Canada visa: Processing delay may force 15% of students to defer admission

Thanks to unprecedented rise in applications processing time has increased from four weeks earlier to 12 weeks now

Given the last-minute rush of applications and delay in visa approvals, around 10-15 per cent Indian students may defer their admissions to the January 2023 semester.

This is because an unprecedented rise in student visa applications to Canada has led to an increase in processing time from an average of four weeks to 12 weeks. With most colleges requiring international students to be present on campuses by the first or second week of September for orientation programmes, chances are that many might miss the deadline this year, say education experts.

“Not only were the board exam results declared a bit late by June-July, but many students did not apply for visas immediately. Those who applied till June 30 have mostly gotten their visa, but those who did so after that might have to defer to January 2023 semester intake. We believe at least 10-15 per cent students may have to begin their programmes in Canada in January,” said Adarsh Khandelwal, co-founder and director of Collegify.

In fact, in an emailed response to Business Standard earlier, the Consulate General of Canada had confirmed that there had been a spike in the number of study permit applications this year. “In the first five months of 2022, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) received about 123,500 study permit applications from Indian residents or 55 per cent more than during the same period in 2019,” it had stated.

According to another overseas education consulting firm, ESS Global, more than 50 per cent of students who applied for visas in the July window are expected to defer to the January intake due to late approvals.

“Earlier, the processing time used to be four weeks. It has now increased by three times. Typically, visa applications for September intake should happen in April-May, but this year it began in June-July, with many applying as late as August,” said Rohit Sethi, director of ESS Global.

Those looking to study in Canada apply for visas either through Student Direct Stream (SDS) or the general category. In the SDS, applicants have to not only meet all admission criteria, including providing board exam results and past academic record, but also pay full tuition fees in advance and carry an IELTS score of minimum seven band. It is this category that has seen a delay as board exam results were declared later this year.

On the other hand, there has been an unprecedented rise in applications in the general category, which does not carry any SDS-like requirements, leading to a higher rate of rejection and increased workload for the Canadian High Commission.

As a result, the Canadian High Commission recently advised students still waiting on visa applications to contact their respective colleges to discuss options in case they are unable to arrive in time for the start of session.

“We know that a large number of you have experienced significant wait times with your applications. We understand many have not received visa decisions and have had to adjust travel plans, despite having applied several weeks or months in advance... The current processing time for study permit applications globally (including Student Direct Stream) is 12 weeks. While processing times in India have been higher in 2022, we are making every effort to reduce wait times in our services globally,” the high commission tweeted.

Consultants like Khandelwal and Sethi said the another reason for the long processing time is that unlike the US and the UK, which have prioritised student visas, Canada has continued to equally process immigration, tourist, and business visas as well.

For instance, the Consulate General of Canada told Business Standard that the IRCC department of the government had approved over 59,700 study permits between January and May. Over that period, the IRCC also approved over 104,000 temporary resident visa applications and over 23,800 permanent resident applications of Indian residents.

Semester break

1. At least 10-15% of Indian students may have to defer to January 2023 intake
2. Normally visa applications for September intake happen in April-May
3. Due in application to delay in declaring board exam results, applications began only in June-July this year
4. Between January-May 2022, 59,700 study permits were approved, a rise of 55% compared with 2019