An announcement to further strengthen the International Student Program of Canada was laid out on October 27, 2023, by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizen Canada (IRCC).
Marc Miller had declared plans to administer various steps in order to solidify Canada’s Foreign Students Program and also to safeguard legitimate students from fraud.
Starting on December 1, 2023, designated learning institutions (DLI) at the postsecondary level must verify each and every applicant’s acceptance letters through the IRCC.
The verification process is laid out in order to keep potential students from harm from fraudulent acceptance letters and also to steer clear of similar problems that a few students had to face when fraud inquiries had been made earlier this year. This is what the primary goal of this new and improvised verification process is – to protect students from fraudulent matters.
Moreover, it will provide assurance that study permit issuance is strictly restricted to authentic acceptance letters only. It is important to note that IRCC has plans to set up a “recognized institution” framework for the fall 2024 school year.
This in turn will assist postsecondary DLI’s by setting a higher and much better standard for support, services, and results for international students. For example, it would be quite beneficial for these DLIs to use priority processing of study permits for those applicants who plan to study at their institution.
1,500 study permit applications were initially identified by the IRCC and CBSA as connected with letters of fraud. The majority of these cases were refused later on. However, for 450 of these applications, no fraud was identified, and study permits were granted.
The majority of these cases are still to be investigated by the IRB, and the task force will conciliate where required.
We hope you found this information helpful. Follow our blogs for the latest updates and informative content on Canadian immigration.
