International Students Postpone Coming to Canada Till January 2022

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"According to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), international students are having to postpone their travel to Canada and study online after not receiving their Study Permits on time."

Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on: Nov 3, 2021

According to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), international students are having to postpone their travel to Canada and study online after not receiving their Study Permits on time. Earlier this year, the IRCC had informed international students to submit their completed applications by May 15, 2021, to ensure the processing of their Study Permit applications by August 6, 2021.

What International Students Are Doing When Their Canadian Study Permit Application Is Still Under Process?

Some students who submitted their applications by the set deadline have not received a response due to incomplete applications and other reasons. However, due to this, some of these students have decided to postpone their study programs to January 2022. Many are studying online due to their inability to reach Canada.

Canadian universities are taking all the steps to offer support to these students who are expected to arrive in Canada in the next couple of months. Around 500 students have already started their study programs online and are expected to travel to Canada in the coming months. In the last 2-3 months, only 730 international students have arrived in Canada. These students include freshers and also upper-semester students.

Why Was the Processing of Study Permits Delayed in 2020?

The processing of study permit applications was delayed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic created a huge problem for the IRCC, Canadian universities, and international students. Due to the Covid-19 related travel and social restrictions, the IRCC was operating at partial capacity during 2020. The Canadian government had to implement a ban on direct flights from India, the top source country for international students to avoid the risk of spreading the Delta Variant in Canada. This also created a lot of hurdles for international students wanting to travel to Canada to start their study programs.

How Is the IRCC Managing Study Permit Applications?

The IRCC received more study permit applications in 2021 compared to 2020. As of August 2021, the IRCC received over 370,000 study permit applications compared to only 100,000 in the same period in 2020.

Between May 15 and August 6, 2021, the IRCC had committed to processing nearly 29,000 Study Permit applications. Out of these, only 80 applications were not processed by August 6. These applications were not processed due to incomplete information or documentation and not because of any error in the IRCC’s processing. These applications can not be processed until the applicants complete submitting their biometric information, medical examination result, police certificates, and other missing documents.