For IENs regarding Canadian Student Visas

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

The Canadian government is planning some significant changes to regulation of student visas in an effort to reduce fraud and human smuggling. There is some concern that people are obtaining student visas simply as a means to access the Canadian labour market who never actually enrol in any kind of school, or who are enrolled at non-accredited institutions. (Dare I say the Toronto School of Health?) Others, mostly young women, are granted student visas through a third party and then are instead forced into the sex trade.

The main feature of the proposed changes is the development of a list of accredited post-secondary institutions in each province and those not on the list will not be permitted to accept international students. There will be close scrutiny of each of the accredited facilities on the list and compliance on the part of both the school and the student with be strictly monitored.

Another change is that student visas will not be available for courses that are less than 6 months long. There will also be restrictions on student work permits.

For full details please see:

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=9f91ede0-a001-4a4f-8b22-1ba815f82e4d

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/07/31/ottawa-tackles-fraudulent-use-of-canadian-student-visas/

http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2012/2012-06-30/html/notice-avis-eng.html