Romanians traveling to Canada without a visa will be able to apply for an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) only with a simple electronic passport (with biometric data), the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. The change applies starting June 5.

Thus, the simple temporary passports and the simple passports that do not contain biometric data are no longer accepted when applying for an eTA.

“The Electronic Travel Authorizations obtained as of December 1, 2017 based on simple temporary passports or simple non-biometric passports will be canceled by the Canadian authorities, which will individually notify all the Romanian citizens in this situation by e-mail,” reads the press release from the Romanian ministry. However, those who are in Canada at the moment are not affected by this measure.

Canada has lifted the visas for Romanians and Bulgarians from December 1, 2017. However, those who plan to go to or transit Canada by air have to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA).

Canada has seen an increase in asylum claims from Romanian citizens after the visa lift. Local media reported in late May that Romania was third in the ranking of countries with most asylum seekers in Canada in 2018, after Nigeria and India, according to data from the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) within the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com