IRCC Officials Discuss Info On Study Permits, International Immigration, And New Recommendations

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) say that international students are asking for study permits at a rate that has never been seen before. ICEF Monitor says that the number keeps increasing because pandemic restrictions are being lifted worldwide, and students are returning to Canada to begin or finish their post-secondary education.

At a recent virtual symposium by the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CIBE), one talked about the rise in applications for study permits. Officials from IRCC were there to talk about the number of applications they have gotten as Canadian students leave online programs and return to school.

Canada is known as a place where international students want to go to school. CBIE’s most recent report on international students says that Canada’s reputation for being safe and stable is a big reason why students from other countries choose to study there.

Study Permits and the Backlogs

In 2021, IRCC said that there were 56% more applications for study permits than in 2020, and they got 175,000 applications in the first quarter of 2022 alone. Because of this, processing applications for study permits take a long time.

As of July 17, almost 200,000 people were still waiting for their first application for a study permit to be processed. The IRCC processing time tool says that it takes, on average, 12 weeks for study permits to be processed for people outside of Canada who are not applying through the Student Direct Stream. It was documented that the largest sources of Immigrants to Canada were from India and the Philippines.

Recommendations from Parliament

A report from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has been brought to the House of Commons in Ottawa. It has 35 key recommendations to cut down on processing times and make Canadian immigration policy better.

The report also said that IRCC, the provinces, and designated learning institutions need to work together more to regulate recruiters who come from abroad to find students and to make sure that they tell potential students how to spot fraud and scams.