Foreign students worried about delays in issuing visas

(Ottawa) Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says the government is looking for ways to prioritize visa applications for international students due to start school in the coming weeks as many wonder if they will arrive in Canada on time.

Students, universities, immigration consultants and even the Indian High Commission have raised concerns about delays in obtaining visas jeopardizing the studies of many students.

Some have already paid tuition, which adds significant financial stress to the already difficult task of moving to a new country and starting classes.

Federal data shows that 34% of pending international student visa applications were taking longer to process than government standards dictate, as of the end of July.

“There’s a huge backlog right now,” said Humera Khan, a Montreal-based international student recruiter and CEO of Logic Academic Services.

M^me Khan says she has never seen so many students waiting for visas just weeks before school starts.

If the government does not process their visas in time, these students will likely have to postpone their studies for up to a year, she said. “It’s a lot of uncertainty, there are a lot of emotions at play.”

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said the department began about a month ago to consider whether it could prioritize students whose classes are due to start in September.

“Trying to determine whether this will potentially compromise the effectiveness of the overall effort is something we’re still evaluating,” Fraser said in an interview Wednesday.

Fraser says the Department of Immigration is processing more study permits than ever before, and the delays are due to the huge increase in demand.

So far this year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has processed over 360,000 study visas, a 17% increase over the same period in 2021.

The High Commission of India in Ottawa said in a statement that it was discussing with Canadian universities what could be done to accommodate the large number of Indian students still awaiting visas.

The high commission said universities have also approached the Department of Immigration to raise concerns.

Some institutions will offer a distance option for students unable to travel to Canada at the start of term because they have not yet received a visa.

The High Commission has asked the government to expedite visas for Indian students.

New Democratic Party (NDP) immigration critic Jenny Kwan said there seems to be no rhyme or reason when it comes to why some applications were processed on time and some don’t.

She has heard from extremely stressed students who are still unsure if they will indeed be moving halfway around the world to study in Canada in a few weeks.

“September is just around the corner because the school year is about to start, and they don’t know what’s going on with their application,” Ms.^me Kwan in an interview.

The fact that so many students are likely to find out at the last moment shows that the ministry does not take into account people’s real experiences, she argued. “They have to find accommodation, for example, familiarize themselves with the routes to and from school. »

Everything from course selection to orientation is in jeopardy, she added, and the delays are also causing institutions uncertainty.

A recent report by the House of Commons Immigration Committee shows that processing times for student visas have increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government standards state that the application should only take about two months to process, but between December 2020 and November 2021, the average wait time was 82 days.

Minister Fraser said he is not worried about tarnishing Canada’s reputation as the destination of choice for international students, as Canada is having its best year ever in terms of accepting a record number of students. students.

“But the individual stories you hear are the ones that stick with people. People remember how they feel when they don’t get permission to come to Canada in time to start their program,” he acknowledged.

The government is working with schools to provide alternatives for people who do not receive documents on time, including online courses, he said.

“We don’t want to lose any talent. We want to make it easier to come to Canada and we want to satisfy this demand that we are seeing, which this year is far beyond what we have seen before,” the minister said.

Fraser said he expects foreign student visa processing times to be back in line with government standards by the end of the year.