Canada may not see any new study permit applications until March 31, 2024

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced reforms this week aimed at stabilizing growth and decreasing the number of new international student permits issued in 2024.

IRCC is relying on provinces to help implement a cap of approximately 360,000 new study permits in 2024. Unless provinces act quickly, there are likely to be no new study permit applications until at least March 31st, 2024.

Note that you may still be able to submit cap-exempt study permits.

Before IRCC’s recent announcement, international students were only required to obtain a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from a Designated Learning Institution (DLI) before applying for their study permit.

As of January 22, 2024, IRCC says that “every study permit application submitted to IRCC will also require an attestation letter from a province or territory.” Note, attestation letters must be submitted to IRCC alongside, not in place of, an LOA from the Canadian DLI an international student hopes to attend.

IRCC hopes that attestation letters will serve as additional proof of a study permit application’s legitimacy, further protecting the integrity of Canada’s international student system. Provincial and territorial governments are being given until March 31st, 2024 “to establish a process for issuing attestation letters to students.”

While provinces and territories across Canada may implement such processes at any time, there is no guarantee that such systems will be in place until the deadline indicated by IRCC, or beyond.

This could mean that no new study permit applications are submitted to IRCC until after March 31, 2024.