CIMM – CIMM 71.2 – Data on Students who Change their Institution of Study – November 07, 2023

IRCC’s response to a request for information made by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on June 14, 2023

Question

Mr. Tom Kmiec: Let's say that within the first 30 days after someone lands here in Canada to study, they change their college. Do you have data on how often it happens that somebody changes their college? Wouldn't that be a starting point to verify whether in fact they have a real admission letter or a fake admission letter, and then maybe contact them proactively? Do you have that data?

Ms. Christiane Fox: Yes, we would have it. If somebody submits a change of institution, then we would have that data.

Mr. Tom Kmiec: How often has it happened within 30 days after a person landed here on a study permit?

Ms. Christiane Fox: I would have to get back to you on the precise data of exactly how many times that's happened.

Mr. Tom Kmiec: If you could table that with the committee, that would be incredibly helpful.

Response

The Department is aware that international students may change institutions shortly after obtaining their study permit, or later in the course of their studies. In some cases, this might be because the student applied for a study permit based on their acceptance at one institution, and then decided to accept an offer from a different institution. A student may also choose to change schools or programs as they learn more about learning institutions in Canada and find a program for which they may be better suited. When students change institutions, they are expected to report it through their MyAccount profile. This data, however, is embedded within the student’s GCMS case file in such a way that the Department is not able to extract this data set for reporting purposes.

While a data set is not available, the Department has determined that it is not uncommon for an international student to report a change of institution, and this is more likely to occur than the use of a fraudulent admission letter. As it has been noted above, there are several legitimate reasons why it may be necessary for a student to report a change in institution and so it would not be operationally prudent to use that occurrence to trigger a closer investigation into the validity of an individual’s admission letter.