- Auditor General Karen Hogan identified serious compliance and enforcement gaps in Canada’s international student program despite recent caps.
- Designated learning institutions flagged over 153,000 potential non-compliance cases, yet only 4,000 were actually investigated.
- The Canadian government aims to reduce the temporary population below five percent of the total population by late 2027.
Auditor General Karen Hogan pressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on July 13, 2026, with an audit that said the International Student Program still had serious compliance and enforcement gaps despite study permit caps. The cuts did not clean up the system.
The report said the department had added a new tool to verify acceptance letters, but risks that surfaced were not chased down. That left a lot on the table.
Designated learning institutions flagged more than 153,000 possible cases of non-compliance in 2023 and 2024, yet the department looked at only about 4,000 of them. The numbers moved faster than the response.
Free toolCanada Express Entry Points CalculatorIRCC had room in its budget for about 2,000 investigations a year, far below the volume of alerts. The audit also said 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 involved fraudulent documents or misrepresented information, and most of those people later applied for other immigration permits once in Canada.
The enforcement problem did not stop at the school gate. In 2024, only 40% of the 39,500 international students required to leave Canada actually departed. The rest stayed.
The department also issued fewer than 150,000 new study permits in 2024, well below the 350,000 it had projected, after lower approval rates and the cap policy slowed the flow. Minister Lena Metlege Diab said on March 23, 2026 that the government accepted the recommendations and aimed to bring the temporary population below 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027. The clock is running.
The March report had already traced the fraud
The March audit had already pointed to permits that should have triggered follow-up. It was a warning.
"The department identified 800 study permits issued between 2018 and 2023 for which applicants had either used fraudulent documentation or misrepresented information. Most of these individuals later applied for other immigration permits once in Canada."
That finding mattered because it linked bad documents to later immigration steps. Some files then moved into work permits or permanent residency, and the department said it would review those legacy cases. Old cases still matter.
Random checks are already under way
As of June 2026, IRCC was running random compliance audits on current students. A missed request can shut a file quickly.
The department said failure to answer information requests could lead to immediate closure of a student’s file and potential removal. The pressure sits on students now.
Diab’s March statement set out the political aim in plain terms:
"We accept the Auditor General’s recommendations to strengthen follow-up where suspected fraud or non-compliance is identified. Canada’s new government is taking back control of our immigration system and reducing the temporary population to below 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027."
The deadline is the end of 2027.
