Canada has started implementing new measures to strengthen and maintain the integrity of the international student program. The Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has now introduced an online portal for Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) – the only schools in Canada authorized to accept international students – to verify letters of acceptance submitted by international students in support of their student visa application. As a result, DLIs will now have up to 10 calendar days to verify letters of acceptance or the student visa application will be cancelled. Once the verification deadline has passed, DLIs will no longer have access to verify letters of acceptance. This is in response to past abuses of Canada’s international student systems, including a well-known case last year involving 700 Indian students who had been scammed with false acceptance letters.
In addition to these new measures, a new framework for DLIs called the “Trusted Institutions Framework” has been proposed. This framework will introduce a two-tiered system to issue study permits. IRCC has also proposed further changes for 2024, including increasing the cost-of-living requirement for students, reconsidering the work cap for international students, ending the facilitative measure allowing international students to count time spent abroad towards their Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), and introducing new changes to the PGWP program. These measures aim to more directly connect international student enrollment and PGWP issuance with the labor market and demographic needs.
For more information on these changes and to discover your options to study in Canada, you can visit the government’s website. Overall, 2024 is expected to bring significant changes as Canada works towards housing nearly one million international students in the coming year.
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