Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller has announced that 292,000 permits will be approved for college and undergraduate students in 2024. These numbers are indeed less than the previously announced 360,000. These numbers came out when Mr Miller commented to newspaper Globe and Mail.
According to IRCC, these numbers (292,000) are excluded from cap-exempt study permits. The cap-exempt study permits are that:
- a student applying to extend his/her study permit;
- a student in a master’s, PhD, or other post-graduate program;
- a minor child in a primary or secondary school (kindergarten to grade 12).
Starting from January 22, the students must show now the “Provincial Attestation Letter” and Letter of Acceptance from the DLI to apply for the study permit.
The PALs will be issued by the responsible territory or provinces where a student is going to study. So far, only Alberta and British Columbia have started their systems issuing provincial attestation letters to international students.
A student now holding this letter will be deemed eligible to get the study permit along with other visa requirements. Before this, students would only have to show that they have been accepted by a respective Designated Learning Institution by showing only a Letter of Acceptance and by meeting other visa requirements.
These new regulations will help Canada equally distribute the number of international students coming to Canada in all provinces. And this will also indeed decrease the burden of excess students only in some provinces. In the long run, this would also help the international students settle in those provinces where the immigrants come in fewer numbers. The country has seen unsustainable growth in the issued study permits over the past few years. This will now be curbed to 35% in the 2 years.
The Federal Government has given a deadline to all provinces for introducing the systems to issue the PAL. These processes are expected to be in place by March 31, 2024. The students will be receiving their “Provincial Attestation Letters” through “Designated Learning Institutions”. The provinces will only receive a certain quota according to their populations to issue the “Provincial Attestation Letters”.