Canada has begun issuing compliance verification notices to international students, many of them Indian, requiring them to submit proof of enrolment and academic records within 21 days or risk losing their legal status.
The move comes after concerns raised by the Auditor General about gaps in oversight within the International Student Program. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has started sending letters to students asking for official confirmation of current enrolment from their designated learning institutions, along with transcripts from all institutions attended in Canada.
The notices warn that failure to provide the required documents within the deadline could result in the loss of temporary resident status.
The crackdown follows a report tabled in Parliament on March 23, in which Auditor General Karen Hogan flagged serious integrity issues in the system. The report found that between 2023 and 2024, more than 153,000 students were potentially non-compliant with their study permit conditions, while IRCC had the capacity to investigate only about 2,000 cases annually.
Investigations also uncovered 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 where applicants allegedly used fraudulent documents or misrepresented information. In many cases, individuals later applied for additional permits or asylum after arriving in Canada.
The report further revealed that hundreds of applicants claimed to have attended overseas institutions that either did not exist or were involved in selling credentials for immigration purposes. Despite these findings, enforcement action was not taken in several cases.
Immigration experts say the current measures may be overdue, noting that much of the suspected fraud occurred in earlier years and many affected students may have already completed their studies.
In response to the findings, IRCC is now required to investigate all flagged cases of fraud or non-compliance and provide monthly updates to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
The federal government has also moved to tighten enforcement, calling for stricter measures to ensure that individuals who entered Canada through fraudulent means are not granted further visas.
As scrutiny increases, IRCC has also issued warnings about immigration fraud, targeting both applicants and agents, while committing to share data with border authorities on individuals who have fallen out of legal status.
