Canadian Immigration News

Canada Visa Office in Syria Closed

According to an announcement released by Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, the Visa and Immigration Section of the Canadian Embassy in Damascus has been closed due to the continuing violence in Syria.

Canadian visa and immigration services have been relocated to neighbouring offices in Jordan and Turkey. Minister Kenney explained that "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."

He said following the redistribution, the visa offices in Lebanon (Beirut) and Jordan (Amman) would become full service offices.

"Now applicants in those countries will have access to full Canadian immigration services in their home country." added Kenney.

Accordingly, immigration applications to Canada from Iraq will now be taken care of by the visa office in Jordan (Amman) and the Turkey (Ankara) office will be responsible for all applications from Iran.

The Damascus office will be responsible for all applications from Syria when it is reopened. From now on, Syrian nationals wanting to submit temporary resident applications should apply through the visa office in Lebanon (Beirut) or Jordan (Amman). Those outside of Syria can submit their application to any other Canadian visa office.

Currently, there are approximately 300 active refugee files from persons residing in Syria at the visa office in Damascus. These files have been transferred to Jordan (Amman) for final processing and visa issue. The remaining cases for persons residing in Syria have been transferred to a secure location and processing will resume when the office in Damascus is able to re-open. Other cases for persons residing outside of Syria will follow the same regional redistribution where processing will resume.

If you are interested in Immigration to Canada, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Canada.