Sorry Girls, The Canada Stripper Visa is No More
The Canadian government says it's protecting foreign workers from sexual exploitation.
Strip bars and their patrons say the government is just being prudish.
Our neighbors to the north announced that they will be cutting off the Canadian stripper visa. With a shortage of homegrown strippers, Canadian bar owners say their entire industry is threatened. The bars will now either have to pay more to attract Canuck strippers or seek out strippers from a different source -- foreign students.
There are about 700 foreign strippers legally working in Canada working on a visa, reports Newser. Just under 500 visas have been issued since 2006, and only 12 were issued last year. These workers will be allowed to finish working as strippers for the duration of their one-year visa, and will then be forced to leave the country.
It wasn't reported what country these strippers came from. But given the apparent bounty of strippers in the United States (particularly Las Vegas), it's probably a safe bet that many of these strippers are American.
Without foreign stripper aid, Canadian strip clubs have already indicated that they are going to target foreign students, reports Newser. That's because foreign students are allowed to work part-time in Canada. So an unnatural result of the repeal of the Canada stripper visa is that foreign strippers may be left out, but students could be targeted.
In the alternative, if a strip bar is desperate to get a foreign stripper into the country, a creative immigration attorney could try to make an argument that strippers are performers or artists. If Canada has similar laws to the United States, the strippers could get the equivalent of a P-visa.
Related Resources:
- Ottawa brings down curtain on foreign strippers (The Globe and Mail)
- Visas (FindLaw)
- Wealthy NY Woman Kept Servant Locked in a Closet in Mansion (FindLaw's Legally Weird)