common customs and entry laws agreements. Bloody nuisance, I have to fill in another form. At least Australia is nice enough to waive the fee!
A rare and unexpected blog, CO! When I visited Canada on biz in 1970, it was extremely puritanical and uptight. No change then.
For a UK passport holder for tourist purposes the US does NOT require a visa!
Business, student, emigrating- yes, tourism for 3 months or less, no.
christopher is wrong.
My point being how they, Canada, have implemented it from March 16th without a single announcement!
I don;t believe for one moment that the USA has anything to do with this. had it been so the Canadians would have made a song and dance and whined internationally that they had been strongarmed! Slipped under the mat to keep the ragheads out a simple as that. Except the carefully selected sanitised Syrian refugee families that are paraded as their good deed for all to see and admire!
Good morning CO
Much as I would like Trudeau to be at fault, I think that you may blaming the wrong people. It would seem that Christopher is right and that the Canadian Conservatives introduced this in order to fall in line with the US requirements for UK tourists.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/canada/articles/Canada-visa-application-eTAs-required-for-Britons/
Mind, I have no doubt that it will emerge in due course that Alex Salmond was culpable in some way.
So do I or don’t I need a visa to visit Murica? Get a grip, you guys!
CO: citizens of most countries are legally required to have an electronic pre-clearance to enter the US. It isn’t a visa — it is an electronic pre-authorisation to enter the country for those who do not need a visa.
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
I know you seemingly worship the US despite it generally being a mediocre and uninspiring country, but if you’re going to say I’m wrong do at least attempt to be correct! What Canada is doing is much the same. The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland have a somewhat similar relationship. Ireland is obliged to meet minimum common visa standards with the UK and cannot join Schengen, not that many want to these days, as that would complicate its northern border with the UK. Canada and the US have a special border agreement due to heavy traffic going in both directions and the number of residents in both countries working in the other.
That’s a fine distinction.
Janus: You do not need a visa to enter either Canada or Sub-Canadian North America. However, unless you have a visa you do need to fill in an electronic pre-clearance form and pay the required fee. When going on holiday to Australia you can travel without a visa, but you have to fill in a form online. It’s pro forma and clearance is generally granted. Best of all, we do not have to pay the A$20 fee that most others do. There are also special queues for people with Canadian, British and US passports — not that that helps me as I’m stuck in the “all and sundry” queue, Hunnish passport and such.
Jazz: It’s a nuisance, of course, but it doesn’t meet all the requirements of being a visa. Legal hair-splitting at its finest! Obtaining a visa for the US is a bleeding nightmare so it’s a small mercy.
So I need to apply for permission or shall we call it a not-visa? 😉
Janus, when are you going to America?
I’m not. 😊
Exackerry!
Yes,sorry you are all right. I’m wrong. Being a legal resident of the USA I come and go with just a British passport and a green card and no other paperwork. This Canadian thing is new as they have not included resident aliens with the USA natives as usual.
JM, interesting that the Telegraph picked this up it certainly was not advertised here at all. I listen to Canadian news on the radio the whole time and it was never mentioned. Can’t get USA radio here because of too many mountains in the way! We are a natural extension of the Fraser valley geographically and get all sorts of transmissions from Vancouver and Victoria, Seattle might as well be in a foreign country!
i agree about real visas to the USA being a horror story. When spousal unit and I first got together we had to go and queue with a bunch of very smelly Mexican field hands for 3 hours in the 100+ sun in Dallas to sort out my green card. I fainted! He wrote a withering letter to his Congressman about being expected to queue in such circumstances and lo and behold after that I always had an appointment and went straight in, no queues ever again. curious and interesting. When the boy renewed his USA passport in London, he went straight in to the Embassy building to a no queue area he said that the queues for business visas stretched round the block, literally.
One thing in which I am right is that this was definitely introduced very very quietly and sneakily!