Canada welcomes India’s higher education students.

This is basically the message the Canadian federal government and the various provincial governments are trying to impart to Indians wanting to go abroad for higher studies.

And towards this end, Canada has implemented a number of strategies, including promoting community colleges, where the costs can be lower than universities but whose degrees are recognised throughout the country, and a fast-track system to process ‘genuine’ visa applications.

And just recently, Jean Charest, the Premier of the French province of Quebec, announced in India that foreign students who complete higher studies in his province will be given a Certificate of Selection which in effect will put them on a fast track to obtaining Canadian citizenship.

At present, one has to have lived at least 1095 continuous days in Canada with permanent residence status to be able to apply for Canadian citizenship. Each day spent in Canada legally but without a permanent residence (for example, with a student permit) will be counted as half a day.

The new Quebec system came into effect Feb 14, and will be valid only for those who have completed bachelors, masters or doctoral studies.

Quebec officials hope this accelerated path to Canadian citizenship will attract more Indian students to their province. Quebec officials say that at present about 4,000 of the 25,000 foreign students in the province are from India.

The Quebec move is part of a major offensive launched by Canadian educational institutions and the government to attract more Indian students to Canada.

Fast Track System For Indian Students

While a number of educational institutions have signed bilateral projects with Indian counterparts, the Canadian government launched a major initiative early last year. Named the Student Partners Program, the program was launched last April between the Canadian visa offices in India and twenty members of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC).

And in the first nine months, the program reported that the Canadian visa offices received more than four thousand applications, and that the approval rate has doubled. Furthermore, the processing time is also much faster, with the average of about two and half weeks.

Canadian officials feel that with the spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia, prospective students might be willing to consider Canada as an alternate location to pursue their studies.

According to one study done by the Canadian foreign affairs and international trade ministry, the foreign students sector contributed more than 6.5 billion dollars to Canadian economy in 2008.