Chinese students frustrated by lengthy security checks as school year nears

Some Chinese international students say their study permits have been tied up in security screenings, leaving them in the lurch for months after being admitted to Canadian universities.

Yunze Lu, a master’s student in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Ottawa, has already completed a year of coursework online and successfully applied to the school’s co-op program.

“I 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,” he said.

“It makes me feel they are doing nothing but just don’t care about my application, just throw it away.”

Lu said he didn’t even know his application was under security review by the Canada Border Services Agency until he filed an access to information request to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to find out more about his file.

Through social media, he has now connected with other frustrated study permit applicants, some of whom spoke to CBC News. 

‘This is unfair to all of us’

Xinlu Guo has also been waiting months for the study permit that will allow him to take up an offer from the U of O’s master’s program in systems engineering. 

“This is unfair to all of us,” he said.

They could be pursuing other stuff or going to other countries.– Will Tao, immigration lawyer

Through proactively tracking his file, Guo helped resolve an issue with a financial document and learned that he’d been placed under security review in May. 

“I 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,” he said.

Given the delay, Guo is worried he’ll lose his admission offer and could miss the opportunity to apply to study in other countries.

In a statement, the University of Ottawa said it’s aware of students from “many countries” facing visa issues and is working to develop contingencies. 

The university says it continues to advocate for a fair, efficient and transparent immigration system that allows students to plan their future with confidence.

In a statement, IRCC said China is one of the top sources for international students and the department is receiving a record number of applications. 

Since January 2021, there have been nearly 181,000 study permit applications from China. Of those, 1,832 have not been processed.

“All study permit applications from around the world are assessed equally and against the same criteria, regardless of the country of origin,” IRCC said.

“Security screening is one, but not the only, factor that can result in higher processing times.”

The department said processing times vary on a case-by-case basis depending on complexity, responses for additional information and the ease of verifying the application’s content. 

According to the department’s website, a study permit should take about seven weeks.

Delays ‘problematic,’ immigration lawyer says

Will Tao, an immigration lawyer at Vancouver’s Heron Law Offices, said the worsening geopolitical situation between China and Canada may be combining with the increasing use of algorithms to contribute to a rise in certain files being caught in review delays.

“Grad 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,” he said.

“It’s very, very problematic how this has become almost a predictive analytics exercise.”

Tao said applicants from Iran, another country with fraught geopolitical relations, have faced similar screening delays. He said while he understands there is a national security need for screening, and international diplomacy complicates the issue, students are being left uncertain about their futures due to the lack of transparency.

“They could be pursuing other stuff or going to other countries,” Tao said.

More Chinese visa applicants are resorting to using mandamus applications in court to compel a government decision, he said. The applications are used to compel IRCC to issue decisions in a timely fashion after considerable delays.

Chinese applicants account for 12 per cent of mandamus applications, second only to India and just ahead of Iran, according to Tao’s analysis of IRCC data.