Canada is trying to clamp down on the number of temporary residents living in the country. As part of that effort, the government has slashed the number of study permits it issues each year.

But there’s a catch, according to Auditor General Karen Hogan. The government lacks the controls to verify whether foreign students are complying with their visa terms — and it isn’t even sure whether students are leaving Canada after their permits expire, according to her latest report.

Hogan found that while about 150,000 students were flagged in 2023 and 2024 for potential non-compliance, immigration officials only had the resources to investigate about 4,000 cases. Of those cases, 41% couldn’t be closed because students didn’t respond to the department’s inquiries.

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Hogan highlighted some of the risks the government still faces, even as it shrinks the international student program.

Her office discovered that the government has failed to take action in cases where applicants used fraudulent documents or misrepresented information to get their permits. The majority of those students then went on to apply for other immigration permits — often with no note left in their files to alert public servants to their history of giving bad information.

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