Auditor General Slams Canada's Student Visa Fraud

0:00A new audit from Canada's Office of the Auditor General says immigration, refugees, and citizenship Canada did not do enough to strengthen the international student program against fraud and rule-breaking. The report highlights successes like a verification tool that checked 97% of over 841,000 school acceptance letters from December 2023 to September 2025. But it points out big gaps in following up on problems. Here this week, the audit revealed the department flag more than 153,000 students for possible non-compliance between 2023 and 2024, yet they only had money to probe about 2000 cases a year. Out of 4,057 investigations started, around 40% stalled because students did not reply. These shortcomings had hard in places like Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, where steady permit approvals dropped, 59% or more in 2024, far

1:02steeper than the expected 10% rise. The cap on new applications helped cut overall numbers, but it led to unexpected slowdowns across provinces. The report urges better teamwork with provinces on permit limits, stronger checks for fraud after approvals, and tighter reviews for permit extensions. Under high-risk streams, officials found hundreds of past fraud cases where people got other immigration okay without checks. Canada keeps clamping down, with international student permits down 74% over the last two years, aiming to ensure only real students. Stay in the mix. I'm Corey with The Story, and you've been listening to Toronto News today, AI Power at Local News.