Federal Court introducing new initiative for Canadian study permits appeals amid surge in immigration cases
The Federal Court is launching a new initiative to streamline how it reviews refused study permit applications. This comes as the number of immigration cases coming before the court continues to surge for the third consecutive year, with filings expected to reach 24,000 by the end of the December — about four times the yearly average in the five years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release issued by the Federal Court on Thursday.
Currently, people challenging an immigration matter must first apply to the court for permission to reconsider the decision, which will then be reviewed and determined if reconsideration is merited.
Starting on Tuesday, Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton announced the pilot project will allow judges to rule on request to set the refusal aside and the judicial review at the same time. It will no longer require a hearing and will take only five months for a rejected applicant to get a court decision, down from as long as 18 months.
“This will be a win-win for applicants, who will save significant time and costs, and for the Court, which will save scarce judicial and registry resources,” Crampton said in a statement.
It’s not known how many of the federal court filings each year are related to study permits. However, according to government data, the number of new study permit applications the Immigration Department processed had skyrocketed to 862,431 in 2023 from 555,004 in 2021, with refusal rates hovering between 40 per cent and 45 per cent.
That was until earlier this year when Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced to cap the intake of new study permit applications in the government’s attempt to rein in the number of international students and other temporary residents in Canada.
The measures are meant to slow the country’s population growth that has been blamed for the affordable housing crunch and strained health care system.
Between January and July this year, immigration officials already processed 357,177 new study permit applications, and about half of them were refused.
A rejected applicant and the Immigration Department must both agree to opt in to the streamlined process and have no disputes over the facts to the file. The court will only consider cases that are straightforward with no concerns over admissibility or national security, and where the parties do not have to file affidavits.
Rejected study permit applicants must seek leave and judicial review of the refusal through the new process within 15 days after they receive the negative decision, while those outside the country are given 60 days. There is no additional administration fee required.
The initiative is a joint partnership between the Immigration Department and members of a Federal Court committee made up of representatives from the Justice Department and the private bar.
“The applicants and the Department of Justice would hopefully no longer be spending the resources for affidavits, a record, legal memoranda and this results in significant cost savings for the government and for students who are already paying significant international fees,” said Toronto lawyer Warda Shazadi Meighen, who is part of the working group.
“There’s a possibility for students under this pilot program to obtain the court decision in the same academic year they file their (study permit) application. This is particularly important given the valuable timing from the perspective of an academic year that the students are aiming for.”
Dupe Oluyomi-Obasi, a deputy regional director of the Justice Department, said both the student and government can opt out after consenting to the new process by bringing a motion in writing before the court to transfer the case to the regular procedure.
This article was first reported by The Star
