By Kuldeep Kumar Bansal 

Kuldeep Bansal is an experienced immigration consultant who recently dealt with a number of issues which he says was a huge learning experience. He says the issues were direct result of a lack of proper direction from Immigration Canada and their own loopholes that have led to the system being abused. He said he was forced to come up with these recommendations to help make the study visa and other immigration rules better serve Canada.

Here are Kuldeep’s Recommendations for the Canadian Government:

1. The minimum age for international students entering Canada should be 20 years.
2. The minimum qualification should be bachelor’s degree or two year diploma after grade 12 from home country before entering Canada.
3. The Spousal relationship should be at least one year old before the spouse of international student should be granted visa so that fraud marriages which happen after the visa issuance can be stopped.
4. All spouses of international students should be granted open work permit which will avoid under the table working. This should not be limited to publically funded colleges only.
5. After the completion of 2 years studies in Canada and working for one year in Canada on post graduate work permit, students should be allowed to permanent residence without the requirement of Job offer from employer. This will stop exploitation by employers and more employers will hire students on better jobs.
6. After successful completion of studies students should be given sufficient points of studies so that they can be eligible to obtain permanent residency in Canada without relying on job offer from employers. 
7. International students should be awarded special incentive points if they do not change college after entering Canada.
8. Student’s parents or other dependents should only be issued visa until the expiry of student’s documents and there should be question about this in the permanent residence application for students that if student has called someone on visitor visa, have they complied the conditions of their stay.
9. Red Tape of obtaining job offer from employers has made students VULNERABLE to employers and consultants. If this requirement is amended by asking all working time pay stubs and bank statements for the entire time student worked part time or full time and that should support the claim for permanent residency.
10. There should be one day pre-arrival information sessions held in Canadian embassy as it is done in all other permanent residence cases. Students should be made aware of their rights and privilege before entering Canada. Attending one day pre-arrival information session should be mandatory. There is no use of delivering the same to students once they lived in Canada for four years. Right now when anyone receives permanent residence they are offered this service and which is funded by the Government of Canada. There is no use of offering this service to students when they have already spent 4 years in Canada. This is complete waste of government funding.
11. The international students must obtain Canadian driver’s license within the first six months of their arrival in Canada & otherwise they should not be allowed to keep driving on international license.
12. There are many cases where students get sick upon arrival in Canada. The three months medical insurance should be part of checklist at the port of entry while students enter Canada.
13. Legal Aid should be made available to international students in Case they require legal assistance which will avoid conflicts and fights between them.
14. The CBSA should only process those applications at the border which can’t be processed in Canada online. The Port of entry should stop processing change of study permit to work permit or work permit to work permit for new employer because these can be done online and it will avoid lots of issues which students face when they approach port of entry for issuance of Post Graduate work permits.
15. Ministry of labour standards of each province should hold awareness seminars for international students so that the exploitation by employers can be stopped.
16. The colleges are admitting new international students every semester and at the same time are not giving enough courses to existing students which make them part time or they have to take time off, it should be immediately stopped.  This is clear exploitation of international students by colleges. All the colleges should be instructed to give full time courses to existing students first before accepting new students. Many students are suffering due to this behaviour of colleges.
17. There is only one bank offering GCI for students, why so? The bank is charging a lot of fee and the students have no choice. There must be more banks allowed to offer same services for students. 
18. The large corporations are ready to hire international students but refuse to support their permanent residency due to the fear psychosis of IMMIGRATION issues and due to that students has to rely on smaller low paying jobs, if red tape and job offer or employer involvement is removed from immigration process for students, they can have better paying jobs and can gain better skills.

Kuldeep Kumar Bansal is a veteran immigration consultant and Director of Overseas Immigration Services Canada.