Border visa exchange service is about to terminate
The Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) plans to terminate border exchange services. Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in a television interview on Tuesday, December 17th, "Border swapping will no longer be an option." He added that "plugging loopholes" is one of the ways the department strengthens border security.
Miller said that canceling border visa changes will allow border officials to focus on other things, thereby reducing pressure on the border.
Miller did not specify which services would be affected by the cancellation of flagpoles.
The minister has not yet announced when this change will take effect, but stated that IRCC hopes to implement the change "as soon as possible".
What is border visa exchange
Flagpoling "refers to new immigrants who bypass the regular waiting time for online work or study permits and return to Canada immediately after leaving, receiving same day immigration services at the port of entry. This is a feasible and legal procedure that new immigrants can use to obtain faster immigration services from the Canadian government. In May of this year, the border management departments of Canada and the United States made changes to this practice for the first time, restricting the ability of new immigrants to change visas at the border and shortening the service time at 12 Canadian US border ports.
In June 2024, Immigration Minister Mark Miller announced that he would cease providing border exchange services for graduate work permit (PGWP) applicants, citing increased workload for border officials and delays related to travel and cross-border transportation of goods and services. In the year prior to this announcement, PGWP applicants accounted for approximately 20% of all border visa exchange services. Throughout 2024, IRCC accumulated a large number of applications, and many applicants had to wait for several months to process their applications. IRCC defines backlog of applications as applications that exceed its published service standards in processing time. The goal of IRCC is to process 80% of applicants within the service standard range.