CIMM – Q-1875 – February 28, 2024

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Question No: Q-1875

By: Mr. Morrice (Kitchener Centre)

Date: October 24, 2023

Reply by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Paul Chiang, M.P.

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Minister or Parliamentary Secretary

Question

With regard to bi-annual compliance reporting required by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) since April 2015, for each Designated Learning Institution (DLI) in Canada, excluding those located in Quebec: (a) what is the total number of international students reported, broken down by DLI, bi-annual reporting period, and student status (i.e. academic break, academic suspension, authorized leave, deferred enrolment, full-time studies, no longer registered/enrolled, no show, not started, part-time studies, program/degree completed, unknown/no record); (b) has IRCC identified any non-genuine or non-compliant international students as a result of the information collected through DLI’s bi-annual compliance reporting; and (c) if the answer to (b) is affirmative, what is the total number of instances of non-genuine or non-compliant international students identified, broken down by DLI and bi-annual reporting period?

Original Text Translation: X

Reply

a) Please find in the charts below a breakdown of reported international students, broken down by bi-annual reporting period and student status, since Fall 2018. The International Student Compliance Regime was instituted in 2016. However, due to technical changes required in the system at the time, a full data set of reliable compliance reporting is not available prior to the Fall 2018 compliance reporting period. The data sets requested are available from Fall 2018 to Spring 2023 compliance reporting periods. Please note that in order to protect the personal information of individuals reported, student status cannot be broken down by Designated Learning Institution (DLI).

b) The International Student Compliance Regime (ISCR) is comprised of three components:

1. Reporting by Post-Secondary Designated Learning Institutions (excluding QC and Nunavut*)
2. Follow-up investigations of potentially non-compliant study permit holders
3. Enforcement
4. * Nunavut is excluded because it does not have learning institutions that receive international students.

As part of the 2014 regulatory changes made to International Student Program, additional requirements and conditions were tied to the program. This included creating Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) between each of the provinces and territories (excluding Quebec and Nunavut) and IRCC. The MOUs outline an agreement that provincial and territorial authorities will designate their educational institutions for the purpose of hosting international students, and that those Designated Learning Institutions (DLI) will report on the enrolment status of their international students twice a year. This would allow IRCC to identify study permit holders who may not be actively pursuing their studies – which is a condition of their study permit.

DLIs undertake these twice a year reporting exercises using the IRCC DLI portal, where they retrieve a list of valid study permit holders that are associated with their DLI in IRCC’s database. This data is a snapshot in time and does not reflect certain circumstances such as unreported school changes by the study permit holders, or expired study permit holders who are pending extension to their status. The DLI then assigns an enrolment status, to the best of their knowledge, for each of the study permit holders records that appear in their report.

IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) consider both positive and negative enrolment information from the DLI as an indication of a student’s compliance with study permit conditions. No study permit holder is considered non-compliant based solely on enrolment information submitted by DLIs. Further investigations or verification must be done to confirm non-compliance. This may occur independently as part of a random selection, during processing of a subsequent application, or by the CBSA upon re-entry into Canada or during the normal course of their operations.

Conditions — study permit holder

R220.1(1) The holder of a study permit in Canada is subject to the following conditions:

• (a) they shall enroll at a designated learning institution and remain enrolled at a designated learning institution until they complete their studies; and,
• (b) they shall actively pursue their course or program of study. Evidence of compliance with conditions
• R220.1(4) The holder of a study permit must provide evidence to an officer of their compliance with the conditions set out in subsection (1) if:
• (a) the officer requests the evidence because the officer has reason to believe that the permit holder is not complying or has not complied with one or more of the conditions; or,
• (b) the officer requests the evidence as part of a random assessment of the overall level of compliance with those conditions by permit holders who are or were subject to them.

c) IRCC cannot report on of instances of non-genuine or non-compliant international students identified as it could obstruct ongoing investigations.