Canada audit flags 150,000 foreign student visa holders for non-compliance

Audit flags weak oversight, limited checks on compliance, and lack of tracking of foreign student departures in Canada's visa system

As Canada tightens its international student intake, a new audit has raised concerns about weak oversight and gaps in tracking compliance among foreign students, including whether they leave the country after their visas expire.

 

Canada’s foreign student programme lacks integrity controls to verify ongoing visa compliance, and the government does not track whether students leave the country when their permits expire, Auditor General Karen Hogan said.

 

Hogan’s audit, released Monday, found that while the government succeeded in reducing the number of study permits issued each year, it fell short on improving the integrity of the system.

 

Canada’s international student regime has come under scrutiny in recent years following a sharp rise in permits, along with concerns that it was being used as a pathway to permanent residency. The government has since introduced a series of policy changes to restore trust and limit the size of the programme.

   

Limited investigations into non-compliance

 

The report found that about 150,000 students were flagged in 2023 and 2024 for potential non-compliance with their permit conditions. However, the Immigration Department had the capacity to investigate only around 4,000 cases.

 

Of the cases reviewed, about 41% could not be closed because the students did not respond.

 

The audit also identified 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 where applicants used fraudulent documents or misrepresented information to gain entry. No action was taken in these cases, and 92% of those individuals were later approved or were awaiting decisions on other immigration applications.

 

“While there were some adjustments made to improve the integrity of the programme, what’s concerning for me is that the department isn’t acting on the information it has,” said Karen Hogan, Auditor General of Canada, at a news conference. 

 

No system to track departures

 

The audit found that the department does not know whether students leave Canada after their permits expire.

 

Hogan’s office identified 39,500 individuals whose visas expired in 2024 and who should no longer be in the country. Of these, only 40% departures could be confirmed with the Canada Border Services Agency.

 

Post-pandemic surge and policy response

 

The number of international students in Canada rose sharply after the Covid-19 pandemic, crossing 1 million in 2023.

 

This increase led the government to introduce reforms, including annual caps on study permits and a broader plan to reduce the share of temporary residents to 5% of the population by the end of 2027.

 

However, the government has fallen short of its own targets. Just under 150,000 study permits were approved in 2024, compared with a projected 350,000. The audit attributes this decline to fewer applications and lower approval rates.

 

In a statement, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said the government accepts the auditor general’s recommendations.

 

“At the same time, this report captures only the first 18 months of a broader multi-year reform effort that runs through 2027. It reflects an early phase of implementation, not the full impact of the changes now underway,” said Lena Metlege Diab, Canada’s Immigration Minister.

 

Tens of thousands may be non-compliant

 

In October 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told a House of Commons committee that as many as 47,000 foreign students may be living in the country illegally.

 

Officials said these individuals entered Canada on study permits but may have breached visa conditions.

 

Aiesha Zafar, head of migration integrity at IRCC, told the committee that 47,175 people who came to Canada as students are considered potentially “non-compliant”, meaning they are not attending classes as required. 

 

India among countries flagged

 

During the hearing, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner asked which countries had recorded the most fraud cases.

 

“India is one of the top countries,” said Aiesha Zafar, Head of Migration Integrity at IRCC.

 

She said the data came from Canadian post-secondary institutions that reported losing contact with international students, adding that it has not been confirmed whether all of them are fully non-compliant.

 

Zafar said determining the exact number of violations remains difficult.

 

“Any foreign national in Canada would be under the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency, so they have an inland investigation team,” she said. 

 

Schools report missing students

 

Under current rules, institutions must inform IRCC if a student stops attending classes. These cases are reviewed and may be referred to the Canada Border Services Agency for enforcement.

 

However, IRCC does not have an independent system to track students who go unreported.

 

Earlier IRCC data showed that in spring 2024 alone, 50,000 students on study visas were reported as “no-shows”. Of these, 19,582 were Indian nationals, followed by 4,279 from China.