“The department accepts all of the auditor’s recommendations,” stated Immigration Minister Lena Diab, highlighting the government’s acknowledgment of the issues raised in a recent audit regarding the International Student Program.
The audit revealed that the Immigration Department is struggling to keep up with the demand for investigations of student visa holders. In 2023 and 2024, approximately 150,000 cases were flagged for potential non-compliance with study permits, yet only about 4,000 investigations were initiated by the federal government.
Of those investigations, 1,600 were marked as inconclusive because the students did not respond to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This raises significant concerns about the effectiveness of the current oversight mechanisms.
Despite having a budget to conduct around 2,000 investigations annually until 2028, the department has not been able to address the growing backlog of flagged cases. Furthermore, the report indicated that 92% of problematic visa holders have applied for other immigration statuses to remain in Canada.
In a troubling finding, the report noted that only about 16,000 of the expired 2024 student visa holders actually left Canada, suggesting that many may be overstaying their permits.
The annual Immigration Levels Plan aims to reduce temporary immigrants to less than 5% of the total population by the end of 2027, yet new student visa approvals have been significantly lower than anticipated for both 2024 and 2025.
The study permit approval rate was 58% in 2023, down from 54% in 2022, with all provinces experiencing larger-than-expected declines in approvals for 2024.
However, the Immigration Department has expressed uncertainty regarding the reasons behind the dropping approval rates, leaving many questions unanswered. Details remain unconfirmed.
