- IRCC says 5 million temporary visa holders will lose their legal status between Sept. 2024 and Dec. 2025
- However, the department conceded they will not be tracking their entry/exit status
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have stated that five million temporary residents holders are set to have their visas expire between September 2024 and December 2025, but they won’t track whether or not they exit Canada when legally required.
The admission comes as a response from an order paper question submitted by the federal Conservatives’ recently-elected Toronto St. Paul’s MP, Don Stewart.
“As of September 27, 2024, and based on preliminary data available and compiled by IRCC, a total of 4,937,136 temporary resident visas, permits, and other visitor visa entry authorizations are set to expire between September 2024 and December 2025,” the federal department’s response reads.
Notably, the IRCC also said they will not track whether or not any of these individuals leave Canada when legally required, “as we do not have access to aggregate data pertaining to entry/exit from Canada.”
The department further said that visa holders are permitted to apply for an extension before their status expires, which grants them legal status until a decision is made on their application.
In July, The Counter Signal reported that around half a million foreigners are illegally residing in Canada, most of whom have come to Canada on student visas, then refused to leave when legally required.
The shocking concession was made in a public disclosure from Immigration Minister Marc Miller, showing that there are so many undocumented non-citizens, they’ve lost count.
“There are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada. Estimates suggest that the population could be as high as 500,000 persons,” the document reads, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
To address the problem, Minister Miller suggested that the solution might be to simply give in and “regularize their status.”
Canada’s immigration policies have come under intense scrutiny in recent years, and risen to the top of the public’s radar. Recent public-opinion polls show that the majority of Canadians care more about immigration than they do climate change.
Another recent poll shows that after years of unfettered immigration, 60% of Canadians now think the government accepts “too many” newcomers.
