Trips betwen USA and China via Canada. Canadian transit visa needed?

Question

Consider the following situation:

Someone is travelling from USA to China and back, and the flight stops in Canada (both ways). It is a single flight ticket, however it is necessary to transit through a Canadian airport.

Is it necessary to obtain a Canadian transit visa?

Assume the person needs a visa to enter all of USA, China, Canada, and already has visas for USA and China. Please comment if additional information is needed. Links to official information sources describing the situation would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Canada has two programs for transiting without visa between the U.S. and third countries:

• Transit Without Visa (TWOV), applies to nationals of Indonesia, Thailand, Republic of China (Taiwan), and the Philippines.
• China Transit Program (CTP), applies to nationals of the People's Republic of China.

For both programs, you need to have a valid U.S. visa, arrive in Canada on certain approved airlines, transit through Vancouver or Toronto terminal 1, and for China Transit Program transiting to the U.S., you need to arrive from certain cities.

From your comments, you say that it is for a Romanian and a Chinese national. The Chinese national could use the China Transit Program if they meet the above requirements. The Romanian national is out of luck; Romania also doesn't have visa waiver access to Canada, so will need a transit visa.

In reality, you only need to go through Canadian immigration when transiting from the U.S. to a third country. When transiting from a third country to the U.S., you never go through Canadian immigration -- you directly go through U.S. immigration pre-clearance (unless you arrive outside its operating hours), so in that case you may be able to get away with not having a Canadian transit visa, even though the rules say you need it (if the airline lets you on the plane in the first place that is).

Answer 2

The answer is, it depends on many factors.

For example, the Vancouver Airport has a page for Connecting through YVR where you select:

• your originating country
• your arrival airline
• your destination country
• your departure airline

The web site will then give you detailed information about arrival procedures, time of day when certain services are available, and other information. You will have to enter the specific information for your traveller in order to find a suitable answer.

EDIT: Chinese citizens may be eligible for the China Transit Program where a transit visa is not required (but there are a lot of conditions).

Romanian citizens need a visa to transit through Canada.

Note that the Romanian passengers in your group will not likely be able to remain with the Chinese citizens in the airport if the Chinese citizens choose the China Transit Program option. Presumably you would all end up departing on the same flight as scheduled, of course.