Cap on Study Permits Makes Smaller Sources of International Students More Important

Ottawa’s cap on study permit applications this year is making some of the smaller sources of international students to Canada relatively more important, the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals. 

In the first five months of this year – during the spring semester for colleges and universities – Columbia, South Korea, Vietnam, Ghana and Nepal all moved up in their respective rankings as sources of international students to Canada relative to their placement at the end of last year.

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India, China, Nigeria and the Philippines still rule the top four spots on the list of the 10 most important sources of international students to Canada.

India is the single most important source of international students to Canada

India dominates that ranking, with 278,335 new study permits issued to Indians last year, up 8.7 times from the 31,920 the Asian country received nine years ago, in 2015. 

At that time, India was the second most important source of new international students to Canada, second only to China.

India Topped List of 10 Most Important Sources of International Students Last Year

Since then, China’s contribution to Canada’s post-secondary system has fallen off significantly. 

The country, which came in at the number two spot last year and again in the first five months of this year for the number of study permits issued to its citizens, received 58,230 study permits in 2023.

That’s 11.6 per cent fewer Chinese students getting Canadian study permits last year than in 2015.

During those nine years, the number of study permits issued by Canadian immigration more than tripled, skyrocketing from 219,035 in 2015 to 682,430 last year.

Nigeria’s contribution of international students to Canada rose almost sixfold, jumping from 6,325 in 2015 to 37,575 last year.

Nigeria, which placed seventh in the rankings in 2015, was the third most-important source of international students to Canada last year and it managed to hang onto that spot in the rankings during the first five months of this year.

During the past nine years, the Philippines has also grown vastly in importance to Canada’s post-secondary institutions, boosting the number of international students the country provides by 1,699.7 per cent, from 1,880 in 2015 to 33,830 last year.

Filipinos were the fourth-largest group of international students to receive study permits last year and again during the first five months of this year.

With the massive spike in the number of international students in Canada over the past two years, many blamed them and other temporary residents for the Canadian housing crisis.

Under pressure to curb that inflation in rents, Canada’s immigration minister placed a cap on study permit applications this year.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s cap of 606,250 study permit applications this year for new international students was expected to result in a drop of 40 per cent in the number of new international students in Canada, with only 292,000 such applications now expected to be approved by the end of this year.

Immigration minister placed a cap on study permits this year

IRCC data seems to indicate the immigration minister’s strategy has been successful in curbing the number of international students in the country.

It reveals the number of international students who were given study permits in the first five months of this year was 2.4 per cent less than for the same period in 2023.

The IRCC data also shows a shift in the rankings for several countries in the bottom half of the top 10 list of sources of international students to Canada.

Iran, which was in the number seven spot at the end of last year, has moved up to the fifth position, with 4,680 Iranians getting study permits in the first five months of this year.

Vietnam has nudged up one spot, from ninth to eighth, and so has South Korea, which has risen from the tenth spot to number nine on the list in the first five months of this year.

Nepal and Mexico – ranked fifth and eighth respectively at the end of last year – have lost ground. While Nepal has slid to the sixth spot on that list, Mexico is no longer in the top 10.

The latter of the two was replaced by the South American country of Columbia, which squeaked on the list in the first five months of this year by receiving 3,235 study permits during that time period to rank tenth. That’s a growth of 149.8 per cent compared to the number of study permits that country received in 2015.

Ghana also made it onto the top 10 list in the first five months of this year, placing seventh with 4,085 of its students receiving Canadian study permits.

Many international students – some estimates put it at about a third – come to study in Canada in the hopes of then applying for permanent residence.

But Ottawa is clamping down on some practices that make it relatively easy for international students to circumvent the often-lengthy immigration process and jump to the head of the queue when it comes to Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWP).

Flagpoling to circumvent immigration queue has been curbed

The federal government has put the kibosh on the issuance of PGWPs at its borders to curb a practice called flagpoling, whereby foreign nationals leave the country and re-enter the same day to get immigration services immediately and avoid lengthy processing times.

“While we continue to support and recognize the contributions of international graduates to Canada’s labour market, ‘flagpoling’ is unnecessary,” said Miller.

“The time and effort required to process applications from ‘flagpolers’ takes officers on both sides of the border away from their crucial role in protecting the safety, security and prosperity of Canadians and Americans. This measure will help prevent this practice, while maintaining the integrity of our immigration system.”

From March 1 last year to the end of February this year, PGWP applicants represented about one fifth of the foreign nationals who attempted to flagpole, reveals the IRCC.

Study permits usually expire 90 days after the expected completion of an international student’s study program. When an eligible graduating student applies online for a PGWP before their study permit expires, he or she can work full-time while awaiting approval and receive an automated letter which can be shown to employers. 

When a work permit is approved, it is then mailed directly to the applicant.