Pay, study, now leave

>> Canada may give international students the boot upon graduation

by CRAIG SEGAL

Photo by Jason Felker

If you have foreign friends who are considering studying in Canada as a means to eventually move here, tell them to think again. Proposed immigration regulations have such strict requirements that many international students currently studying in Canada don’t have a chance of immigrating after they graduate, experts warn. The regulations would overhaul the current point system used to judge an immigration candidate’s desirability—scoring applicants on a scale of 100 on categories like language, education, age and work experience—and making it far more difficult to achieve a passing grade. Immigration Canada tabled the proposed changes December 15. Parliament is now considering whether to pass them into law.

“With the new regulations we make it almost impossible for some of the best people that were educated in Canada to stay here,” says Christoph Rohner, an Alberta-based immigration consultant. “Can we afford to lose these people? These are people who have taken risks, made financial sacrifices and left everything in their home countries behind—because they believed that Canada offers the best education in the world,” says Rohner. “Those who manage to be accepted at Canadian universities are among the best and most talented students of their countries of origin.”

One local expert thinks the new regulations, which would be retroactive, are intended to cut down the 400,000-plus applicants backlogged at Immigration Canada. Montreal-based immigration lawyer David Chalk says the regulations would filter out 80 per cent of independent applicants. “In Third World countries, queues to interview [at Canadian embassies] have become enormous,” says Chalk. He blames the high number of applicants on Canada’s seemingly reasonable application standards, though in reality only very few hopefuls are eventually accepted. “That’s the ministry’s own fault,” he says.
“Albert Einstein would not qualify under the proposed rules,” says Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based lawyer and policy expert. “It’s supposed to be first-come first-served, but Immigration Canada makes it first-come, first-served based on where you come from. An IBM computer engineer from Beijing will have to wait seven years before immigrating to Canada, whereas an identically qualified engineer from London will wait 18 months before immigrating to Canada. Canada historically has done everything in its power to prevent Chinese immigration to Canada.”

Susan Scarlett, departmental spokesperson with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, says the proposed regulations would make it easier for international students to apply to work in Canada after graduation. Asked if the revamped point system for scoring applicants is going to be stricter, Scarlett said she “wouldn’t go there. I am not using that word.” Scarlett emphasized the regulations are “subject to change.”

The proposed regulations scare international students who call Canada their home. One Concordia creative art therapy masters student, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear that Immigration Canada will use an interview against her if she applies for permanent residence, says she would not be able to work in her field in Turkey, her home country. “All the fees I’m paying as an international student are useless,” she says, who is waiting to see what happens with the new regulations before applying for immigration. “A lawyer told me if immigration refuses me one time, my chances of passing on the second try are zero.” :