Canada announces study permit cap for 2025

For the rest of 2025, the Canadian federal government
has set a capping of 505,162 applications for study permits.

This cap was declared by Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in ministerial instructions published on January 18,
2025. The cap will go into effect on January 22, 2025, and last until December
31, 2025.

Applications for study permits will only be processed
by the department up until the cap is met. Any additional applications will be
returned without processing and the application costs will be reimbursed once
the cap has been reached.

Applications that are approved for processing are
subject to this cap. It has nothing to do with how many study permits will be
granted this year.

The ministerial directives state that, in accordance
with the 505,162-study permit application processing target, Canadian
provincial and territorial governments have already been allotted funds for
international students.

In order to limit the number of temporary residents,
the federal government caps study permit applications in an effort to minimise
the issue of net new study permits.

The ramifications of this new cap will be discussed in
this article along with further background information on the changes to the
international student program that will take place this year.

Who is exempt from this processing cap?

Under the new ministerial instructions, the following
study permit applicants are exempt from the above processing cap:

·       Applicants
seeking to renew their study permit at the same Designated Learning Institution
(DLI), and at the same level of study as the existing study permit, they
currently hold.

·       Applicants
subject to an unenforceable removal order, who also hold a temporary resident
permit that is valid for at least six months.

·       Applicants
who

o  
Are being sponsored by their Canadian
loved one for immigration under in-land sponsorship;

o  
Are protected persons;

o  
Have applied to become a permanent
resident of Canada and received an exemption order for a study permit; or

o  
Are a family member of any of the above
persons.

·       Applicants
who are applying as exchange students to a DLI in Canada.

·       Applicants
who apply to study at a DLI that is administered by a federal department or
agency.

·       Applicants
who have received scholarships for non-Canadians that are administered and
funded by Global Affairs Canada.

·       Applicants
who have been selected to participate in the Francophone Minority Communities
Student Pilot.

·       Applicants
who are in Canada or are entering Canada and are applying under the provisions
of a public policy enacted by the federal immigration minister, in response to
a crisis or other pressure.

·       Applicants
who are exempt from needing a study permit as set out in the Temporary public
policy to exempt certain Indigenous persons and their family members from
temporary residence requirements.

What is the difference between
applications processed and applications approved?

The 505,162-application total does not include the
approved applications; rather, it is the total number of applications that the
IRCC will review. The IRCC has chosen to limit the quantity of study permit
applications it will handle after the foreign student cap went into effect on
January 22, 2024.

According to remarks made by Immigration Minister Marc
Miller in 2024, the IRCC establishes a target for the approval of study
permits. In order to accomplish this, the department makes the assumption that
study permit applications will be consistently denied and accounts for students
who are currently in Canada and are likely to decide to stay in the country
longer (based on statistics from prior years). In light of these two factors,
the department establishes a processing cap, within which it aims to reach the
approvals goal for the upcoming year.

The department’s processing goal of 505,162
applications this year is much lower than the 606,250 applications it sought to
complete the previous year. The IRCC sought to authorise 364,000 applications
for study permits in 2024.

The number of study permits the IRCC plans to approve
this year has not yet been announced.

The department’s goal is to welcome (or land) 305,900
new students annually between 2025 and 2027, according to the 2025–2027
Immigration Levels Plan. This is the number of international students that the
IRCC will try to bring to Canada each year, not the number of study permits
that have been awarded. Because of the delay between a student’s application
for a study permit and their arrival in Canada to start their studies, landings
and approvals of their applications are not the same.

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