Canada student visa delays: India takes up issue with authorities; colleges prepare ‘contingency plans’

NEW DELHI: The Excessive Fee of India (HCI) in Ottawa has requested Canadian “authorities to expedite processing of visa functions for college kids from India”.
It has additionally highlighted the truth that “Indian college students have already deposited tuition charges”.
Whereas Canadian universities have raised this concern with the related ministry, they’ve put “in place contingency plans, to assist these incoming college students who don’t obtain their examine allow in time” when time period begins in September.
“Some establishments will present a distant choice for college kids unable to succeed in Canada initially of the time period as a result of they haven’t but acquired visa. College students can contact the college/establishments to search out out which programs have a distant choice, and to debate their choices in case some don’t,” the HCI in Ottawa stated in a current advisory.
“For college kids wishing to defer their admission, the college/establishment is speaking college students their choices together with deferring the provide of admission to a later time period or think about distinctive circumstances on a case-by-case foundation. Affected college students are inspired to ship a request for data and pressing processing by way of an IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) net kind meant for examine allow functions which have been submitted and full however have exceeded the present processing time for Pupil Direct Stream (SDS) scheme. HCI advises Indian college students so affected to contact the involved Canadian establishment/college and work with them to search out the very best out there choices . The Mission will stay engaged with Canadian authorities and with Canadian academic establishments,” the advisory provides.
The HCI in Ottawa has acquired a number of petitions from Indian college students who’ve secured admission to Canadian universities however are unable to affix as a consequence of delays in processing of their visas and scholar permits.
In the meantime, mother and father of such college students have issued a press release highlighting their plight. “This yr has been a nightmare for college kids searching for examine permits. The IRCC web site states (these) who apply by way of the SDS route (scholar direct route) from sure nations (accepted by Canada) to get quicker approval of examine permits, in about 20 days. India is an accepted nation for this scheme and therefore numerous college students choose to use by way of this route, which requires them to pay the first-year tuition charges upfront, to ensure that them to get expedited approvals,” the mother and father’ assertion says.
“Presently there are practically 500 distinctive scholar examine permits with good educational profiles, admitted to prime Canadian universities pending, most of whom have utilized by way of the SDS route over 2-3 months nonetheless awaiting their examine permits. (They) had choices in different nations and selected Canada (however) are being subjected to the identical class as the remaining…. The irony right here being many college students who selected to not pay the first-year tuition upfront and opted for the common route, obtained permits in 2-3 weeks… Requests to Universities to conduct on-line lessons till these college students get their permits and may arrive on the campus haven’t been met with to this point,” the affected college students’ and their mother and father’ assertion says.
The HCI in Ottawa says Canada has lately emerged as a most popular vacation spot for Indian college students for faculty schooling. “Presently, greater than 2.3 lakh college students from India enrolled in post-secondary establishments in Canada. (They) are making a constructive contribution to the Canadian economic system together with by way of an estimated $4 billion in tuition charges…. proceed to be engaged with related Canadian interlocutors together with Canadian educational establishments and universities relating to issues confronted by Indian college students as a consequence of delay in difficulty of visas,” the HCI says.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Excessive Fee in India had just lately informed TOI: “Canada has seen a spike within the variety of examine allow functions this yr. Within the first 5 months of 2022, IRCC acquired about 123,500 examine allow functions from Indian residents or 55% greater than throughout the identical interval in 2019, earlier than the pandemic. Between January and Could 2022, IRCC processed 221,522 examine allow functions. Out of these functions, about 50% of these had been from Indian worldwide college students. This compares to 128,021 processed throughout the identical interval in 2019, earlier than the pandemic. This represents a 73% improve in processing of examine permits to this point in 2022 in comparison with the identical time interval in 2019.”
“IRCC is dedicated to processing examine allow functions as rapidly as doable to make sure college students could make it on time for the autumn semester. The summer season interval is usually the time of yr that IRCC processes probably the most examine allow functions,” the Canadian mission assertion had added.