Canadian Visa Office in Syria Closed

February 13, 2012 | Filed under: Canada,Immigration,Jordan,Lebanon,Syria,Visit Visa | Posted by: Alizah

Canada has shut down the visa and immigration section at the Embassy of Canada in Damascus due to continued violence in the country. The visa and immigration services will be provided through the Canadian visa offices in the neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon.

Furthermore, with this step, the Canadian visa offices in Beirut and Amman will become fully functional visa and immigration offices and, hence, provide the full visa and immigration services to the new applicants from these countries.

The applications from Iraqi applicants will be processed at Amman and Canadian visa office in Ankara will take care of immigration applications from Iranian applicants.

Until the re-opening of the Canadian visa office in Damascus, applicants wishing to apply for temporary resident visa must apply through the Canadian visa offices in either Lebanon or Jordan. However, Syrians who are residing outside the country will be able to apply at any other Canadian visa office.

Permanent resident applications from Syrian nationals have been transferred to Jordan (Amman) where processing will resume.

The visa office in Damascus currently has approximately 300 active refugee files from persons residing in Syria that are at the final stages and are visa ready. These files have been transferred to Jordan (Amman) for final processing and visa issuance. The remaining refugee resettlement cases for persons residing in Syria have been transferred to a secure location and processing will resume once the visa office in Damascus is able to re-open. The refugee resettlement cases for persons residing outside of Syria follows the same regional redistribution where processing will resume.

Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism stated, “The situation in Syria is too volatile and we need to find a more permanent solution for processing applications in the area. This redistribution means that we are able to bring more services closer to applicants.”