More than 47,000 foreign students, representing 8% of the total international students in Canada, may have breached the terms of their visa and are currently in the country illegally.
Aiesha Zafar, Assistant Deputy Minister, Migration Integrity at IRCC, stated that 47,175 people who entered Canada as students are potentially “non-compliant,” which means they are not attending classes as required by their visa.
Zafar stated, “8% of the students that we asked for compliance information from were potentially non-compliant. We have not yet determined whether or not they are fully non-compliant. These are initial results that the institutions provide to us.”
Aiesha Zafar of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on September 23.
Zafar was responding to questions from Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, who challenged IRCC officials on how they would be able to “track and remove” students who violated their visa conditions.
Garner also gave a verbal notice of motion, and issued a summon for Dr. John Tibbetts, president of Conestoga College, to appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration by himself for no less than one hour to give testimony further to the committee study on Canada’s international student program and study permits at a date and time to be fixed by the chair of the committee, but no later than three weeks following the adoption of this motion.
“Conestoga College has had numerous stories about abuse of foreign students. Essentially, all of the media stories I’ve heard is that under his leadership, Conestoga College has expanded profit but forced students out into food banks, has created a massive housing crisis in the region,” said Garner.
Zafar stated that the 47,175 figure is based on Canadian post-secondary institutions reporting that they have lost track of a foreign student.
She also stated that it would be “challenging” to determine how many overseas students are formally in violation of their visa requirements.
She stated that locating and removing non-compliant visa holders was the job of the Canada Border Services Agency. “Any foreign national in Canada would be under the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency, so they have an inland investigation team. We do share data with CBSA, but you don’t know where they are, if they’re compliant?” said Zafar.
The 8% of foreign student population is potentially non-compliant, meaning that the university or the post-secondary institution, the DLI, has reported back that they don’t have information that these individuals are currently registered.
India Students Data
Nearly 50,000 international students who were given study visas to enter Canada in March and April of 2024 were reported as “no-shows” at the schools and institutions where they were supposed to be enrolled, according to official records from the Canadian government.
Nearly 20,000 Indian students, or 5.4% of all Indian students monitored by the IRCC, were among the total no-shows. They were alleged to have violated their student visas and failed to show up at the schools where they were supposed to be studying.
Universities and colleges are required by the immigration department to provide reports twice a year regarding the enrollment and attendance of overseas students in accordance with their study permits.
Canada’s Temporary Population
The 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan aims to reduce Canada’s temporary population to fewer than 5%. Total arrivals, including international students and foreign workers, fell by about 57% in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.
In the first half of 2025, the number of new international students arriving in Canada declined by 214,520 compared to the same time in 2024.
This represents a more than 70% decrease in the number of international students and a 50% decrease in foreign work permits.
In 2025, the rejection rate for Indian students seeking Canadian study permits was 80%, making them the most impacted international student demography.
Indians in Canada
In 2022, India was Canada’s top source country for permanent residents, accounting for 27% of admissions. It was also the top source country for temporary foreign workers (22%) and international students (45%).
India is Canada’s largest source country for most immigration categories, including 392,810 study permit holders with Indian citizenship in Canada in 2024. As of the 2021 federal census, there are more than 1.8 million Canadians of Indian origin, out of total population of approximately 37 million. The next census is scheduled for 2026.