On the 7th of December, 2023, immigration minister Marc Miller declared new statements for forthcoming study permit candidates and international students in Canada. This concerns the most awaited statements by international students, as we stated on the 1st of December 2023, concerning the full-time work guidelines for students in Canada and the Post-Graduation Work Permit Extension 2024 guidelines.
This declaration comes on the heels of significant modifications to the foreign student program declared on the 27th of October 2023, which includes the development of a new structure to reward learning organizations that offer high-rated services and supports, which includes housing, to international students.
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Fresh IRCC Updates for Foreign Students
Doubling The Monetary Conditions for Upcoming Study Permit Candidates
The minister declared that living expenses for monetary standards for study permit candidates will be doubled starting the 1st of January 2024 to ensure that international students are financially ready for life in Canada. Canadian candidates for study permit indicates the expense of living regularly with a Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) of $10,000.
This condition will now be more than doubled to $20,635, impacting any fresh study permit candidates after the 1st of January 2024. Again, this entry will be updated yearly when Statistics Canada modifies the reduced-earning cut-off. Low-Income Cut-Off is the least revenue needed to ensure that a person is not required to spend above the average of their income on needs.
Beginning in the early 2000s, when it was placed at $10,000 for a single candidate, the expense of living entry for study visa candidates has remained unmodified. Due to this, the monetary requirement has yet to be met, along with the cost of living over time, and students reach Canada only to find out that their funds are insufficient. In 2024, a single candidate must indicate they possess $20,635, or 75 percent of Low-Income Cut-Off, again to their first year of tuition and trip costs.
This change will influence new study permit applications obtained on or after the 1st of January 2024. Canada doubled this to support preventing student exposure and utilization. In 2024, Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will also blast off concentrated pilots with associates to examine inventive strategies for supporting underrepresented fellow international students to seek their studies in Canada.
Possible Restriction on Foreign Students Arriving After Fall 2024
The Immigration Minister declared that they anticipate academic organizations to agree only on the number of students for whom they can offer relevant services, which includes accommodation. The minister stated that they must ensure that international students are assisted when they arrive in our nation.
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Again, he declared that they are ready to obtain the needed steps, which include restricting visas, ahead of the semester in September 2024 to ensure that identified learning organizations offer sufficient student assistance as an aspect of educational skills. To get to this result, they will join regional and territorial administrations, academic organizations, and other academic stakeholders to ensure international students are ready for success in Canada.
Full-time Work Policy for Foreign Students Extended
The exclusion from the 20-hour every week restriction on the number of hours abroad students may get employed off-campus while classes are going on will be prolonged until the 30th of April 2024. International students who are in Canada and have already applied for a study permit as of the 7th of December 2023 will be endorsed to operate more than 20 hours every week outside campus until the 30th of April 2024.
Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will look into the future choices for this guideline, which includes elevating off-campus working hours for international students to 30 hours every week while classes are going on.
Distance Learning Standards Extended
For the students who start a study course before the 1st of September 2024, the promotive standard that permits international students to measure time spent learning online towards the duration of a future pos-graduation work permit, as far as it comprises lower than 50% of the course of study, will stay adequately.
Students who start a study course on or after that period will no longer be subject to this standard. Distance learning promotion standards were initially embraced in response to trip limitations during the pandemic in 2020, and their breadth was lowered in September 2022. So many students from abroad are presently learning in Canada in person.
No Post-graduation Work Permit Extension 2024
Based on the labor market problems during the pandemic and post-pandemic rescue, a short-term guideline was executed thrice to provide PGWP holders an extra 18-month work permit whenever their first work permit elapsed.
International citizens with a post-graduation work permit that expires before the 31st of December 2023 can still apply for a prolongment under the post-graduation work permit prolongation 2023 guidelines. Hence, the minister made it evident that this temporary guideline would not go ahead again. Therefore, there will be no post-graduation work permit extension guideline in 2024.