Auditor General Karen Hogan says there are critical weaknesses in the integrity controls for the International Student Program.
An audit of the program being published today says about 150,000 cases in 2023 and 2024 were flagged because the student visa holders may not have complied with the terms of their study permits.
The report says only about 4,000 investigations were launched, and of those 1,600 were marked as inconclusive after the student in question did not respond to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Department officials told the auditor they only have the budget to conduct 2,000 of these investigations annually.
The department also did not follow up on 800 cases of applicants for approved study permit applications using bogus documents or misrepresented information on their applications between 2018 and 2023, the auditor found.
The audit says almost all of these visa holders applied for some other kind of immigration status to stay in Canada and 456 received approvals.
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