What you should know about Canada’s new study permit rules

In a move that will adversely impact Indian students aspiring to study in Canada, the Canadian government has announced a further reduction in the intake cap on international student study permits for 2025 - a 10% reduction from the 2024 target of 485,000 to a new low of 437,000 study permits for 2025. In 2023, the study permits for international students was at a high of 500,000.

The intake cap for 2026 will remain the same as 2025 and the 2025–2026 study permit intake cap will include master’s and doctoral students who will now have to submit a provincial or territorial attestation letter.

This curtailment will greatly impact Indian students who comprise nearly 40% of all international students in Canada. Between 2013 and 2023, Indians immigrating to Canada rose from 32,828 to 139,715, an increase of 326% (Source: National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP)) and Indian enrolment at Canadian universities rose more than 5,800% in the last two decades, from 2,181 in 2000 to 128,928 in 2021. According to recent data released by the Indian government, there are about 13.35 lakh Indian students studying abroad of which about 427,000 are studying in Canada.

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“We’re granting 35% fewer international student permits this year. And next year, that number’s going down by another 10%. Immigration is an advantage for our economy — but when bad actors abuse the system and take advantage of students, we crack down,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on X.

Stricter regulations will also be implemented for foreign workers.“We’re reducing the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers and shortening the duration of their work terms. We adjusted the program after the pandemic, but the labour market’s changed. We need businesses to invest in Canadian workers,” Trudeau added.

The other additional measures to manage the volume of temporary resident arrivals into the country include:

• updating the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program to better align with immigration goals and labour market needs

• Starting later this year, only spouses of master's degree students in programs lasting at least 16 months in duration will be eligible for work permit.

• For anyone applying for a post-graduation work permit on or after November 1, 2024, a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7 for university graduates and CLB 5 for college graduates will be required.

• Graduates from programs at public colleges will remain eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) of up to three years if they graduate from a field of study linked to occupations in long-term shortage.

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It maybe noted that international education accounts for more than $22 billion in economic activity annually in Canada, greater than the country’s exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft, and supports more than 200,000 jobs in Canada. The temporary drop in international students in 2020 resulted in a loss of more than $7 billion for Canada’s gross domestic product that year.

New Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program gets effective on September 26: In August this year, Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, had expressed concern that the TFW Program was being used to circumvent hiring talented workers in Canada and announced steps to weed misuse and fraud. The new clauses that get into effect on September 26 include:

• The Government of Canada will refuse to process Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) in the Low-Wage stream, applicable in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

• Employers will be allowed to hire no more than 10% of their total workforce through the TFW Program. This maximum employment percentage will be applied to the Low-Wage stream and is a further reduction from the March 2024 reduction.

• The maximum duration of employment for workers hired through the Low-Wage stream will be reduced from the current two years to one year.

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Other recent measures

• Earlier this month, the government had set new rule limits off-campus work for international students to 20 hours per week. Not every international student can afford to go to school without that extra income.

• On January 1, 2024, the cost-of-living requirement for study permit applicants was updated - a single applicant should have $20,635, representing 75% of low-income cut-off (LICO), in addition to their first year of tuition and travel costs.

• The new financial guidelines were also applied to the Student Direct Stream (SDS), a special study permit application process available to residents of 14 countries that requires additional up-front information from the applicant and provides priority processing.

• Starting December 1, 2023, the government had made it mandatory for post-secondary designated learning institutions (DLI) to confirm every applicant’s letter of acceptance directly with IRCC. This verification process was enforced to protect prospective students from letter‑of‑acceptance fraud and to ensure that study permits are issued based only on genuine letters of acceptance.

Decrease in the number of temporary residents: Earlier this year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced a decrease in the number of temporary residents - from 6.5% of Canada’s total population down to 5% by 2026 including temporary foreign workers and international students. This will be reflected in the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, which will be released by November 1, 2024.