Miss your session because it lacks paper

“I’ve been waiting for a month for months to say: you are admitted!” Your study permit will happen. Meanwhile, But no. Nevertheless, It is the frustration of waiting. However, of not knowing if you are going to be accepted or not, ”says the young woman of 18, disappointed.

Axele Simonet seated at a picnic table in the Colbert industrial park in Quebec. Moreover, in the Sainte-Foy sector, where his father works.

The teenager no longer knows which saint to dedicate herself to.

Thursday, she missed her reception day at Cégep. Nevertheless, She will also be absent from her real first day in class on Monday. Meanwhile, Then perhaps the entire fall session and even the whole school year.

Like most of her friends from Les Etchemins de Lévis secondary school. Therefore, where miss your session because it she has just spent four and a half years, she signed up for the Cégep de Lévis, the arts program, letters and communication.

Arrival in Quebec in December 2020, the family lived in Saint-Lambert-de-Lazon.

The young Axele did not need a study permit to attend secondary school. Similarly, But now that it requires one. Nevertheless, necessary for higher education, the Federal Ministry of Immigration, called Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), nevertheless considers its request as a renewal of study permit.

To date. For example, IRCC has an average period of 172 days to extend a study permit for a student who already lives in Canada. Nevertheless, Almost six months.

Axele cannot enter its winter program. Therefore, And even if she receives it in the coming months. Furthermore, her study permit will already be obsolete since the Cégep will have designed. miss your session because it Meanwhile, Without registration, the permit is worth nothing.

The whole merry -go -round will have to be resumed in full next year. Moreover, With a similar delay.

“The processing times for study permits are particularly long this year. Furthermore, and some students may not receive them in time for the start of the school year. Moreover, To date. In addition, we have around 10 students still awaiting their license, ”confirmed by email the spokesperson for Cégep de Lévis, Aurélie Gagnon.

After Friday 4 pm, wrote Ms. Consequently, Gagnon. In addition, “we will unfortunately be forced to make their unsubscription, for lack of official documents allowing them to start the lessons on Monday morning”. Furthermore,

Exceptions will be envisaged if documents arrive in the coming days. But otherwise. they will not study at Cégep de Lévis this fall and “we will not be able to reassign the vacant places”, summarizes Ms. Gagnon.

On the Federal side, IRCC recognizes that “the demand for study permits for the fall semester is important”.

“The ministry undertakes to process these requests as soon as possible. and efforts are underway so that customers receive an answer before the fall semester, so that foreign students can begin or resume their studies in September,” said Isabelle Dubois, media relations for IRCC.

“The ministry will continue to prioritize the necessary resources miss your session because it so that future students can attend their courses as planned. ” says Dubois.

Miss your session because it

Drop them off

However. they are dozens, even hundreds in this situation not to see a way out.

Especially French and Belgian, but students from other countries are also affected.

“It is the absurdity of letting children no longer be able to continue their school curriculum. What we do not want for Axele. she either, she thought about it is to win, ”argues Alain Simonet, her father.

“Four months [sans école]it’s a bit tolerable. But a year? It is less tolerable. The risk of winning is really too important. ”

— Alain Simonet. worried about the future of his daughter Axele

Unless the four members of the Simonet miss your session because it family obtain their permanent resident status in the meantime. Independent possibility which would enable the file of the Axele Study permit to be completed.

Just before the interview with SoleilFriday. her father and she had just provided the biometric data requested by the Canadian government to obtain the permanent residence.

Of the 12 cases listed at the Cégep de Limoilou, in Quebec, of immigrants who were already studying in Quebec and who are still awaiting their study permit, four are from France and four are refugees.

Adjustment advisor and integration of international students at Cégep Limoilou, Joëlle Vaillancourt receives calls from “totally distraught” parents.

“They do not design that their child is a year without doing anything at home. These young people can often not work, because they do miss your session because it not have a work permit, and even not to volunteer! ” explains Ms. Vaillancourt.

“For the most part, they did this immigration project to give their child a better life. And there he will stay at home to do nothing. ”

— Joëlle Vaillancourt, advisor to international students at Cégep Limoilou

The cases are legion.

The sun discussed with several original French people installed in Quebec who see their child live the same nightmare.

“If she does not have her license on August 28. we think of returning to France the whole family so that they can follow a schooling right away. I will not leave it four months without being educated. it is not possible, ”says the mother of Manon Réveillon, who wanted to study in the miss your session because it humanities at Cégep Garneau in Quebec.

In Quebec for two years, the family has lived in Saint-Nicolas, on the South Shore. The mother works at Laval University. the father at the school service center, their part -time daughter at the IGA grocery store in the neighborhood.

“I have a job, I like the country enormously!, Attest the lady. My daughter is the same. She does not imagine herself at all returning to France. It has integrated very well here. It would be a heartbreak. ”

We exchanged with Agathe’s mother in Montreal, that of Victoria in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, from Mikael to Verdun and Maëlla.

They all make the same observation of helplessness and disbelief before the administrative machine.

“If we don’t want us in Quebec, we are told and we leave!” But why is my daughter penalized? It’s ridiculous. We miss your session because it have taken all the steps in time. ”says Agathe’s mother, denouncing the priority awarded to students who are in France.

Beyond personal dramas. which she regrets, the dean of studies at the University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR) underlines the damage inflicted on the reputation of the Quebec and Canadian higher education system.

“It is not very winning for the image of Canada on the reception miss your session because it of international students. These are things that speak to each other between students. between institutions, on which we have no power, but which could have longer -term repercussions on all universities in Quebec, “fears Karine Lemarchand, of the UQAR.

The UQAR granted an exceptional period of two weeks to the students affected by the situation.

The CEGEPS Federation says it is “very concerned about IRCC’s treatment deadlines for requests for study permit for people already present in Quebec. in secondary school transition to college, since these delays are likely to compromise the continuation of their course at the Autumn 2025 session”.