Overview
- An Auditor-General’s report released Monday found Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada failed to investigate more than 145,000 international students flagged as potentially breaking study-permit rules.
- IRCC was funded to examine about 2,000 cases a year and opened 4,057 probes in 2023–24, yet roughly 40% produced no conclusion after students did not respond to requests for information.
- The audit identified 800 previously approved study permits with signs of fraud or misrepresentation that the department did not revisit, and more than half of those individuals later received other immigration status.
- Auditors said the department does not know how many students with expired permits actually left Canada and urged it to give border officials annual lists, with 2024 data showing 39,500 ordered to leave and about 16,000 confirmed departures.
- New study-permit approvals fell far below projections as approval rates dropped to 41% in 2024 and 38% by September 2025, and the share of incoming students from India slid to about 8%, a shift The Logic linked to mounting financial strain on colleges.