India to issue visas to Canadians but not under these four categories

In what comes as the first sign of a thaw between Canada and India following weeks of tensions over the Khalistan issue, India announced Wednesday (Oct 25) that it was resuming visa services for Canadians.

The Indian embassy in Ottawa said it will start processing business, medical and conference visas, starting Thursday.

“Emergency services will continue to be handled by the Indian High Commission and the consulates in Toronto and Vancouver," it said.

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However, it mentioned that visa services won’t be available for the following purposes:

1. Tourism
2. Studies (For students)
3. Employment
4. Cinema

The embassy added that these services would be dealt with as the circumstances dictate.

"Further decisions, as appropriate, would be intimated based on continuing evaluation of the situation," the embassy added.

The development came after Canada withdrew 41 of its envoys at the request of the Indian government, which had sought parity in the presence of diplomats.

Jaishankar wanted assurances from Canada to restart services

On Sunday, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that they would "very much (like) to resume the issuing of visas" provided Indian envoys are provided safety in Canada as per the Vienna Convention.

"If we see progress in the safety of our diplomats in Canada, we would like to resume issuance of visas there," Jaishankar said.

He also brushed aside the statements by the US and the UK over making Canada withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats, both of whom claimed that it falls contrary to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“Parity (between the diplomatic presence of the two countries in each other’s capitals) is very much provided for by the Vienna Convention, which is the relevant international rule on this. In our case, we invoked parity because we had concerns about continuous interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel,” Jaishankar said while speaking at an event in New Delhi on Sunday.

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“The relationship right now is going through a difficult phase. But I do want to say, you know, the problems we have are with a certain segment of Canadian politics and the policies, which flow from that,” said the external affairs minister, replying to a question on the Canada-India diplomatic row. “So, I want people to understand the extent of the issue."

(With inputs from agencies)