Canada to reduce number of international study permit by 35 percent

The Canada Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced the country will implement a two-year cap on international study permits, it will reduce the number of study permits by 35 percent from the initial 2023’s level to 364,000.

Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister announced critical measures to limit the number of international students coming into the country on Monday, January 22, 2024.

Miller said that from September 1, 2024 there will be no more spousal open work permits for spouses of students who are not in graduate schools/programmes such as Law/Medicine.

“Each province will be assigned a fixed number of study permits that will be proportional to its population, and have to decide how it divides them up among the DLIs authorised to admit international students,” he said.

Furthermore, the minister said; “There will be no more postgraduate work permits for students who graduate from Private Career Colleges operating under Public College-Private Partnerships.”

However, he explained that these measures are temporary – for two years. In the end, according to the IRCC boss, an assessment will done to see the impact of these measures.