These new rules for international students in Canada for 2024 were recently announced by Marc Miller, the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
That includes changes to cost of living financial requirements, international student working hours, post-graduation work permits and more that are being introduced or extended next year.
One of those rules for people coming to Canada on a study permit actually hasn't been updated since the early 2000s.
According to the federal government, there is a responsibility to make sure international students are supported when they come to Canada for their studies.
Also, international students contribute to campus life and innovation across Canada but experience "serious challenges" — like finding housing — as they get an education, the feds said.
So, that's why these changes are being made to international student requirements now.
"Ahead of the September 2024 semester, we are prepared to take necessary measures, including limiting visas, to ensure that designated learning institutions provide adequate and sufficient student supports as part of the academic experience," the government noted.
Cost of living financial requirement
The cost of living financial requirement for study permit applicants will be raised so that international students are financially prepared to study and live in Canada.
So, that means if you're an international student applying for a study permit, you'll need to have more money saved up starting on January 1, 2024.
After that, the financial threshold will be adjusted every year based on Statistics Canada's update of the low-income cut-off, which is also known as LICO.
LICO represents the minimum amount of income that's necessary for a person to have to ensure that they don't have to spend a greater-than-average portion of their income on necessities.
For 2024, an international student applying for a study permit will need to show that they have at least $20,635 — which is 75% of LICO — in addition to enough money for their first year of tuition and travel costs.
This change from the federal government will only apply to new study permit applications received on or after January 1, 2024.
Also, the new financial guidelines are being applied to the Student Direct Stream.
That's a special study permit application process for residents of certain countries — including Brazil, China, India, Morocco, Philippines and more — that requires more up-front information from applicants and provides priority processing.
The federal government revealed that the cost of living requirement for study permit applicants hasn't changed since the early 2000s when it was set at $10,000 for a single person.
So, the financial requirement hasn't been keeping up with the cost of living in this country over time which means international students are arriving in Canada and realizing that their savings aren't enough.
"With the long-overdue increase to the cost of living threshold, students arriving in Canada will be on a stronger financial footing as they begin their studies," the government said.
If you're an international student planning to study at a post-secondary school in Quebec, this rule change won't apply to you.
That's because Quebec has its own cost of living threshold for international students who will be attending learning institutions in the province.
This provincial threshold gets raised periodically.
Working hours for international students
The federal government also gave a new update on a temporary policy about international students' working hours that was set to expire at the end of 2023.
The 20-hour-per-week limit on the number of hours international students are allowed to work off campus while classes are in session has been temporarily eliminated for a while.
Now, the temporary elimination of the working hour limit is being extended even further and it will expire on April 30, 2024.
International students who are already in Canada and people who have already submitted a study permit application as of December 7, 2023, will be allowed to work off-campus jobs for more than 20 hours per week until that new deadline.
The federal government said that it will continue to look at options for this working hours policy in the future.
That could include increasing the off-campus work hours allowed for international students to 30 hours per week while classes are in session.
Online studies for post-graduation work permits
There was a temporary measure that allowed international students to count time spent studying online towards the length of a future post-graduation work permit.
However, those online studies could only make up less than 50% of the entire program of study.
Minister Miller provided an update on this measure since it was set to expire at the end of 2023.
International students who start a study program before September 1, 2024, can still count time studying online towards the length of a future post-graduation work permit.
It will still need to make up less than 50% of the program of study though.
This measure won't apply to international students who start a study program on or after September 1, 2024.
These distance learning facilitation measures were implemented by the federal government back in 2020 as a response to travel restrictions during the pandemic and were reduced in September 2022.
Extended 18-month post-graduation work permits
The federal government is also making changes to the extended 18-month work permit that was introduced in response to labour market disruptions that happened because of the pandemic.
This temporary policy was made available three times to provide an additional 18-month work permit to post-graduation work permit holders as their initial work permit was expiring. It was set to end in December 2023.
Foreign nationals with a post-graduation work permit expiring from now until December 31, 2023, will still be eligible to apply for the additional 18-month work permit.
However, the government announced that this temporary policy will not be extended any further after that.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
