OTTAWA: International students currently residing in Canada and looking to continue their education have received good news. Canada has introduced a new automation tool designed to significantly accelerate the renewal process for study permits.
The system, named the Study Permit Extension Eligibility Model (SPEEM), is intended to reduce processing times by quickly approving eligible applications. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) stated that the average processing time for study permit extensions currently stands at 162 days. The new automation tool will help process applications faster and allow immigration officers to focus their attention on more complex cases.
The most notable feature of the SPEEM is that it cannot refuse applications. The system is only designed to automate positive ‘eligibility’ decisions. If the system is unable to approve a complex application, it will be immediately referred to an immigration officer for manual review. This means the system only reviews the eligibility criteria of the application. The ‘admissibility’ checks—including security, criminal background, and health screenings—will always be performed by an officer.
IRCC confirmed that the tool utilizes a transparent ‘decision tree’ model. The department stated that continuous quality control checks will be carried out to ensure that the automation does not introduce bias and that the system does not make decisions based on characteristics such as ethnicity or religion. The new system is exclusively applicable to foreign students who are already in Canada and applying for an extension of their current study permit.
