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How Canada’s new visa rules could impact thousands of Indians students and workers
The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations came into effect on January 31 and the Student Direct Stream visa programme was also cancelled in 2024.
Canada's new immigration regulations can affect thousands of Indian students, workers and tourists since officials now have greater authority to cancel study and work permits under specific conditions.
The new Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations came into effect on January 31, 2025. This was paired with the cancellation of the Student Direct Stream (SDS) visa programme in late 2024.
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That programme had accelerated visa processing for students by requiring them to demonstrate money upfront, such as tuition fees and guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) for living expenses, according to CanadaVisa.com.
Due to all of this, authorise border officials can cancel temporary resident documents like electronic travel authorisations (eTAs) and temporary resident visas (TRVs).
This is an issue for many Indians since Canada is a top destination for Indian students opting to pursue their higher education abroad.
At the moment, there are about 4,27,000 Indian students studying in Canada, as per Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) data. Canada also issued 3,65,750 visitor visas to Indians between January and July 2024.
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The conditions in which visas can be cancelled are as follows:
- Providing false information, having a criminal record, or being deceased.
- An officer is somehow not convinced that the person in question won't leave Canada upon their authorised stay expiring.
- Documents are lost, stolen, destroyed, or issued because of an administrative error.
- A temporary resident becomes a permanent resident.
Students can also have their immigration papers cancelled if they are denied a work or study visa.
As a result, the newly amended rules can result in the cancellation of around 7,000 additional temporary resident visas, work permits, and study permits, according to an NDTV report.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has said that the individuals who are impacted will be informed via their IRCC account or email.
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In case a student, worker, or migrant get rejected, they will be stopped at the port of entry and sent back to their respective home country.
In cases where a permit gets cancelled while such a person is already studying, working, or residing in Canada, they will be given a notice to leave the country by a specified date.
