The federal government is again cutting how many international student permits Canada will issue, this time for 2025 and laying out the plan for 2026, Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Labour Minister Randy Boissonnault announced Wednesday.
The new levels have been introduced as part of the federal government’s national cap on the intake of international students, which was announced in January. The aim of the federal cap is to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada from 6.5 per cent of the total population to five per cent.
In 2025, Canada plans to issue 437,000 study permits, which is down 10 per cent from the 485,000 permits issued in 2024. This number will be the same in 2026, stabilizing intake levels.
“The reality is that not everyone who wants to come to Canada will be able to—just like not everyone who wants to stay in Canada will be able to,” Miller said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the measures were necessary to crack down on “bad actors” who abuse the system.
“We’re granting 35% less international student permits this year. And next year, that number’s going down by another 10%,” Trudeau posted on the social media website X, adding, “Immigration is an advantage for our economy — but when bad actors abuse the system and take advantage of students, we crack down.”
Miller and Boissonnault also announced further restrictions for open work permits for spouses of international students. The new measures will limit work permit eligibility to spouses of master’s degree students to only those whose program is at least 16 months in duration.
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Spouses of foreign workers will also be affected, with work permit eligibility limited to those who work in management, “professional occupations” or in sectors with labour shortages.
“The Temporary Foreign Worker Program was designed to address labour market shortages when qualified Canadians were not able to fill those roles. Right now, we know that there are more Canadians qualified to fill open positions,” Boissonnault said.
In January, Miller said the international student cap would reduce the levels by 35 per cent over the next two years. He said the measures were temporary and were going to stay in place for two years.
He added that while the cap is national, it will be applied differently in different provinces. For example, provinces that have seen “the most unsustainable growth” in international student intake will have to cut student intake more than other provinces.
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“In the spirit of fairness, we are also allocating the cap space by province based on population,” Miller added, saying that “some provinces will see much more significant reductions.”
The cap on student intake followed a slew of curbs announced by the federal government last year, which roughly doubled the amount of money international students need to prove they have in order to get a study permit.
Earlier, an applicant to Canada needed to show at least $10,000 in their bank account to prove that they can keep up with the cost-of-living in Canada. In December 2023, this amount was raised to $20,635. This amount would be on top of the tuition that international students pay.
A February report by RBC economist Rachel Battaglia estimated that rental demand from international students will start declining this year.
“We estimate the increase in rental units demanded by international students could fall by roughly half in 2024,” the report said, noting the cap will be most constraining in Ontario and British Columbia, where international student enrollment outweighs their share of the Canadian population.
“We see the number of international students in Ontario and BC remaining relatively flat in 2024, effectively stalling new rental demand by this group,” it said.
The advocacy group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) said Wednesday’s announcement does little to address working conditions of migrant workers.
“We are talking about human beings, not machines. Reducing the numbers of migrants will not stop their exploitation; giving them equal rights and the power to exercise those rights will – and that is only possible through permanent resident status for all,” Syed Hussan, MWAC’s executive director said.
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