In recent times a large number of international students have been flagged for non-compliance, but a small number of the cases were investigated. Further, even in confirmed cases of fraud, little to no enforcement action has been taken. This has given rise to concerns regarding the integrity of the system.
Ted Gallivan, the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) department’s deputy minister, has said that the soft touch to the suspected fraud cases will no longer be applicable. Stricter monitoring such as stronger IT methods will be implemented for tracking the suspicious study permit applications. The digital platform modernization (DPM) system will be implemented to increase the compliance checks and to detect fraud.
As per the auditor general’s report on Canada’s international student program, 800 study permits with fraudulent documents or false information had no action taken against them. Furthermore, over 153,000 students were flagged for possible non-compliance in 2023–2024, but only about 2,000 cases could be investigated each year. Around 40% of those were closed due to lack of communication. The department has now committed to improve the follow-up processes whenever it detects fraud and to hold violators accountable.
The system will be more rigorous with stricter monitoring to reduce the misuse of the study permits. It will lead to increased scrutiny and longer processing times for study permit applications.
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