Rise In International Students Given Poor Immigration Advice By Colleges & Legal Advisors

We do want to point out before digging into this story that we do not think that all asylum claims being submitted by students are fraudulent, nor do we think the bulk of the institutional advice is bad. It’s very possible that students who would have legitimate claims to be refugees in past years were eligible to apply through other pathways, and chose to do so. In other words, the past figures were likely artificially deflated due to the relatively open immigration policy for students.

What we want to achieve is to comment on a trend and provide takeaways for international students who may receive advice to apply for asylum – and the unintended consequences this may cause if your claim is found to not be legitimate or to warrant refugee status.

Key Takeaways

• The number of international students applying for asylum has increased significantly in 2024, according to IRCC data obtained by The Globe and Mail.
• Immigration Minister Marc Miller has penned an open letter to the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants asking them to remind consultants of their obligations to not misrepresent facts in the context of asylum claims.

Background: Are International Students To Blame For Rising Asylum Claims?

We think there is a confluence of factors that have led to the rise in the number of international students applying for asylum, namely:

1. Changing policies leading to students who are legitimately refugees who would have otherwise applied through immigration pathways that were previously open to them, but have now closed.
2. Bad actors at educational institutions.
3. Bad actors in the legal industry who hope to gain financially from international students looking to stay in Canada.

That being said, the international students submitting unfounded claims for asylum do play a role. If you receive advice to apply for asylum to stay in Canada, you should very carefully consider your options. Applying for asylum isn’t easy – nor is it guaranteed that your claim will succeed. And the road to receiving asylum is long. It’s usually best to apply through any other available pathway, if you have the option. And only ever submit a claim for asylum if it is legitimate. If it is found not to be, you may face even more challenges to become a permanent resident in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

Which Educational Institutions Are Seeing Higher Levels of Asylum Claims?

Globe and Mail lists the following learning institutions as being the top ten sources for asylum claims made by international students in 2024:

1. Conestoga College
2. Seneca College
3. Niagara College
4. Cape Breton University
5. University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
6. CIMT College
7. Centennial College
8. College Ellis Campus Trois Rivieres
9. Laval University
10. Canadian Career Education College.

Meanwhile, an article by Policy Options listed the following learning institutions with asylum rates above 30% amongst international students:

• Canadian Technology College Inc (no longer a designated institution)
• Innovations in Business Solutions Inc (no longer a designated institution)
• Trebas Institution Ontario Inc
• Maple Leaf Academy
• DEA Canadian College
• Canadian Technical and Management College (no longer a designated institution)
• College INSA
• York College of Applied Studies
• CCEC Canadian Career Education College Ltd
• CIMT College.

The percentage total of study permit holders who applied for asylum ran as high as 71% at Canadian Technology College Inc, according to the reporting from Policy Options.

Why Is Claiming Asylum Not The Right Route (If Unfounded)?

To start, there is a significant backlog of asylum applications – which means you’ll likely need to stay in Canada on uncertain status for a long period of time. As of September 2024, there are almost a quarter of a million applications listed as ‘pending’ by the Immigration and Refugees Board of Canada.

In addition to an unfounded claim causing excessive administrative burden on an already strained system, any asylum claimant that is found to have misrepresented any element of their application will be rejected and may not be able to apply under any other available immigration program for 5 years. This means that if economic conditions and public opinion change in Canada and another program like the TR-to-PR pathway opened, asylum claimants may not be able to apply for the public policy pathways.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller has recently hinted that there are significant changes coming to the way asylum applications will be handled in Canada, with some speculation that refusals for unfounded claims will be much faster in the future, adding more reason to rethink making an unfounded claim.