Transit Rules for Canadian Landed immigrants

March 31,2009

Do Canadian Landed immigrants (permanent residents) need a transit visa to travel through the US?

If you hold a Nepali passport, and you are in Canada with a student or visitor visa, you will certainly need a transit visa.   Even landed residents of Canada (similar to US green card holders) will need a transit visa.  Canadian citizens do not need a transit visa.

We quote the immigration rule from the US State Department website derived from: (http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1260.html)

Excerpt from website:

"Permanent residents (aka landed immigrants) of Canada must have a nonimmigrant visa unless the permanent resident is a national of a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), meets the VWP requirements, and is seeking to enter the U.S. for 90 days or less under that program."

Currently, Canadian citizens need proof of both their identity and citizenship in order to apply for entry into the U.S. To learn more about document requirements to enter the U.S., see Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). For complete details about the new travel requirements under WHTI, review the Customs and Border Protection website.

 Citizens of Canada traveling to the U.S. do not require a nonimmigrant visa, except for the purposes as described below.

 * Foreign government officials (A), officials and employees of international organizations (G) and NATO officials, representatives and employees assigned to the U.S. as needed to facilitate their travel

* Treaty traders (E-1)

* Treaty investors (E-2)

* Fiance/es (K-1)

* Children of fiancées (K-2)

* U.S. citizen's foreign citizen spouse, who is traveling to the U.S. to complete the process of immigration (K-3).

* Children of a foreign citizen spouse (K-4) described above

* Spouses of lawful permanent residents (V-1) traveling to the U.S. to reside here while they wait for the final completion of their immigration process

* Children of spouses of lawful permanent residents (V-2) described above

This question originally appeared on the Sajha site in March, 2007, and we responded then.  Since it’s a reappearing question at Zen, we are reposting it on fly2nepal.com for benefit of Nepali passport holders.