Indians Violate Visa Norms The Most: Canada Minister
The assistant deputy minister further explained that these students have been identified as potentially non-compliant based on information provided by schools and universities, and the authorities have not yet determined whether they are fully non-compliant.
Hyderabad: Officials from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) have stated that India tops the list of foreign students potentially violating their visa terms and living in Canada illegally.
Addressing questions raised by members of Parliament at a House of Commons Committee, assistant deputy minister of migration integrity, Aiesha Zafar, said that around 47,175 students have been found potentially non-compliant with visa terms and are living in Canada illegally.
“Out of the total students we asked for compliance information, eight per cent of them are potentially non-compliant. In terms of the total number of students, we did ask for compliance, which results in potentially 47,175 students,” she said.
The students deemed non-compliant are those who, despite being granted student visas, are either not attending classes, working illegally outside the permitted hours or without authorisation, have expired or invalid documents, or have failed to report changes in their status, such as dropping out or transferring schools.
The assistant deputy minister further explained that these students have been identified as potentially non-compliant based on information provided by schools and universities, and the authorities have not yet determined whether they are fully non-compliant.
Responding to a question of Canadian MP Michelle Rempel Garner about the whereabouts of these potentially non-compliant students and whether authorities can locate them, Aiesha Zafar said, “Any foreign national in Canada would be under the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency.”
When asked about the predominant countries from which IRCC has identified student visa fraud, Zafar said that India is among the top countries from which potentially non-compliant students originate.
Data from the government of Canada shows that 1,88,255 Indian students went to Canada in 2024 on study permits, and between January and July 2025, 52,765 Indian students received study permits.
India outpaced China’s 56,260 study permit holders by a factor of three. The next five top source countries — China, Nigeria, the Philippines, France, and Iran — together still fall short of India’s total.