JEDDAH: The Kingdom's decision to apply equal treatment to Canadians requesting visit visas to Saudi Arabia has taken its toll on the country.
The Canadians will now have to wait for 30 to 45 days to get their passports stamped with a Saudi visa while in the past they used to get the entry visas in a matter of hours, local daily Al-Watan reported Thursday, quoting Canadian magazine "Embassy."
A manager of a Canadian company that processes entry visas to Saudi Arabia said the Saudi decision to delay the granting of entry visas to Canadians has made things more complicated.
"In the past, we used to deliver the passports to the Saudi Embassy at about 10 a.m. and get them back stamped with the visa at about 2 p.m. Now we have to wait for five to six weeks to obtain the Saudi visa," he said.
Saudi Arabia implemented the new visa policy in September. Canada used to grant Saudi citizens entry visas on the spot, but when it decided to increase its turnaround times, the Kingdom replied in kind.
The magazine said the Saudi Ambassador to Canada Osama bin Hamad Al-Sanousi had been liaising with the department of migration in Canada to ease the granting of entry visas to the Saudi citizens but to no avail.
© Arab News 2011
