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Immigration authorities in Canada are moving to curb the illegal practice of using fake acceptance letters for international student applicants.

Starting Dec. 1, letters of acceptance submitted to Canadian Immigration will be required by the post-secondary Designated Learning Institutions to be confirmed.

If within a specified period, the DLI is unable to confirm the letter of acceptance, the study permit application will be returned or will not be processed by ircc.

International students in Canada have expressed fear that this might cause delay in the processing of study permit applications.

"This can be a loss of opportunity," said Rick Ryan Montayre. "I feel that the processing time might be too long and it might discourage people from applying into Canada."

Canada’s immigration minister Marc Miller recently announced steps to address issues of fraud within the country’s international student program.

A task force was formed in June by Immigration Canada to work with border authorities to review the cases of affected students and graduates.

The probe sought to prevent students from facing removal from Canada.

Of the 103 cases reviewed by mid-October, 63 were found to be genuine students and 40 were not.

Meanwhile, Canada is also bringing back the 20-hour per week limit on the hours that international students can work as the pilot program comes to an end.

Post-secondary students can work off-campus while class in in session. This change began this November, and will end on Dec. 31.

According to the IRCC, international education accounts for more than $22 billion in economic activity, which is annually greater than canada’s exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft.

It also supports more than 200,000 jobs in the country.

The temporary drop in international students in 2020 resulted in a loss of more than $7 billion for Canada’s gross domestic products that year.