On September 18, Canadian immigration officers and labor officers held a public speech, informing them of relevant information related to short-term occupants' policy adjustments.

The scale of international students will be reduced in 2025 and 2026, and the threshold for obtaining graduation work permits and spouse work permits will be raised.

The Immigration Bureau’s web page also published an announcement titled “Strengthening the governance mechanism of short-term households and promoting sustainable progress”, explaining the details and reasons for the adjustment.

The key points of this reform include:

The announcement will set the quota for foreign students' study abroad licenses in 2025 to be even lower, which is to use the indicator of 485,000 new study abroad licenses in 2024 as the starting point and reduce it by one tenth. Specifically, by 2025, the total number of study abroad licenses issued will be reduced to 437,000; as for 2026, the number of study abroad licenses issued will remain the same level as in 2025.

This fall, the application standards for the "graduate work visa" project will be adjusted to make it more in line with immigration planning and employment market conditions.

The PGWP program adjustment requires all applicants to demonstrate that they have basic language skills in French or English, a move that will help them achieve permanent residence and better integrate into the changing economic situation. Starting from November 1, 2024, international students applying for graduation work visas need to meet the corresponding language standards, undergraduates must have CLB7 levels, and junior college students require CLB5 abilities.

At the end of the year, the application for "accompaniment work permit" for the families of overseas students will be restricted. Only those who have completed their studies for more than 16 months will their partners be able to apply for "accompaniment work permit".

The "spouse work visa" application for the families of workers under the TFWP and IMP projects will be restricted at the end of the year: only those who provide foreign employees who are engaged in management or professional and technical positions, and are limited to those who work in the field of insufficient labor, are eligible for "spouse work visa".

The licensing acceptance quota from 2025 to 2026 will cover both master's and doctoral students, and they must submit provincial or regional qualification certificates. We will reserve about one-twelve quotas for these groups to recognize their value to the Canadian employment sector.

It should be noted that these new quotas are further measures taken by federal authorities to restrict overseas students in January this year. The intention of this quota is to adjust the proportion of Canadian temporary residents in the total population from the original 6.5% to five percentage points.

The immigration department has implemented a number of measures, including adjusting the international student program, raising the entry threshold for temporary foreign staff, strengthening employer compliance reviews, and strengthening labor market impact monitoring, aiming to reduce fraud.

Regarding the reasons for the reform, the Ministry of Immigration also explained:

Canada has always been known for accepting immigrants from all over the world. These newcomers have promoted their own economic development and injected diverse cultures into the country.

Faced with insufficient staff and the impact of the epidemic, a number of actions have been implemented at the national level, aiming to alleviate the pressure faced by enterprises and promote the gradual recovery of local economies.

Since then, Canada's economy has gradually changed and residents' living pressure has increased, so the immigration sector needs to continuously improve immigration policies to meet new challenges, such as the slowdown in labor market growth.

In addition, the Canadian immigration department also stated that it intends to strengthen supervision and verification of refugees and asylum applications, with the aim of ensuring the soundness and long-term development of the immigration system.

Specific contents include:

Implement partial visa requirements for Mexican citizens;

Improve the processing of asylum application on the basis of maintaining impartiality and integrity;

Review the visa approval results to ensure that our professionally trained staff are equipped with the means to effectively identify false applications, and at the same time reduce the proportion of people entering the country with fake identities.

Explore more measures to further strengthen visa integrity.

In the 2024 fiscal plan, Canada plans to provide CAD 743.5 million in five years starting this year, followed by an additional CAD 159.5 million per year, with the goal of ensuring the stability and soundness of Canada's asylum system.

The immigration department pointed out that the measures previously implemented in conjunction with the new measures announced today will strengthen the country's immigration management system and help adapt to the changing situation of the country. At the same time, the department has absorbed feedback from many Canadians, covering provinces, local authorities, urban cooperation units and representatives of various community. In the future, it will continue to be committed to maintaining a sound system and promoting national progress with a rigorous attitude.

In any case, Canada's immigration policy is changing frequently. The author still emphasizes that identity arrangements need to be carried out as soon as possible. If you are concerned about Canadian immigration, please contact us.