{"id":67531,"date":"2022-11-01T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T19:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=67531"},"modified":"2022-11-01T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T19:30:36","slug":"student-permit-delays-prevent-international-students-from-coming-to-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2022\/11\/01\/student-permit-delays-prevent-international-students-from-coming-to-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Student permit delays prevent international students from coming to Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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International Student’s Adversities<\/b>: Students walk in the SAIT campus on Sept. 27, 2022. Although the fall semester is already in full swing, thousands of students are still waiting for their student permits. (Photo by Jimmy Huang\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[dropcap]T[\/dropcap]housands of students are waiting overseas for their student permits as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) copes with large-scale backlogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentally, it can be very frustrating and demoralizing,\u201d says Okwurumeya Lcheku, a first-year SAIT international student from Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Currently, students applying for their student permit outside of Canada have to wait up to 13 weeks<\/a> for the department to process their applications. In August, there were more than 163,000 study permits still in process.<\/p>\n

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Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) | Graphic by: Jimmy Huang, Green Huang\/The Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Usually, the majority of international students apply for student permits before the start of the fall semester. Due to the backlog, the number of student permit applications skyrocketed in the first seven months of 2022.<\/p>\n

According to the latest federal government data<\/a>, more than 359,000 prospective international students applied for a permit between January and July this year.<\/p>\n

In 2019, that number was at approximately 226,000 \u2014 meaning more would-be Canadian international students are still waiting at home for permission to start their studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of student permits are still being impacted by the fact that many processing offices were closed overseas or they were only working in limited capacity,\u201d said Zuzana Ritzer, a manager at the SAIT International Centre. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely not at the processing times that we were able to see pre-COVID in 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor<\/a> is the influx of more than 100,000 Ukrainians to Canada in 2022 as they flee the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the conflict in Ukraine, IRCC is processing these permits as a priority, which can also impact the processing capacities and abilities in some countries,\u201d Ritzer said.<\/p>\n

After months of waiting for permits, international students are coping with the anxiety of an uncertain future and financial insecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat should have taken a three-month maximum processing time actually took 12 months,\u201d Lcheku said. \u201cYou plan your life, and almost one year later, your plan has been destructed because your study permit hasn\u2019t come yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A New Phase:<\/strong> Okwurumeya Lcheku, a first-year SAIT international student from Nigeria, poses outside the international student center in Stan Grad center at SAIT on Sept. 26, 2022. Lcheku’s permit was delayed for one year, and he did not arrive at SAIT until two weeks after the fall semester started. (Photo by Jimmy Huang\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Lcheku waited for his study permit, the cost of living increased in Nigeria, making it even more difficult to raise his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to save more because you\u2019re in a country where currency has really fallen as compared to the Canadian dollar,\u201d said Lcheku. \u201cSo, whatever you have saved, you need to save almost double that amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentally, it can be very frustrating and demoralizing. – Okwurumeya Lcheku<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Due to the delays in processing, the government has extended online learning measures<\/a> to allow international students to pursue their studies online from abroad while remaining eligible for a post-graduation work permit. The extension expires on Aug. 31, 2023.<\/p>\n

To manage the backlogs, the federal department is introducing a new online system to reduce wait times and hiring 1,250 new employees to increase processing capacity, according to a news release from IRCC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peter Yu, marketing manager of Hello Study, an international student agency in Taiwan, offers this advice for prospective international students: \u201cApply for your visa early.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is continuously coping with a large-scale of backlogs, staying in their hometown overseas, thousands of students are still waiting for their student permit. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":791,"featured_media":67538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Student Permit JH","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1580,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-67531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-post-secondary","9":"category-campus-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67531"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67933,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67531\/revisions\/67933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}