Reducing the admission and attraction of Canadian international students
According to the new announcement of the Canadian Immigration Department, the capacity to attract international students in 2024 will be about 360,000 people. In fact, the issuance of master’s permits will be reduced by 35% compared to 2023 for a period of 2 years. (except for graduate students, doctoral students and schools)
These restrictions will not be applied to the current study visa, the renewal of professorial permits, and to students who apply for doctoral and master’s degrees.
Changing the conditions for issuing a work permit after studying
Immigration Canada has also made changes to the conditions for obtaining a work permit after studying PGWP.
The Immigration Department explains about this; There is an agreement between some private and public colleges. according to which, private colleges can offer some public college curricula under the public college license. Although these programs have attracted international students in recent years, they are not as closely monitored as state colleges. This has created a hole for profit in the Canadian education system. For this reason, from now on, these programs will no longer be eligible for post-study work permits.
As a result, international students from private colleges participating in courses in partnership with public colleges will no longer be eligible to receive work permits after studying PGWP from September 2024.
The good news is that students graduating from courses of less than two years at the master’s level can apply for a three-year PGWP work permit. The validity period of PGWP was determined based on the length of the person’s education. This criterion was limited for some postgraduate students whose study period was less than two years because it reduced the opportunity to gain work experience in Canada and the possibility of transitioning to permanent residence.
Obtaining an attestation letter from the province
The Canadian Immigration Department says that from January 22, 2024, all teacher permit files, except for master’s and doctoral students’ files, schools and renewals that are submitted must have an attestation letter from the destination province or territory.
Restrictions on issuing accompanying study permit for students
Spouses of students in other degrees, including bachelor’s and other college programs, will not be eligible for an open work permit. The Immigration Department says that Open Work Permits will only be granted to the spouses of international students in PhD and Master’s degrees.
Will reducing the number of international students be a solution to Canada’s housing crisis?
Currently, the federal government of Canada is faced with a severe shortage of housing and rising property prices due to the increasing acceptance of immigrants.
According to Mark Miller: “We need to do our job and make sure that our immigration system is actually able to measure people’s financial ability to immigrate to Canada. “Now is the time to discuss the number of students and their impact on society.”
Miller also believes that restricting the recruitment of foreign students will not be the best solution to compensate for the housing shortage in Canada. The number of international students coming to Canada is far greater than the number of houses the government plans to build.
