UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA SAYS THEY ARE WORKING WITH ACADEMIC UNITS TO DEVELOP CONTINGENCIES FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T RECEIVE THEIR PAPERWORK ON TIME
International students in Canada have been struggling with immigration delays and obtaining study visas in time for their school year. Delays and lengthy security checks have forced students to begin their school year later or miss other opportunities, including students at the University of Ottawa.
Naomie Mubenga is one such student who has been affected by visa delays and a lack of communication with immigration processes. Mubenga moved to Canada from Congo in January 2023 to study biomedical science at the University of Ottawa.
Mubenga, who was admitted to the U of O for the Fall 2022 semester, was unable to obtain a study visa until November 2022. After asking for a deferral and getting denied, Mubenga was forced to reapply for admission for the following semester.
“Most of my courses didn’t offer an online component. So I decided to just start later on,” said Mubenga.
Not only did this have an effect on when Mubenga would be able to graduate, it affected her social life as well. “Everybody made friends in the fall and it was more difficult to integrate, especially as an international student…people were not looking to make friends anymore,” said Mubenga.
Mubenga also expressed difficulty in being able to navigate the immigration system quickly due to financial constraints.
“[For the permit] my parents had to put together the funds, because you need $20,000 in an account as proof. We had to get a lot of things together.”
Per the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website, study permit applicants must prove that they can financially support themselves. The minimum amount of funds required per year, excluding tuition, is $10,000. With living expenses, tuition, and transportation costs, this number can go up to $23,500.
In terms of finding detailed information about delays and how long obtaining a student visa could really take, Mubegna cited difficulties and inconsistent information.
“When I started researching Canadian visas, delays never popped up on the internet for me. It says if you apply before two months, you should get [your visa] within two months. I thought as long as I gave myself two months and a bit more, I should be able to get my visa on time based on the IRCC website and the steps that I needed to do.”
In response to a request to comment from the Fulcrum, the University of Ottawa shared that it received 40,442 applications from international students in 2022, and of those, 10,656 students were registered. The U of O also stated that they are aware that students from many countries who have accepted their admission offers are facing visa issues.
“We are working with academic units to develop contingencies for people who don’t receive their paperwork on time and we are exploring ways to minimize the impact of these delays. However, as these students are distributed amongst dozens of programs, and this in both official languages, no one single solution exists.”
