OTTAWA — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s prime bureaucrat says the division has an motion plan to answer an auditor report that discovered “essential weaknesses” within the pupil visa program.
Auditor Basic Karen Hogan revealed a report earlier this yr that discovered hundreds of doubtless problematic pupil visas weren’t being investigated.
Ted Gallivan, deputy minister for the immigration division, says there will likely be outreach with non permanent visa holders to remind them their visa is expiring and the implications that include overstaying that visa.
He says that might embody a five-year ban from returning to Canada.
Gallivan, who simply grew to become deputy minister final month, says he has not heard an evidence for why about 800 pupil visas that included fraudulent or misrepresented data weren’t investigated between 2018 and 2023.
He says an motion plan is being applied in response to the auditor’s findings and he hopes to see it totally applied by the top of 2026.
Hogan says the division has the instruments to research and deal problematic information, however it wants to make use of them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed April 20, 2026.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press