Is Canada Cracking Down on Its Business-Letter Requirement?
C
ONFUSION IS SWIRLING AROUND Canada’s business-letter (aka invitation- letter) entry requirement within the
meetings industry, thanks to reports that the Canadian government has begun to enforce the provision more strictly for people traveling to the country for meetings and conventions. Under the business-letter entry require-
ment, a traveler could be asked to present to Canadian border immigration agents a letter from his or her employer explaining the purpose of his or her visit. In its EventROI Online newsletter in November, Experient reported that “the Canadian government has been stricter in en- forcing the Business Letter requirement for entry. The Busi- ness Letter is not a new requirement and up to now has only been spottily enforced, but you would not want any of your event attendees to be slowed up at Customs.” In an interview with Convene, a travel
executive at another major U.S.-based event- production company backed up Experient’s report. She expressed disbelief that the Cana- dian government might require each attendee of a conference to have his or her own letter, on official conference letterhead. But, according to Canadian immigration
officials, none of this is true. “The requirement of the letter of invitation is not a new one,” said Kelli Fraser, the media-relations adviser for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), “and visa officers have not been issued new instruc- tions to enforce it.” Nonetheless, Fraser said it would be advisable for attendees to possess such a letter when traveling to Canada. To help clarify the issue, Fraser shared some
points about the invitation-letter requirement and entry into Canada for convention delegates:
u“As a general rule, all visitors to Canada require a visa to enter Canada, except citizens of countries where an exemption has been granted [including the United States].” u“[Visitors] may need to include other documents in a visa application. These docu- ments could include a letter of invitation … [which] serves to establish the purpose of the trip to Canada and to provide information on the applicant’s plans in Canada.” u“If someone is traveling to
Canada for a convention, event, or conference, regardless of whether they are required to have a visa or not, a letter of invitation as- sists agents … to determine whether the person is a legitimate visitor and does intend to attend a conference.”
u“The letter of invita- tion helps the visa officer to assess the resources the ap- plicant will require. ... For this reason, the letter of invitation
issued by a conference organizer should indi- cate if financial assistance is being provided (airline ticket, accommodation, etc.) to an individual in order to facilitate their participa- tion in the event.”
An invitation letter should be printed on conference or organization letterhead, and begin with a sentence inviting the delegate to attend the event — including the event’s name, dates, and location — and confirming the delegate’s registration. Following that, one paragraph should describe the event itself, and another paragraph should outline what costs (if any) the organizer is covering for the attendee. For more information, visit CIC’s website at