Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has revealed that it has identified more than 10,000 fraudulent student acceptance letters, raising alarms about the integrity of Canada’s international student admission process.
The IRCC uncovered the fraud after implementing stricter verification measures to combat the growing problem of fake acceptance letters, which had been discovered in previous years.
According to Bronwyn May, the Director-General of the International Students Branch at IRCC, these enhanced procedures were part of a comprehensive review of 500,000 student applications conducted over the past year.
Of the applications reviewed, 93% were confirmed to be legitimate, while 2% were found to contain fraudulent documents, and 1% were tied to canceled admissions.
In many cases, universities and colleges had failed to properly verify the authenticity of acceptance letters before admitting students.
The crackdown on fraudulent letters followed incidents in 2023 when international students faced the risk of deportation after receiving fake acceptance letters from an unlicensed consultant in India.
This prompted the Canadian government to introduce a new mandatory system requiring educational institutions to verify acceptance letters through an official online portal.
This verification process now applies to all applicants, both within and outside of Canada.
Jenny Kwan, the immigration critic for Canada’s New Democratic Party, described the situation as “extremely alarming” and urged the government to address both the fraudulent activities and the possible involvement of educational institutions.
Kwan emphasized that Canada has a duty to protect international students who have been duped and cautioned that the country’s reputation as a top destination for international education could be jeopardized if these issues are not addressed promptly.
International students play a vital role in Canada’s economy, not only through the substantial tuition fees they pay but also by contributing to job creation and fostering cultural exchange.
