International students yet to receive study permits from Canada with just two weeks before classes commence
Zhangxuezi Chen started planning for her postgraduate study abroad in 2021, researching schools in Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe.
Last November, Chen, who is from China, applied to OCAD University, Sheridan College and George Brown College, as well as the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in B.C. By March, she got accepted to all.
But with classes starting in two weeks, the 28-year-old from Hangzhou is panicking because she still doesn’t have the student visa to come to Canada.
“I’m super worried,” said Chen, who has an undergraduate degree in design from the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and works as a designer for an IT firm in Hong Kong. “If I have to defer my study, it will be another year. I will be wasting another year.”
Following changes announced by the federal government in January to rein in the number of international students, there has been an overall increase in student visa backlogs and processing times due to the confusion over how study permit quotas would be allocated and the lack of infrastructure for provinces to issue the newly required attestation letter for applicants.
The wait times to get a decision for international applicants shot up from nine weeks in January to a peak of 15 weeks in May; processing times for those applying from inside Canada went from four weeks to 14 weeks in June and now 11 weeks, according to data from ApplyBoard, an online marketplace for learning institutions and international students.
The Immigration Department has stopped publishing the overall outside Canada wait times in favour of providing the information based on the country where an application is processed. Currently, the estimated processing time for China is eight weeks.
“Processing times bottlenecked in May and June,” said ApplyBoard CEO Meti Basiri. “We understand why students might be anxious and panicking about their applications still being in the queue, especially if they look at today’s expected processing times and think, “Well I submitted 13 weeks ago and it’s saying it should be eight weeks.”
Chen’s application is almost four weeks overdue.
“I have submitted six web forms to check on the status of my application, but only received an autoreply,” noted Chen, who is part of a group of about 100 Chinese students facing similar delays, the majority of them applicants based in China. “We are treated like we don’t matter.”
Immigration lawyer Will Tao said delays in study permit processing have been a top inquiry for his practice in the last six months and it appears to particularly affect those from countries such as China, Iran and Russia where national security, foreign interference and geopolitical tension have become a concern.
He said applications are triaged into routine cases that have automated positive eligibility determinations and those that require manual assessments. When a case is referred to enhanced security screening, the applicant often is not notified until they receive a “procedural fairness letter” from officials to address concerns flagged.
“We don’t know exactly how that net is cast, but it seems quite wide from what we’re seeing,” said Tao, adding immigration officials rely on the border agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP for these screenings, which causes delays. “I feel like there’s a co-ordinated effort not to make decisions on these cases.”
Applicants could go before the court for an order to compel immigration officials to make a decision quicker, but that takes time and money, he said. His advice for prospective students is to balance those risks before applying and have a backup plan, whether it’s to defer their study plan or go to a different country.
Ying Chang, who is based in Vancouver and has been waiting for her study permit since March, has already deferred her admission to North Island College earlier this month, hoping that the permit will come through before the registration deadline for her other school, Capilano University, at the end of August.
The 41-year-old came here last year from Beijing with her daughter, who attends a middle school in Canada as an international student. Not authorized to work, Chang would like to further her own education.
What frustrates her most is seeing other people, also from China and sharing similar circumstances, who applied for study permits from within Canada after she did but have already been approved.
Chang, who has an undergrad degree in economics and international trades, said she doesn’t want to continue to stay home while her child is in school, and may consider returning to her husband and family in China if she can’t get her study permit.
She has already paid her daughter’s tuition fee — $17,800 — for the new school year as well as deposits to both the schools she herself had been accepted to. She would need to make arrangements about the lease of her rental home and sell her brand new SUV.
“It’s not as easy as just to pack and go home,” said Chang, who worked in accounting in China, but is interested in studying to be an early childhood educator in Canada. “We would appreciate clearer standards from Immigration.”
After waiting for a study permit since May, Yishuang Zhao was thrilled to be notified on Aug. 12 that his application has been approved and he could mail in his passport to the Canadian embassy in Beijing for the stamp. But that process is still going to to take 10 to 14 business days, which means he will need to reschedule his Aug. 21 flight.
“I am going to miss the summer camp and orientation for new (international) students,” said the 16-year-old from Qingdao, who will be travelling by himself and start Grade 11 at Michael Power – St. Joseph High School, a Catholic public school in Toronto, on Sept. 3.
“I can only arrange for my homestay when I have my student visa. Hopefully, it’s not too late (to find a place).”
This article was first reported by The Star
