Saudis get better visa deal

By ANDREW MCINTOSH AND KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI AGENCY


Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has quietly secured a better visa deal for the rapidly growing number of Saudis entering Quebec and Canada to study or work, the QMI Agency has learned.

From 1984 to 2002, Saudi nationals could enter and leave any part of Canada without a visa.
But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, visa requirements were imposed on Saudis following security concerns about stolen and fraudulent Saudi passports and the number of 9/11 attackers that came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.




To counter the security threat and control immigration, Canadian foreign affairs, immigration and security officials required Saudis to apply for entrance visas before coming to
Canada to study or work. And they were good for only 18 months.

The new visa deal gives Saudis visas for five years with unlimited entrance and exits — privileges secured after a quiet Saudi lobbying campaign in Ottawa, federal documents show.
In mid-March, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Ottawa hired former Canadian diplomat Charles Mann to help improve "the availability of visas to come to Canada for Saudi citizens,"
according to documents Mann filed with the federal Lobbying Commissioner’s office.

Mann, Canada’s ambassador to Kuwait and Qatar from 1999 to 2004, disclosed that he would lobby the Foreign Affairs, Public Security and Citizenship and Immigration departments
on behalf of Saudi Ambassador Osamah Ahmed Al Sanosi Ahmad between March 15 and June 14.
Three weeks before Mann’s lobbying gig ended, Canadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia David Chatterson announced on his embassy’s web site in Riyadh that Saudi nationals can
now get multiple-entry temporary resident visas to enter Canada that are good for five years.
Chatterson unveiled the changes on May 24, on the eve of a holiday long weekend in Canada, saying they would "greatly facilitate movement" of students and business people
between the two countries. No public announcement about the "more flexible visa rules" was made here.
Neither Mann nor a spokeswoman at the Saudi embassy would answer further questions about who Mann lobbied, who he met with or when. Foreign Affairs says Mann did not have
meetings with anyone there, though they did not rule out telephone contact.
Despite tougher visa controls imposed in 2002, the number of Saudis entering Canada on entrance visas has increased exponentially since then.
Canada granted entrance visas to 5,292 new Saudi students and 1,665 Saudi Arabian workers in 2009 alone, compared to 199 Saudi workers and 351 students admitted on visas in
2002, according to data compiled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
There are currently around 8,200 Saudi students at Canadian institutions, including 750 medical doctors, Chatterson said in his news release. Two thousand more students are
expected to study here later this year, he added.
Saudi Arabia is now paying for about 62,000 of its own students to attend foreign universities through a major scholarship program.
In contrast to the rising number of Saudis entering Canada since 2002, the number of non-immigrant Saudis admitted to the United States fell sharply after the 2001 attacks: to
22,314 in 2002 and 16,154 in 2003 from 66,722 in 2001. That has recovered somewhat to 61,530 in 2009.

Last Updated: July 18, 2010 2:35pm