US Ambassador and the Canadian Citizenship Minister, Jason Kenney signed an agreement on 13th December, 2012 and this U.S.-Canada Visa and Immigration Information-Sharing Agreement, will allow the United States and Canada to share biometric and other information about the visa applicants who seek to travel to either one of these countries. Biometric and other information about a foreign national who travels to the United States will be shared with Canada and vice versa, and this process will help the both the countries to verify the foreign national’s identity.
This process will protect the citizens and the borders of both the countries. By sharing information, both the countries will be able to verify the identities of the visa applicants. Similarly, they can also identify the foreign nationals who are inadmissible. This process will help the immigration officers to spot the terrorists and the criminals. Similarly, they can deny the applications of the applicants who are likely to threaten the country’s security.
Immigration officers and the officers who work on refugee protection, will be provided more information and that will help them to decide on the visa applications. This will protect the people living in both the countries. This process will allow the United States to send automated requests to Canada and gather information about a foreign national, when that foreign national applies for a US visa or claims asylum.
By sending information about the applicant to Canada, such as the applicant’s middle name and date of birth, to Canada, United States will get to know whether the person was earlier refused entry into Canada or removed from Canada. This also applies to Canada and Canada can obtain information about a visa or an asylum applicant, by sending automated requests to the United States. Information about a foreign national sent by the United States will be compared with the data banks in Canada and if the information matches, immigration information about that particular person will be shared.
United States and Canada will share biographic information, such as the name, gender and date of birth of the visa applicants and the foreign nationals who claim asylum, by 2013. Similarly, both the countries will start sharing biometric information, by 2014. However, the countries will not share information about the Green Card holders and the citizens of both the countries and information only about the foreign nationals will be shared.