CIMM – Proactive Efforts – October 24, 2023

Key Facts And Figures

• In the Spring of 2023, 661 out of 709 DLIs (93%) answered IRCC’s request to report on the enrolment status of 558,197 international students. Of those, 33,266 (6%) were reported on as potentially non-compliant and possibly not actively pursuing their studies in Canada.

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Key Messages

• IRCC has various methods to enforce program integrity and is continuously seeking to improve the integrity of its programs through new initiatives.
• The international student compliance regime (ISCR) is designed to uncover potential fraud, fraud trends, international student movement, non bona fide students and questionable institutions. Data collected gives IRCC insight into whether or not international students are compliant with their study permit conditions, to actively pursue their studies.
• Currently, the department conducts ad-hoc LOA verifications on applications referred for verification where there is suspected fraud identified by the processing officer. Therefore, only a small portion of the overall volume of study permit applications currently have LOA verifications completed on them.
• To enhance the LOA verification process, and mitigate fraud at the front end the department is developing a Letter Of Acceptance (LOA) verification tool which will require post-secondary DLIs to verify the authenticity all LOAs submitted for their DLI before study permits are assessed. IRCC will implement a LOA verification solution in December 2023 for all post-secondary Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs).
• The Department also uses tools to identify risk patterns in live caseloads. These tools use advanced analytics along with large amount of historical data to generate historically adverse patterns and identify potentially high risk applications. The Department launched the Integrity Trend Analysis Tool (ITAT) for broad use, beginning with the study permit caseload in January 2023.

Supplementary Information

Fraud Detection:

• The Department continues to explore and develop ways to enhance fraud detection to enhance integrity in the international student program as well as identify potentially non-genuine students attempting to enter Canada or that are currently in Canada.
• IRCC provides information and resources on its web site to help prospective applicants abroad avoid becoming a victim of fraud. IRCC also launches targeted campaigns when they are warranted, such as the 2023 advertising campaign launched in India to raise awareness among prospective applicants of recent fraud trends.
• IRCC has several layers of verification to identify fraudulent products and integrity trends, including case-by-case LOA verification when required. Currently, IRCC determines whether LOA fraud has occurred by manually conferring with DLIs. If a processing officer has concerns about the LOA’s authenticity, they email the DLI to confirm the student’s acceptance. Once the DLI responds, the officer continues processing the application. Looking ahead, an interactive e-portal will allow for a smoother exchange of information from DLIs to IRCC.
• The Integrity Trends Analysis Tool (ITAT) is a data mining tool that leverages advanced analytics techniques to support efficient and effective processing by surfacing risk patterns for investigation by the Risk Assessments unit. By reviewing risk through a strategy lens, the quality of investigation outcomes will serve to further enhance IRCCs fraud detection and enforcement actions.

International Student Compliance Regime:

• In 2014, IRCC implemented an international student compliance regime (ISCR) as an integrity tool to identify potentially non-genuine students and to gather additional data and trends on international students in Canada.
• Provinces and territories have the sole authority to designate and de-designate learning institutions to host international students in Canada.
• The International Student Compliance Regime [ISCR] has three key components:
  • DLI compliance reporting--DLIs self-report the enrollment status of study permit (SP) holders;
  • Investigations of study permit holders reported on by their DLI as potentially non-compliant; and
  • Enforcement action on SP holders found to be non-compliant.
• Data is integral to monitoring the success of the international student program and helps us ensure students are actively pursuing their studies and shares aggregate data with PTs responsible for the designation and de-designation of learning institutions.
• Individuals confirmed through investigation to be non-compliant may to be referred to the Canada Border Services Agency for enforcement action.
• IRCC is undertaking compliance investigations for the first time since 2019 on over 2k SP holders during the next 12 months.

International Student Program Re-design

• The Department is undertaking a review of the program to examine how we can better attract and retain students who can help Canada meet its economic, social and cultural goals, while helping ensure that international students are well supported while in Canada.

• This includes meeting our broad immigration objectives, while also working closely with provinces and territories and national educational institutions to address the ongoing challenges, including international student fraud.