What to know about the Canadian government's latest limit on international students

'Over the next three years ... we expect these changes to yield approximately 300,000 fewer permits,' says immigration minister Marc Miller

The government will be reducing the number of international students by 10 per cent for next year, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller announced.

“The international student cap is here to stay,” Miller said to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. “Over the next three years … we expect these changes to yield approximately 300,000 fewer permits.”

The change comes as part of a plan to reduce temporary resident volumes to five per cent.

“To achieve this goal, the federal government is taking action to manage the increase of temporary residents and hold employers misusing the system accountable,” according to a news release from the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

“We are reforming the International Student Program, tightening eligibility requirements for temporary foreign workers, enforcing employer compliance more strictly, and making labour market impact assessments more rigorous to mitigate fraud.”

As well as reducing the student cap for 2025 and 2026, Miller wrote on X that the government will be “aligning post graduate work permits (PGWP) with labour market needs” and adding language requirements.