The Sun Media has revived a leaked source suggesting that the Canadian immigration department plans to prioritise the processing of business visa applications over those for visitor visas.

The report stated that the Canadian government intends to speed up the processing of business visas so that applications launched by established Canadian companies could be processed within 48 hours of their submission. 

The scheme was reportedly discussed some two weeks ago, and according to The Sun Media, it would be an expansion of the pilot initiative Business Express which has been active in India over the past year.

“As we recognize that business is important to the economy of Canada, we’re looking at streamlining the process for business visitors, where we can use the key links between companies that we know exist and are already well-known to the mission, to streamline those processes,” Claudette Deschenes, assistant deputy minister, said in the informal committee meeting.

Canadian immigration expert Eric Katz was unsurprised at the reported decision to fast-track business applications, commenting: “there is a lot of fast-tracking even for skilled worker cases now under the new regime”.