Doug Schmidt Sep 12, 2022 Windsor Star
It’s supposed to be an expedited process for the types of potential immigrants Canada is targeting to help address talent, skills and entrepreneurial shortfalls in the domestic economy.
“If Canada’s international education strategy is trying to bring the best and the brightest … for innovation and to boost our economy, this is going to harm us,” said Chris Busch, the University of Windsor’s associate vice-president of student enrolment who oversees its international program.
Exact figures are still not available for the current academic term, but Busch said there has been a “significant” increase in the number of accepted international students who have instead submitted “deferral requests,” indicating potential delays in gaining IRCC entry approval. Pre-pandemic, he said, there’d be a “handful” of such requests, but as of last week, that figure had shot up to about 370 in the most popular masters programs, representing about a quarter of the University of Windsor’s post-grad intake of international students.
“This is an order of magnitude higher,” said Busch, adding deferrals indicate a desire to continue those studies at a future point. But the university has heard that some of the students caught up in the IRCC logjam aren’t waiting and are instead taking their talents — and tuition and local spending money — to educational institutions in other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.
Anticipating the difficulties currently being experienced within Canada’s Student Direct Stream visa application process, both the University of Windsor and St. Clair College said they worked pro-actively to lessen the impact on their institutions and on their prospective students from abroad.
“When we started hearing about the backlogs, there was concern, definitely,” said Michael Silvaggi, St. Clair’s vice-president academic and registrar.
It sparked “a lot of discussions,” he said, but the local college avoided some of the challenges faced elsewhere by starting its application handling process up to a year or more ahead of the actual start of classes.
“Our application lead times are longer — we’re handling (student applications) up to 12 and 18 months in advance,” said Silvaggi, adding only about 25 to 30 international students have had to “pivot” this fall by taking their courses online, in general business and hospitality.
It’s a small number. St. Clair College’s Windsor and Chatham campuses host an estimated 3,000 international students (final figures aren’t known until later this month), which is about 35 per cent of total student enrolment.
The University of Windsor is also a top Canadian draw for international students, who represented about a quarter of its total intake of over 17,000 students a year ago. In graduate programs, there are two visa students over every domestic graduate student, and international students represent almost a fifth of the local university’s total enrolment.
Last year, an IRCC spokeswoman told the Star, the federal department processed almost 560,000 study permit applications, beating the previous record set in 2019 by 31 per cent. In the first seven months of this year, Remi Lariviere said in an email, 360,000 permits had been finalized compared to 306,000 during that same period in record-setting 2021.
“The average processing time for a study permit from outside Canada is 12 weeks,” she said, not including some delivery time “and the time the applicant may need to give biometrics.”
The UofW’s Busch said what had previously taken about 20 days under Canada’s Student Direct Stream fast-track program has recently been taking 16 to 20 weeks.
He said the university reached out directly to prospective overseas students in July, asking them about their visa status and intentions. That led to pro-active planning in determining such things as class sizes and program demand. The result has meant only a minor impact on course offerings and enrolment projections.
“If you’re coming from the other side of the globe, a lot of steps have to be taken,” said St. Clair’s Silvaggi.
Record numbers of international student applications on the heels of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic has been only part of the challenge for Canada’s immigration officials and staff. There has also been a flood of refugee applications from Afghans following the sudden takeover of their country a year ago by the Taliban, and there’s been a push to assist those fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in the spring and the ongoing conflict there.