To ensure the temporary residents can be supported adequately, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, has announced additional measures to manage the volume of temporary resident arrivals, uphold the integrity of our immigration system and protect vulnerable people.

The government is:

• announcing a further reduction in the intake cap on international student study permits for 2025 based on a 10% reduction from the 2024 target of 485,000 new study permits issued, and then stabilizing the intake cap for 2026 such that the number of study permits issued remains the same as 2025
  • For 2025, this means reducing study permits issued to 437,000
• updating the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program this fall to better align with immigration goals and labour market needs
• limiting work permit eligibility, later this year, to spouses of master’s degree students to only those whose program is at least 16 months in duration
• limiting work permit eligibility later this year to spouses of foreign workers in management or professional occupations or in sectors with labour shortages—under Canada’s work permit programs (TFWP and IMP)

   

  Quick facts

• The proposed reduction of temporary residents from 6.5% of Canada’s total population to 5% will be reflected in the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, which will be released by November 1, 2024.
• Graduates from programs at public colleges will remain eligible for a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) of up to three years if they graduate from a field of study linked to occupations in long-term shortage.
• As part of changes to the PGWP Program, all applicants will be required to demonstrate a minimum language proficiency in French or English. This will increase their ability to transition to permanent residence and adapt to changing economic conditions. A Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7 for university graduates and CLB 5 for college graduates will be required for anyone applying for a post-graduation work permit on or after November 1, 2024.
• The 2025–2026 study permit intake cap will include master’s and doctoral students who will now have to submit a provincial or territorial attestation letter. We will be reserving approximately 12% of allocation spaces for these students in recognition of the benefits they bring to the Canadian labour market.

 

Hon’ Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages has announced next steps and further details of the following changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program that will become effective on September 26, 2024. Specifically:

• The 10% employer cap on temporary foreign workers under the Low-wage Stream of the TFW Program will apply across Canada, including occupations that fall under the Traitement Simplifié in Quebec. An exception will be made for employers seeking to fill labour shortages in the healthcare, construction, and food processing sectors, which will be permitted to keep a 20% cap.
• All Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) approved for Low-wage Stream positions will be limited to a work duration of a maximum of one year, including those processed under the Traitement Simplifié, except for occupations under the Primary Agriculture Stream.
• The Refusal to Process (RTP) policy will apply to all Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) with an unemployment rate of over 6%. An exception will be made for employers seeking to fill labour shortages in the healthcare, construction, and food processing sectors. The CMA unemployment rate information will be updated four times a year, when the first Labour Force Survey of each financial quarter is published. The list will be updated on the same day that the data is published.
  

The Government of Canada will continue to monitor labour market conditions and introduce further adjustments to the Program as needed in the coming months to ensure that only employers with demonstrable labour market needs have access to the Program. Within the next 90 days, further review will be undertaken of the Program, which could result in changes to the High-Wage Stream, to existing LMIA applications for which positions have not been filled, to sectoral exceptions, or refusing to process other LMIA applications, including for rural areas. 

 

Manan Gupta is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC - IRB) and the CEO of Skylake Immigration. He is a licensee in good standing of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) and a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC). He frequently appears as a media commentator on CBC, Prime Asia TV, 101.3 FM radio, Global News, Omni TV and others to discuss matters related to Canadian immigration, public safety, transportation amongst others.

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