January 22, 2024—Ottawa—International college students enrich our communities and are a crucial a part of Canada’s social, cultural and financial cloth. In recent years, the integrity of the worldwide scholar system has been threatened. Some establishments have considerably elevated their intakes to drive revenues, and extra college students have been arriving in Canada with out the correct helps they should succeed. Rapid will increase within the variety of worldwide college students arriving in Canada additionally places strain on housing, well being care and different providers. As we work to higher shield worldwide college students from dangerous actors and assist sustainable inhabitants development in Canada, the federal government is transferring ahead with measures to stabilize the variety of worldwide college students in Canada.
The Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship introduced as we speak that the Government of Canada will set an consumption cap on worldwide scholar allow functions to stabilize new development for a interval of two years. For 2024, the cap is predicted to end in roughly 360,000 accredited research permits, a lower of 35% from 2023. In the spirit of equity, individual provincial and territorial caps have been established, weighted by inhabitants, which is able to end in way more important decreases in provinces the place the worldwide scholar inhabitants has seen probably the most unsustainable development. Study allow renewals won’t be impacted. Those pursuing grasp’s and doctoral levels, and elementary and secondary schooling aren’t included within the cap. Current research allow holders won’t be affected.
IRCC will allocate a portion of the cap to every province and territory, who will then distribute the allocation amongst their designated studying establishments. To implement the cap, as of January 22, 2024, each research allow software submitted to IRCC will even require an attestation letter from a province or territory. Provinces and territories are anticipated to ascertain a course of for issuing attestation letters to college students by no later than March 31, 2024.
These non permanent measures shall be in place for 2 years, and the variety of new research allow functions that shall be accepted in 2025 shall be re-assessed on the finish of this yr. During this era, the Government of Canada will proceed to work with provinces and territories, designated studying establishments and nationwide schooling stakeholders on growing a sustainable path ahead for worldwide college students, together with finalizing a acknowledged establishment framework, figuring out long-term sustainable ranges of worldwide college students and guaranteeing post-secondary establishments are capable of present sufficient ranges of scholar housing.
In order to higher align the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program, we’re altering the eligibility standards:
- Starting September 1, 2024, worldwide college students who begin a research program that is a part of a curriculum licensing association will not be eligible for a publishcommencement work allow upon commencement. Under curriculum licensing agreements, college students bodily attend a non-public school that has been licensed to ship the curriculum of an related public school. These applications have seen important development in attracting worldwide college students in recent years, although they’ve much less oversight than public faculties they usually act as a loophole as regards to post-graduation work allow eligibility.
- Graduates of grasp’s diploma applications will quickly be eligible to use for a 3-year work allow. Under present standards, the size of a publishcommencement work allow relies solely on the size of an individual’s research program, hindering grasp’s graduates by limiting the period of time they’ve to achieve work expertise and probably transition to everlasting residence.
In the weeks forward, open work permits will solely be available to spouses of worldwide college students in grasp’s and doctoral applications. The spouses of worldwide college students in different ranges of research, together with undergraduate and school applications, will not be eligible.
The necessary measures introduced as we speak complement different just lately introduced reforms to the International Student Program. Taken collectively, they goal to make sure real college students obtain the assist they require and have the sources they want for an enriching research expertise in Canada, whereas on the similar time stabilizing the general variety of college students arriving and assuaging pressures on housing, well being care and different providers in Canada.
