Canada criticized in audit over handling of international student fraud

A government audit found that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) "fell short on improving integrity" and reforming the international student program. In a report released on Monday, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada revealed that despite the immigration department's implementation of a tool to verify the authenticity of school acceptance letters, it still "found weaknesses" in how the IRCC responded to suspected cases of study permit non-compliance and immigration fraud. According to Auditor General Karen Hogan, the IRCC's new letter-of-acceptance verification system successfully verified 97 per cent of over 841,000 letters between December 2023 and September 2025. The remaining three per cent were processed manually. However, she found that the department did not effectively investigate students already in Canada who were flagged with potential non-compliance with the terms of their study permits. The IRCC identified over 153,000 students as potentially not complying with study permit conditions between 2023 and 2024, but only had funding to investigate 2,000 cases each year, according to the report. The audit also found that the department launched 4,057 investigations into potentially non-compliant students. Approximately 40 per cent of cases (over 1,600 students) were not closed because students did not respond. In three investigations, the IRCC identified 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 in which international student applicants had either used fraudulent documentation or misrepresented information on their application to be able to enter Canada. According to the audit, the department did not follow up on these individuals, many of whom later applied for other immigration permits while in Canada, and more than half were approved. "Addressing these issues promptly is important to make sure only genuine students are arriving in or remaining in Canada," reads the report. The audit did acknowledge that the IRCC successfully reduced the number of new study permits following a cap on international student applications announced by the federal government in January 2024. However, it found that the combined effect of fewer applications and lower-than-projected approval rates "led to a sharper decline than forecasted." This was seen in a 59 per cent or greater decrease in international student permit approvals in 2024 in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, despite these provinces expecting to see increases of 10 per cent. In response, the audit recommends that the IRCC collaborate with provinces to tailor its analysis for determining annual study permit allocations for each province. When it comes to possible non-compliance and immigration fraud, the auditor general advises the department to determine how and when it will use mechanisms available to respond to cases involving fraudulent documentation after permits are approved. "[The IRCC] should strengthen its controls for study permit extensions by reviewing and adjusting its risk assessment for applicants originally approved under the Student Direct Stream," the report concluded. Canada continues to tighten up on international student arrivals , resulting in a decline of 74 per cent in the past two years, according to the latest data . For more details, read the auditor general's findings .

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