Visa and a Permit?

[Karim]

What is the difference between a visa and a permit?

 

[Riley Haas]

They are essentially just methods of labeling different types of permission for people to come to Canada:

• a temporary resident visa is what Canada calls its visitor visa;
• a temporary resident permit is special permission for someone who is otherwise inadmissible to Canada to visit Canada;
• a work permit is temporary permission to work here;
• a study permit is temporary permission to study here.

So essentially they are all just variations of the same thing: permission to live temporarily in Canada.