Watch out for the fall out !

Zillions of posts have been made on different media about the various policy announcements made by the Government of Canada in the past 13 months! That's a long enough period to start seeing the impact of these new policies. A lot has been said about the huge financial impact it has had on the public institutions as collateral damage, while reducing the number of International students by 40% and then another 10 percent each in 2025 and 2026 (one hears that the actual loss may be more). One hears of a couple of campuses being shut down, Job losses across the sector could be BIG, travel budgets have been cut, many programs may have been unaffordable to run and closed, while identified programs are hurriedly being tweaked to align with the CIP codes for PGWP to make them available for International students.

What is NOT being talked about is what's happening on ground zero (in India)!

Since the Canadian government made the SDS visa process redundant, a parallel economy has begun flourishing: the economy of 'jugaad' (an online dictionary calls it a flexible approach to problem-solving that uses limited resources in an innovative way)!

Here's the concern: The limited resource here is of course FUNDS, and from agents to bank managers, they are busy churning out genuine bank statements of fake customers (with same or similar names), for a hefty fee! And the bank may verify the statement as genuine because it is genuine, only the money is NOT available to the student as the relationship to the account holder is fake!

Does the visa officer or the education provider have the time and resources to verify from the account holder if he is indeed sponsoring the student ?

Instagram posts scream " Study in Canada for FREE; No Tuition fees to be paid, No GIC deposit" Basically it means - Enter Canada for free, as you are not investing in anything except your flight ticket cost, and you don't need to apply for any refunds!

This seems very attractive to many unsuspecting students who think that's the legitimate way to enter Canada! The concerned agencies may not really care for commissions and usually are known to charge a package fee in several lakhs for doing all the administrative work related to this entire exercise. So, even if a visa is refused, they have made their "killing"?

In conclusion: Though many ethical agencies, like us, advice students to demonstrate financial capabilities and commitment to study? in Canada by? payment of tuition fee and living expenses through GIC etc despite the requirement being removed recently by IRCC, ?there is a parallel industry wrongly advising to ‘Enter Canada’ as a student without investing 'large sums of money in tuition? fee and GIC' and on entering, one is free to either go underground or seek asylum, or get smuggled into other countries!

?We do hope IRCC and other stakeholders take cognisance of this loophole, and bring in the requirement of full year tuition fee and GIC payments by international students atleast before they are issued study permits at the port of entry. After all, they are in Canada to study?