OTTAWA — Just weeks after an auditor general's report highlighted serious issues with Canada's international student program, the Immigration Department has announced that changes are imminent.
Deputy Minister Acknowledges Shortcomings
During testimony before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on Monday, Deputy Minister Ted Gallivan admitted that the troubling figures in the audit were due to ministry failures. He stated that the numbers were symptoms of the fact that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) did not manage an entry-exit regime.
“In the action plan we're building, in fact, the initial system implementation is in May … to have an indicator of in the country or not in the country,” Gallivan said.
Auditor General's Report Raises Concerns
The audit, released last week by Auditor General Karen Hogan, flagged more than 153,000 students as potentially being in Canada in violation of their student visas in 2023 and 2024. However, IRCC only had the capacity to conduct about 2,000 investigations annually. During that period, 4,057 investigations were launched, but approximately 40% stalled because students failed to respond to requests for additional information.
Between 2018 and 2023, 800 study permits were issued to applicants using fraudulent applications, with many of those individuals later applying for permanent residency.
Department Takes Responsibility
“We've now taken responsibility for managing that in collaboration with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA),” Gallivan said. He added that pilot projects will begin next month to determine effective intervention techniques with students. This approach will also be expanded to other visa streams, including visitor and work visas, which face similar challenges.
“This is a paradigm shift for IRCC, where we agree with the concern that Canadians have that we're not sure who's in or out of the country and we're doing the work — both from an IT perspective and from a management perspective — to manage that more effectively,” Gallivan concluded.
