Canada is a popular destination for international students seeking to study and earn a living. Many foreigners go to Canada with a study permit, work during the day, and start earning during their studies. The post graduation work permit (PGWP) helps students to continue staying in Canada with the objective of acquiring permanent citizenship of Canada.
However, the recent significant restrictions and modifications to Canada’s immigration laws are complicating students’ plans to reside there.
Canada has experienced a significant rise in the number of temporary residents in recent years, primarily due to an increase in international students and temporary foreign workers. Now, the government of Canada has started taking measures to restrict the number of international students, foreign workers and permanent residents volumes in the country.
Google Trends shows that the volume for the search keyword – settling in Canada from India – has declined over the last five years. The peak was achieved after Canada opened up the gates to immigrants after COVID-19 but since then the trend is downwards.
Temporary Foreign Workers
The number of temporary foreign workers has risen sharply, from 437,000 in 2019 to more than 1.2 million in 2023. Canada intends to lower the number of temporary residents from 6.5% to 5% of the entire Canadian population during the next three years. For the first time ever in Canadian history, Canada will include targets for temporary residents in addition to permanent residents in their annual immigration levels planning. Canada continues to strengthen their temporary resident programs and tough choices are expected to be made by the government in their 2025 and 2026 immigration level planning.
For the search term – Canada from India – the trend peaked in April 2021 but since then it has declined.
International Students
In 2023, Canada had over 900,000 international students. From January to August 2024, Canada had more than 200,000 fewer international students coming to Canada—a 38% decrease compared to 2023. Canada has already ended unlimited off-campus working hours for international students. Students are now back to working 20 hours per week, as the new limit of 24 hours will be fully implemented later this fall.
For the search term – Canada Study Permit – a rising trend can be seen till October 2022 but since then the interest has come down.
Canada Immigration New Rules
Canada has already increased the cost of living requirement for international students. Further, new rules were implemented for systematic verification of letters of acceptance from designated learning institutions to protect students from fraud.
Canada International Student Cap
Canada’s international student cap has been the talking point and as per the government, it is here to stay.
Canada will not only exempt fewer students from the cap but will also reduce the target on study permits issued by 10% in 2025 and 2026 compared to 2024. This means Canada will issue up to 437,000 study permits in both 2025 and 2026, which would represent about a 36% decrease from 2023.
Starting in 2025, master’s and doctoral students, among others, will be counted as part of the cap. Canada has now included temporary residents in the levels of planning, going forward, Canada will have an annual target for international students.
Canada’s Post-Graduation Work Permit Program will be aligned with their economic priorities and 12% of the international student cap will be reserved for graduate degree students.
Over the next three years, Canada expects these changes to yield approximately 300,000 fewer study permit holders.
Language Proficiency Requirement
As of November 1, Canada will institute a new language proficiency requirement for post-graduation work permit applicants that is aligned with requirements for permanent residence streams.
A Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7 for university graduates and CLB 5 for college graduates will be required for anyone applying for a post-graduation work permit on or after November 1, 2024.
And for prospective students applying on or after November 1, post-graduation work permit eligibility will depend on the level of study—graduates from bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs will remain eligible for a work permit of up to three years.
Graduates from programs at public colleges will only be eligible for a work permit of up to three years only if their field of study is linked to labour market shortages in Canada.
Over the next three years, Canada expect these changes to yield approximately 175,000 fewer post-graduation work permits.
Spousal Open Work Permits
Shortly, Canada is expected also take further measures to restrict eligibility for spousal open work permits by limiting work permit eligibility for spouses of students in doctoral and certain master’s programs, select professional programs, and certain pilot programs. Over the next three years, Canada expects these changes to yield approximately 50,000 fewer work permits for the spouses of student groups.
Canada will also be limiting work permit eligibility to include only spouses of highly skilled, specialized workers such as C-suite executives, scientists, engineers, lawyers, professors and technicians, or of workers in sectors where there are key labour shortages. However, spouses of workers in critical sectors, like health care and construction, will continue to be eligible for work permits. Over the next three years, Canada expect these changes to yield approximately 100,000 fewer work permits for this group of spouses.
Canada has introduced a controlled Immigration Levels Plan for the 2025-2027 period, targeting both temporary and permanent residents, including international students and foreign workers.
Canada is reducing their permanent resident targets from 500,000 permanent residents to 395,000 in 2025, to 380,000 in 2026 before settling at a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027. Targets for new temporary resident arrivals are set at 673,650 in 2025, 516,600 in 2026, and 543,600 in 2027.
Canada’s Population Metrics
Canada’s population growth rate is showing signs of cooling. The population of Canada reached an estimated 41,288,599 on July 1, 2024, according to Statistics Canada, a government body. With a quarterly growth rate of 0.6%, this means that 250,229 people were added to the Canadian population from April 1 to July 1, 2024. As of July 1, the population annual growth rate was recorded at 3%.
However, the additions were largely on account of migration. Population growth in Canada in the second quarter of 2024 was almost entirely due to international migration which showed an increase of 96% after adding 240,303 to the population count.
The trend below clearly shows a declining interest in settling in Canada.
In the second quarter of 2024, there was a net increase of 117,836 non-permanent residents. This was the smallest net increase since the first quarter of 2023 (+97,845 people) and marks the third quarter in a row of smaller net increases in the number of non-permanent residents.
While the total number of non-permanent residents in the country continues to grow (3,002,090 on July 1, 2024), the rate has been slowing since October 2023. This lower rate of growth was mainly due to a decrease in the number of study permit holders during the second quarter of 2024.