# British Citizen, can you enter Canada before your IEC visa process has completed?



## guyht (Jul 15, 2011)

My girlfriend has applied for her IEC visa, and has been quoted 10 weeks processing time in the email (anyone know if these are accurate estimations?).

She is supposed to fly out to Canada in about 7 weeks. Will it be possible for her to fly out as a UK citizen before she has received her IEC visa? And will this be problematic? 

Also, do customs require you to show you have a return ticket when coming in as a visitor with no visa?

Many Thanks


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

guyht said:


> My girlfriend has applied for her IEC visa, and has been quoted 10 weeks processing time in the email (anyone know if these are accurate estimations?).
> 
> She is supposed to fly out to Canada in about 7 weeks. Will it be possible for her to fly out as a UK citizen before she has received her IEC visa? And will this be problematic?
> 
> ...


If she doesn't have the visa before she leaves then she can enter as a visitor. When visa received and presumably forwarded to her from UK then she can do a trip around the closest flagpole to activate the visa. Coming on a non-return ticket may cause a problem. If the IO thinks she might stay illegally she could be refused admittance. If she decides to try it then she should bring all her visa application documentation to show that she's in process.


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## guyht (Jul 15, 2011)

Looks like we will have to look into a return ticket.

Thanks for the help


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