Ottawa: Every year thousands of students from India go to Canada for studies. This time thousands of applications for study permit are pending.
Considering high pending pendency of study permits, the Government of Canada is giving priority to those students whose studies are going to start academic session from September while the distance education option has been extended by one more year.
According to the information, more than 75,000 study permit applications submitted by the people of India were in the processing stage. These are visas obtained by Indians wishing to study in Canadian higher education institutions.
A spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said they were doing everything possible to reduce the wait time globally, so that students will get their visas soon.
IRCC is extending distance education measures till August 31, 2023. These measures were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic. International students studying online abroad or who submit study permit applications after August 31, 2022, will be able to complete 100% of their programs online.
More than 2. 30 lakh students from India are enrolled in post-secondary institutions in Canada. According to statistics, Indian students studying in Canada spend an estimated 4 billion Canadian dollars on tuition fees alone. In this sense you can estimate how much students leaving India contribute to strengthening the Canadian economy.
More than 75,000 study permits in the processing phase
As of August 15, over 75,000 study permit applications submitted by people from India were on the processing list, the spokesperson said. These are visas obtained by Indians wishing to study in a Canadian higher education institution. The balance is a backlog of processing lists.
Increase in the number of study permit applications
According to IRCC the main reason for the large list backlog is the increase in the number of study permit applications this year. In the first five months of 2022, the IRCC received around 123,500 study permit applications from Indian students. These applications are up 55 per cent in 2019 compared to the same period before the pandemic.