News

New International Student Program regulations take effect

Over the past year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has reportedly taken significant steps to ensure the sustainability of the International Student Program by rooting out fraud and protecting students from bad actors and financial vulnerability. As announced in its 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, Canada’s temporary resident population will decrease over the next few years to align with the federal government’s long-term economic goals and strengthen the integrity and quality of its temporary resident programs.

November 22nd, 2024

New regulations impacting the International Student Program have now taken effect, including the change to the number of hours international students may work off campus that was proposed earlier this year. With this change, eligible students can now work up to 24 hours per week off campus while their classes are in session.

Moving forward, international students must apply and be approved for a new study permit before changing learning institutions.

Designated learning institutions (DLIs) purportedly play an important role in protecting the student program against misuse. Since 2015, IRCC has been working with DLIs to strengthen student compliance reporting. There will now be consequences for DLIs that fail to submit compliance reports or verify acceptance letters. With this change, a DLI could be suspended from welcoming new international students for up to a year for failing to provide the required information.

These improvements aim to provide greater oversight while supporting international students and safeguarding their academic experiences in Canada.

“By fixing the off-campus work limit to 24 hours per week, we’re striking the right balance between providing work opportunities and helping students stay focused on their education. We also expect institutions to support our efforts to preserve the integrity of the International Student Program. International students should have a positive, successful experience in Canada, and the important changes made today will help with that,” says Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

QUICK FACTS

To work off campus without a work permit, international students must be studying full-time in a post-secondary academic, vocational or professional training program, or a vocational training program at the secondary level offered in Quebec, that lasts at least six months and leads to a degree, diploma or certificate.
International students who are eligible to work off campus may work full-time during breaks in their academic calendar, such as the summer break between school years or the winter break between semesters.
Twice a year, designated learning institutions are expected to submit a report to IRCC that indicates whether each study permit holder associated with their school has remained enrolled. Students who are no longer enrolled can be investigated and face enforcement action, as they may be breaking their study permit conditions.
Designated learning institutions in Quebec have not, to date, participated in student compliance reporting. It will take Quebec and IRCC some time to set up this reporting system for Quebec DLIs. As such, Quebec DLIs have a grace period before they are required to comply with the compliance reporting requirement.
The new letter of acceptance (LOA) verification process reports the following successes. Since its launch on December 1, 2023, through October 6, 2024, IRCC has:
received almost 529,000 LOAs for verification
confirmed nearly 492,000 LOAs as valid directly with designated learning institutions (DLIs)
identified more than 17,000 LOAs that either didn’t match any LOA issued by a DLI or that the DLI had already cancelled before the individual applied for a study permit