{"id":126156,"date":"2023-08-30T11:18:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/chinese-international-students-report-long-security-screening-times-for-canada-study-permits\/"},"modified":"2023-08-30T11:22:08","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T15:22:08","slug":"chinese-international-students-report-long-security-screening-times-for-canada-study-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/immigration.ca\/fr\/chinese-international-students-report-long-security-screening-times-for-canada-study-permits\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese International Students Report Long Security Screening Times for Canada Study Permits\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several international students<\/span><\/a> from China are expressing apprehension about their Canada study permit<\/span><\/a> applications being stuck in prolonged security screenings.<\/p>\n

This has caused students to be in waiting \u2013 often for months \u2013 after being admitted to Canadian universities, the CBC has reported. The situation is especially frustrating for them as the fall term is close to starting for most schools.<\/p>\n

Yunze Lu, who is a master\u2019s in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Ottawa, detailed his precarious situation.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0I have a very simple and clear background. It’s OK to be checked, but I don’t think it needs to be checked for so long.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0It makes me feel they are doing nothing but just don’t care about my application, just throw it away.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

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Lu has completed a year of online coursework and has successfully applied to the school\u2019s co-op program.<\/p>\n

However, his application to come to Canada is still under review \u2013 a fact he was unaware of until he filed an access to information request to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) recently.<\/p>\n

Xinli Guo is another international Chinese applicant sharing Lu\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

He has been waiting for months to accept an offer from the University of Ottawa\u2019s master\u2019s in systems engineering program, and recently expressed his thoughts on the matter to CBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is unfair to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0I don’t think I deserve a security check because I don’t have anything related with Canadians’ national security. I’m just a normal student going to study engineering courses in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guo tracked his file to resolve an issue with a financial document, following which he learned that he had been placed under security review in May.<\/p>\n

He is worried about losing his admission offer and missing the chance to apply to study abroad.<\/p>\n

Study Permits \u2018Assessed Equally\u2019<\/h3>\n

While Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has responded by saying that all study permit applications are \u201cassessed equally and against the same criteria, regardless of country of origin,\u201d Vancouver-based immigration attorney Will Tao posits the worsening geopolitical situation between China and Canada contributing \u2013 in combination with increasing use of algorithms \u2013 to a rise in the delay of certain files.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrad students working in the computer science\/tech space, and especially folks with government experience or with parents that are in the government, those are the ones that are being flagged in our experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very, very problematic how this has become almost a predictive analysis exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

IRCC instead asserts that the delay is caused by the large number<\/span><\/a> of Chinese study permit applications the department receives, and security screening is one of many factors resulting in prolonged processing times.<\/p>\n

Since January 2021, 181,000 study permit applications have been received from China, of which 1,832 have not been processed.<\/p>\n

Applications, according to IRCC, are processed on a case-by-case basis depending on their complexity, responses for additional information, and the ease of verifying the application\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

Tao, however, argues that international diplomacy plays a role in application processing times. Iran, for example, is another country which he brings up to illustrate the role of fraught geopolitical relations in security screening delays.<\/p>\n

The University of Ottawa has also acknowledged the delay in application processing, and has said that it is \u201cworking to develop contingencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continues to advocate for a \u201cfair, efficient, and transparent immigration system that allows students to plan their future with confidence,\u201d writes Kupfer.<\/p>\n

As their study permit applications are stuck in limbo, Chinese visa applicants are increasingly resorting to using the mandamus application in court to get a government decision in a timely manner, as per Tao.<\/p>\n

Chinese applicants make up 12 percent of mandamus applications, second to India and ahead of Iran.<\/p>\n

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