Canada refused record number of people applying to come to Canada to work, study or visit in 2024
Ottawa refused a record number of would-be visitors, international students and foreign workers seeking to come to Canada last year.
According to data obtained by the Star, immigration officials rejected 2,359,157 or 50 per cent of temporary resident applications in 2024, up from 1,846,180 or 35 per cent the year before. The refusal rate — covering study permits, work permits and visitor visas — hit the highest level since 2019, before the pandemic.
Among the three subgroups, 1.95 million or 54 per cent of visitor visa applicants were denied last year — up from 40 per cent in 2023, along with 290,317 or 52 per cent of study permit applicants (up from 38 per cent), and 115,549 or 22 per cent of those who applied for authorization to work in Canada (down slightly from 23 per cent).
The federal government has set aggressive targets to rein in the number of temporary residents in the country under tremendous public pressure amid the affordable housing crisis and rising costs of living faced by Canadians post-pandemic. It also reduced the annual intake of new permanent residents by 20 per cent to 395,000 in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
To clamp down on the surging temporary resident population in the country, Ottawa has tried to limit new entries while banking on migrants already here to leave voluntarily after their legal permits expire, with a portion of them transitioning to permanent residence under eligible programs.
However, immigration data appears to show a different story when it comes to showing the door to migrants who are already here.
Migrants with expiring temporary resident status are eligible to extend their legal status by applying for what’s called a visitor record. The document allows them to remain here legally but doesn’t let them work or study.
Immigration Department data showed the number of visitor record applications received doubled from 196,965 in 2019 to 389,254 in 2024. The refusal rate hovered at around five per cent. Last year, extension was granted to 321,277 temporary residents — only down slightly from 333,672 in 2023.
“If you remain here and you cannot legalize yourself either as a student, a worker or a permanent resident, the fallback solution is a visitor record,” said Ekaterina Neouimina, who speaks on behalf of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association as a founding member.
While she’s not surprised by the jump in refusals of temporary immigration to Canada, she said it doesn’t make sense that the visitor record approvals remained high.
A visitor record application now costs $100, and current processing time is 119 days.
Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers for Change, said trying to get temporary residence to Canada has become “a toss-up” as there’s only a 50 per cent chance that one is granted.
“So even though the total number of applicants is increasing, the rejection rate is going up much more significantly,” he noted. “This is part of scapegoating migrants. This isn’t about policy. It’s politics … The government is not only rejecting migrants. It is profiting from their hopes and dreams.”
Hussan said temporary resident application fees are non-refundable and average $150 per applicant. In 2024 alone, they generated an estimated $707.9 million in fees, including $354 million from refused applications.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s data show misrepresentation or withholding of material facts in temporary resident applications accounted for 26,956 instances for refusals in 2019, which soared to 110,808 in 2024, partially due to an increased volume of applications.
“IRCC employees receive training on how to detect and combat fraud, and they work hard to protect the integrity of Canada’s citizenship and immigration system,” the department said in a statement to the Star.
“IRCC is continuously improving its systems to detect evidence of fraud and works with its local and international partners to crack down on fraud.”
Neouimina said she and other immigration lawyers have been seeing more and more clients refused for no good reason, and the exponential surge in investigations into potential misrepresentation raises “serious red flags.”
“Is this a genuine effort to combat fraud, or a convenient way to justify increased refusals?” she asked. “Misrepresentation can be a catch-all term, easily applied to minor inconsistencies or perceived omissions. The lack of transparency in these investigations is deeply concerning, and there’s a real risk of unfairly penalizing applicants for unintentional errors.”
The Immigration Department said requests for visitor records are granted on a case-by-case basis at an officer’s discretion, and must be submitted at least 30 days before a person’s current status expires. Applications are assessed based on how long the person has already been in Canada, the purpose of extending the stay and their ability to support themselves without unauthorized work, among other factors.
Officials said visitor records can be issued repeatedly but foreign nationals holding the document are not counted in the non-permanent resident population calculation.
While a visitor record allows migrants to remain in Canada legally, Neouimina fears it’s going to promote an underclass and shadow economy, even though they remain “documented.”
“These people are vulnerable,” she said. “They’re not allowed to work. They’re vulnerable to fraudsters who promise them immigration programs that do not necessarily exist. They’re vulnerable to employers who exploit them.”
This article was first reported by The Star
