New Delhi, November 9, Canada on Friday shut down the Student Direct Stream (SDS) visa program for international students. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) implemented this visa program in 2018 to expedite study permit applications for international students.
This program was implemented for international students from 14 countries including Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Vietnam.
According to reports, the Canadian government said on its website that the initiative is being shut down to ‘provide equal and fair access to the application process to all students’.
Under this scheme, only applications received till 2 pm on November 8 will be processed, while after that all applications will be processed under the regular study permit stream.
SDS had a higher approval rate and faster processing time. With the closure of this program, students from India and 13 other countries will have to go through a longer visa process.
Canada is considering drastically reducing the number of immigrants coming to the country for the first time in many years. It is a dramatic policy change by an unpopular government trying to stay in power.
Canada has been a country that has long taken pride in welcoming newcomers, but now it is changing its policy towards immigrants.
The issue has become one of the most controversial issues in Canadian politics, as there are federal elections to be held before October 2025. Surveys show that a large part of the population thinks that Canada has too many immigrants.
