Toronto – Ottawa is reportedly preparing a bill that would permit immigration authorities to annul groups of visas at once — a prospect that has unsettled civil liberties advocates and many visa applicants from India.
Internal documents suggest Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and partner agencies in the United States have set up a joint team aimed at spotting and cancelling visas they consider fraudulent, with particular focus on applications originating in India and Bangladesh.
The draft legislation would empower officials to carry out "mass cancellations" in situations such as pandemics, armed conflicts or other country-specific crises. Detractors warn the clause could be applied selectively against particular nationalities.
More than 300 civil society organisations have publicly objected, arguing the measure risks becoming a "mass deportation machine" that weakens legal safeguards. Some immigration lawyers also suspect the initiative may be driven as much by a desire to shrink the visa backlog as by counter-fraud aims.
The controversy arrives amid sharp rises in study permit refusals for Indian applicants. Reportedly, around 74 percent of Indian student visa applications were rejected in August alone, meaning nearly three in four were denied.
India has been Canada’s top source of overseas students for years, but policy changes have frayed relations. Meanwhile, average processing times for Indian temporary resident visas have climbed from roughly 30 days in mid-2023 to about 54 days by mid-2024.
Official figures also show a jump in asylum claims from Indian nationals, rising from under 500 per month in May 2023 to almost 2,000 by July 2024. In response, Canadian authorities have tightened document checks and scrutiny, triggering more refusals and longer waits.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has tabled the bill in Parliament and is seeking a quick passage. Immigration Minister Lena Diab has defended the measure as necessary for emergency scenarios like pandemics or conflicts, though she has not directly answered worries about targeting specific countries.
As debate unfolds in Ottawa, many Indian students and prospective migrants are left anxious, fearing the change could derail plans to study or work in Canada.
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