Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Sept. 23rd, 2025

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How many have been withdrawn or refused due to criminality in the last four years?

[Pemi Gill]

We don't have that statistic with us today.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Can you table that with the committee? Yes? Thank you.

What specific countries has IRCC identified frauds from? Is there a predominant country?

[Aiesha Zafar]

With regard to fraud, it depends on the different streams. The one I can speak to where we did a—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I just want to know a country. I don't have a lot of time.

[Aiesha Zafar]

India is one of the top countries where we identify fraud.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Thank you.

You also said in your testimony that 8% of students are non-compliant and have disappeared in Canada with study permits. That works out to, by my math, about 79,000, based on data from end-of-year 2024. Do you know where these people are?

[Aiesha Zafar]

I'd like to clarify that I mentioned that 8% of the students we asked for compliance information from were potentially non-compliant. In terms of the total number of students from whom we asked for compliance, that results in potentially 47,175.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Where are they?

[Aiesha Zafar]

We have not yet determined whether or not they are fully non-compliant. These are initial results that the institutions provide to us.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Could you find them if they are compliant?

[Aiesha Zafar]

Any foreign national in Canada would be under the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency. They have an inland investigation team.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay, so how do you know if your measures are effective?

[Aiesha Zafar]

We are constantly collecting that data. As I mentioned—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You share data with CBSA—

[Aiesha Zafar]

We do share data with CBSA.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

—but you don't know where they are, if they're compliant.

[Aiesha Zafar]

If they are compliant—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Or non-compliant.

[Aiesha Zafar]

—they would be registered in the post-secondary institution—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay. I've heard enough.

How many right now are fully non-compliant?

[Aiesha Zafar]

I don't have that number.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Can you provide that to the committee?

[Aiesha Zafar]

That would be a challenging number, because once we—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

If you don't know how many are non-compliant, how can you track them and remove them?