Canada's Immigration Department Faces Student Visa Crisis

0:00It's March 23rd. This is Canada News Today, AI-powered stories from your city. Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan has flagged major issues with how immigration refugees and citizenship Canada handles international student. Vices. The department is in keeping pace with investigation demands and failed to follow up on 800 cases from 2018 to 20. 23 where applicants used fake documents or lied on study permit forms. Vices raised serious risks for future immigration applications since no warnings are on file. 92% of those flagged individuals apply for other ways to stay in Canada and 456 got approved. On top of that, officials have no clear way to track if students with expired visas actually leave the country. Out of 549,000 expiring permits in 2024, 93% were allowed to stay while 39,500 were told to go. The Auditor recommends sharing lists of expired permit holders with the Canada Border Services Agency to improve tracking.

1:02Immigration Minister Lena Diab says the department accepts all suggestions as part of broader reforms running through 2027 aimed at. Cutting temporary immigrants to under 5% of the population. Student visa approvals have plunged far below targets with only about 150,000 issued in 2024 against and expected. 349,000 of 41% rates. So far in 2025, 50,000 approvals hit versus over 255,000 planned at 38%. Rates were 58% in 2023 and 54% the year before, and no one knows exactly why they're dropping across all. Provinces. These changes come amid caps on student numbers, but factors like provincial education rules, housing costs, and student choices play a big role too. As the reforms continue to take shape.