Here are the top reasons why Canada rejects study permit applications

2025/08/28 Leave a comment

Useful information:

Almost five per cent of study permit applications were rejected last year because applicants allegedly misrepresented or withheld information, according to a new study that tracks international student refusal trends.

It was a small but noteworthy increase, according to the analysis released Monday by ApplyBoard, one of the largest online platforms for foreign student recruitment. The report looked at study permit applications for 2024 and found that 4.6 per cent of refusal reasons were linked to “authenticity and applicant honesty.”

In all, some 13,000 applicants were rejected based on misrepresenting or withholding facts in their applications.

Under the Canadian law, an immigration applicant can be found inadmissible “for directly or indirectly misrepresenting or withholding material facts.” Last year’s increase was up from 1.8 per cent in 2021, 2.3 per cent in 2022 and 3.5 per cent in 2023. 

In 2024, the Immigration Department rejected about 290,000 study permit applications, bringing the overall refusal rate to 52 per cent from 40 per cent the year before. The data covered applicants for all levels of studies; an application can be refused on multiple grounds.

Of the 81 different reasons given for refusals, 76 per cent were rejected because the officer was not satisfied the applicant would leave Canada — based on the person’s previous travel history. In comparison, this reason accounted for 7.6 per cent of all refusals in 2021.

The second-most common reason for refusal had to do with officers not believing an applicant would leave Canada, based on their financial assets. These rejected applications accounted for 53 per cent last year, up from 25 per cent in 2021.

Rounding the top five reasons for study permit refusals in 2024 were: an officer’s doubt over the purpose of the visit (47 per cent), applicants not having enough financial resources for tuition (19 per cent) and for living expenses (18 per cent).

While officials recognize some future students may want to stay and gain work experience in Canada after graduation, the predominant use of lack of travel history as a refusal ground, said the ApplyBoard study, “suggests that many applicants are perceived as having permanent residency as their primary purpose, instead of study.”

The report made no mention or speculation on the rise of this particular refusal reason, and it’s not known if immigration officials have heightened scrutiny of study permit applications amid integrity concerns raised about the international education program in the last couple years. 

Those alleged of submitting inauthentic documents and those who “didn’t truthfully answer all questions” were cited in 1.7 per cent and one per cent of all refusals in 2024, respectively — up from the correspondingly 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent since 2021, the report found.

In 2024, missing documents were also involved in thousands of refusals, with the proofs of financial assets being cited as the most commonly missing papers, followed by biometrics (photo and fingerprints), letters of acceptance by an institution, Quebec acceptance certificate and medical exam results.

“Every refusal reason above is entirely preventable, given enough time to review the application for completeness,” said ApplyBoard. “Having others review study permit applications can also prevent regrettable permit refusals.”

Source: Here are the top reasons why Canada rejects study permit applications

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Many U.S. Colleges May Close Without Immigrants And International Students, Report Finds

2025/08/22 Leave a comment

Comparable dependence on international students:

Many U.S. colleges and universities could be forced to close if they’re not able to enroll as many immigrants and international students, according to a National Foundation for American Policy report. That would mean fewer schools for American students and less employment opportunity for U.S. workers in towns with local universities.

Data show a bleak picture without the foreign born. Current immigration policies, including toward international students, affect the future of U.S. higher education.

“Without immigrants, international students and the children of immigrants, the undergraduate student population in America would be almost 5 million students smaller in 2037 than 2022, or about two-thirds of its current size, while the graduate student population would be at least 1.1 million students smaller, or only about 60% of its current size,” according to the NFAP study.

The study’s author, Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, explains why foreign-born students are vital.

“U.S. colleges and universities face a looming demographic cliff. Due to the post-2007 drop in birth rates, the number of U.S.-born traditional college-age young adults is expected to start dropping in 2025,” writes Zavodny, who was an economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Source: Many U.S. Colleges May Close Without Immigrants And International Students, Report Finds

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Worswick: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

2025/08/06 Leave a comment

Arguing for a more selective approach to international student recruitment while allowing numbers to rise again (most of the abuse happened at the college and satellite campus levels):

…Taken together, this is hardly an environment where we would expect professors from elite U.S. universities to go when they can move to almost anywhere in the world. The widely cited QS ranking places Harvard University 5th in the world, while nearby MIT ranks 1st. University of Oxford is ranked 4th and University of Melbourne is ranked 19th, while the highest-ranked Canadian universities are McGill at 27th and University of Toronto at 29th. It is unlikely that the extreme budget stresses these Canadian universities now face have yet to fully affect their global reputations, and so their rankings may not stay this high.

Universities are important parts of modern economies. In the case of Ontario, a 2021 Conference Board of Canada report found that universities’ annual activities and human capital development is equal in value to 11.7 per cent of the province’s GDP. Elite professors can raise the prestige of their institution and help attract international students, strengthening the economy through their tuition and expenditures. To gain more of these benefits, both the federal and provincial governments should adapt policies to help Canadian universities attract top academics from the around the world.

Provincial governments are clearly struggling to provide adequate funding for both health care and education, and health care is typically ranked by Canadians as the greater priority. In this context, provinces should focus public resources on reducing health care shortages and allow universities to operate more independently, setting tuition as appropriate to support their academic programs.

The Canada Research Chair program needs to be revamped. The annual transfer from the federal government to the university for a given category of chair has not changed since 2000, meaning that, in real terms, each chair has fallen in value by roughly 40 per cent and will continue to fall in real terms with future inflation. The Canada Excellence Research Chairs, introduced in 2008, are more generous, but the program needs to be expanded if it is going to attract many elite faculty members from the U.S. 

Finally, as I have argued before, international student numbers at universities should be allowed to rise again given the high tuition fees they raise and the fact that these students typically go on to be strong candidates as economic immigrants. This would generate higher revenue, allowing universities to make more competitive salary offers to top international candidates.

Source: Where’s this brain gain of elite U.S. professors we keep talking about?

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Federal minister plans to hold consultations this summer on immigration intake

2025/06/30 Leave a comment

Early test of Liberal government and Minister Diab regarding maintaining or easing restrictions (most of those consulted will ague for the latter):

The federal government will use this summer’s planned consultation on immigration targets to guide future decisions about how many study visas it will issue to international students in the future, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said.

In a recent interview with University Affairs magazine, Diab said the annual immigration levels consultations will reach out to the provinces, university administrators and students themselves, as the government looks to ensure the visa system for students is “sustainable.”

This summer’s annual immigration levels consultations come as multiple universities and colleges face budget constraints after Canada began clawing back on the number of student visas last year amid concerns the number had grown so quickly schools could not provide adequate supports, including housing.

Julie Lafortune, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokeswoman, says the government expects schools to only accept students they can “reasonably support” by providing housing and other services.

“The annual growth in the number of international students couldn’t be sustained while ensuring students receive the support they need. Study permit applications subject to the cap require an attestation letter from a province or territory,” Lafortune said in an emailed response. 

The current immigration levels plan lays out targets for admitting permanent and temporary residents through 2027, and Lafortune said the upcoming consultations will help the government decide how many newcomers will be admitted in coming years.

Post-secondary institutions across the country are posting deficit budgets this year, laying off staff and cutting programs as international student enrolment drops. Schools had become increasingly reliant on international student fees to balance their books.

Universities Canada president Gabriel Miller previously told The Canadian Press that international student tuition acted as a “stopgap” to make up for years of “inadequate” funding at the provincial and territorial level. …

Source: Federal minister plans to hold consultations this summer on immigration intake

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Canada updates list of study programs that qualify international students for work permits

2025/06/28 Leave a comment

Further tightening:

To better align immigrant selection with Canada’s labour market needs, Ottawa is refining what academic programs are going to qualify international students for the coveted postgraduation work permit.

The Immigration Department has updated its eligibility list, adding 119 new fields of study and removing 178 others based on jobs with long-term shortages. A total of 920 coded programs remain eligible.

The Liberal government has been criticized for the soaring number of international students, who had increasingly used the international education program to come and work in Canada in order to ultimately earn permanent residence in the country.

Many international students enrolled in general programs at institutions that former immigration minister Marc Miller called “diploma mills,” studying in subjects that had no relevance to what’s needed in the labour market.

Last November, the Immigration Department started requiring international students in nondegree programs (programs other than bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees) to complete a program in an eligible field of study to qualify for the postgraduation work permit.

As part of the plan to improve the integrity of the international education system, Miller not only capped the number of study permits issued, but also restricted the access to postgraduation work permits, which could be valid for up to three years and provided the incentive for people to study in Canada.

“It is not the intention of this program to have sham commerce degrees and business degrees that are sitting on top of a massage parlour,” Miller told reporters at a news conference last year. “This is something we need to rein in.” 

According to CIC News, an online media outlet on Canadian immigration, the additional qualifying programs cover health care and social services, education and trades.

However, it said, many of the agricultural and agri-food programs such as farm management and crop production were removed from the list, along with Indigenous education, student counselling and personnel services, environmental studies, building/property maintenance, drywall installation, solar energy technology, airframe mechanics and aircraft maintenance technology, among others.

The Immigration Department says students who applied for a study permit before June 25, 2025, will still be eligible for postgraduation work permits if their field of study was on the list when they applied for their study permit even if it has since been removed.

Source: Canada updates list of study programs that qualify international students for work permits

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Over half of Canada’s 2025 study permits going to international students already here

2025/06/27 Leave a comment

Part of the adjustment process. Will be interesting to see how the provinces priorize new study permits between universities and colleges and by discipline:

The number of new study permits approved in 2025 is expected to drop by 50 per cent from last year as a growing number of the permits are going to international students changing schools or programs, or extending their studies in Canada, according to new projections.

Fewer new international students — the result of a decline in new study permit applications and approval rates — could spell trouble for the postsecondary education sector, which will continue to see enrolment drop for at least the next three years, warns an analysis by ApplyBoard based on the latest government data.

“Onshore students and students extending their studies may help Canada reach its cap targets in 2025, but this trend is unlikely to hold in future years,” said the forecast released Wednesday.

“Search engine data has shown that interest in studying in Canada has fallen at a greater rate than for Australia, the U.K. or the U.S. And with issued study permit extensions now outpacing new study permits, the flow of new international students toward Canadian institutions is weakening.”

Canada should be alarmed by the low new student count, said Meti Basiri, CEO and co-founder of the online marketplace for learning institutions and international students.

“We have effectively closed the tap,” he told the Star. “When your graduation exceeds significantly your entry into the process … two years from now you will have no students because you graduated everyone.” 

Last year, Ottawa capped the number of new study permits issued in order to reduce international student admission by 35 per cent, as Canada’s temporary resident population was soaring. The cap did not apply to students for master’s and doctoral programs or in elementary and secondary schools.

This year, the study permit caps were reduced by another 10 per cent and include those pursuing post-graduate studies in the country.

Leveraging early 2025 study permit data, ApplyBoard projects the total number of study permits issued may reach 420,000, just short of the overall cap (437,000). However, Basiri said that’s deceiving because only 163,000 of these permits are going to new international students, half of the volume admitted in 2024 and nearly 70 per cent fewer than 2023….

Source: Over half of Canada’s 2025 study permits going to international students already here

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Inquiétude palpable au Québec devant la chute marquée du nombre d’étudiants internationaux

2025/06/12 Leave a comment

As elsewhere in Canada:

Le nombre de demandes d’admission d’étudiants internationaux dans les universités québécoises a chuté de près de moitié en un an au Québec. Une situation qui menace de nuire à la survie financière de plusieurs établissements, à la recherche scientifique et à la vitalité économique de plusieurs secteurs, montre une vaste étude obtenue par Le Devoir.

Le document, de plus de 230 pages, a été réalisé par le cabinet de conseil en management Volume 10, qui rendra celui-ci public mercredi au terme d’une démarche marquée par une importante collecte de données gouvernementales et universitaires de même que par la réalisation de plus d’une centaine d’entretiens avec des chanceliers d’université, des acteurs du milieu des affaires et des personnalités, parmi lesquelles figurent Pauline Marois, Jean Charest et le scientifique en chef du Québec, Rémi Quirion.

« Il n’y a tout simplement pas assez d’étudiants québécois qui poursuivent des études avancées en science. Quand j’étais chercheur, sans l’apport des étudiants internationaux, mon laboratoire n’aurait jamais pu connaître un tel succès international », a d’ailleurs déclaré M. Quirion dans un entretien accordé aux auteurs de ce rapport, le président de Volume 10, Félix-Antoine Joli-Coeur, et la chercheuse Leila Dhar.

Or, entre avril 2024 et avril 2025, l’ensemble des universités québécoises a enregistré en moyenne une baisse des demandes d’admission provenant de l’international de 45,9 %, montre ce rapport, qui associe cette chute à une série de décisions prises par Québec et Ottawa dans les dernières années.

Le gouvernement fédéral a notamment mis en place en janvier 2024 un plafond du nombre de permis d’études pouvant être remis à des étudiants internationaux à l’échelle du pays, venant ainsi réduire de 35 % la délivrance de ceux-ci par rapport à l’année précédente. Il a par la suite abaissé ce seuil maximal de 10 % en janvier dernier par rapport à 2024….

Source: Inquiétude palpable au Québec devant la chute marquée du nombre d’étudiants internationaux

The number of applications for admission from international students to Quebec universities has fallen by almost half in a year in Quebec. A situation that threatens to harm the financial survival of several institutions, scientific research and the economic vitality of several sectors, shows a large study obtained by Le Devoir.

The document, of more than 230 pages, was produced by the management consulting firm Volume 10, which will make it public on Wednesday at the end of an approach marked by an important collection of government and academic data as well as by the conduct of more than a hundred interviews with university chancellors, business actors and personalities, including Pauline Marois, Jean Charest and Quebec’s chief scientist, Rémi Quirion.

“There are simply not enough Quebec students pursuing advanced studies in science. When I was a researcher, without the contribution of international students, my laboratory could never have been so successful internationally, “said Mr. Quirion in an interview with the authors of this report, the president of Volume 10, Félix-Antoine Joli-Coeur, and researcher Leila Dhar.

However, between April 2024 and April 2025, all Quebec universities recorded an average decrease in international admission applications of 45.9%, shows this report, which links this fall to a series of decisions taken by Quebec and Ottawa in recent years.

In particular, the federal government implemented in January 2024 a ceiling on the number of study permits that can be issued to international students nationwide, thus reducing the issuance of them by 35% compared to the previous year. It subsequently lowered this maximum threshold by 10% last January compared to 2024….

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Shang: America’s talented foreign students could find a home in Canada 

2025/06/03 2 Comments

No to tuition-fee discounts, however. Scholarships for the most talented yes. And the scaling back focus is mainly on the college sector, not on the university graduate students that we should aim to attract.

…Canadian policymakers and university administrators need to act boldly, and they need to act now. Outreach will be critical. This is the time to actively promote our universities as not just reputable, but reliable: institutions where academic freedom is protected, immigration pathways are stable, and world-class education leads to long-term opportunity. 

Strategic outreach to high school and university graduates must go beyond general recruitment. Instead, it should signal with clarity and ambition that Canada is ready to welcome the talent that once defaulted to America. Administratively, universities should simplify credit transfer systems for students wishing to shift mid-degree from the U.S. to Canada. Financially, there can be partial scholarships or tuition-fee discounts for U.S.-based international students affected by policy changes. This requires a rethink of our immigration policies, given that Canada has been scaling back student visas. The federal government, the provinces and university administrators should work together to fast-track visas for talented students. 

Recruiting efforts should not only be limited to students. Many world-renowned researchers and professors are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the instability and politicization of academia in America, and some have already chosen to move to Canadian institutions. Canadian universities can create new and accelerated tenure-track positions and lab relocation grants for such researchers.

An influx of world-class international students and academics would not only strengthen our research institutions but also bolster long-term innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce competitiveness. Their integration into Canadian society contributes to demographic renewal, economic growth, and the global standing of our universities.

Source: America’s talented foreign students could find a home in Canada

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Harvard Has Strong Chance To Prevail Over Trump In Immigration Lawsuit

2025/05/30 Leave a comment

Hopefully, will lead to another defeat for the Trump administration’s self-harming policies:

Harvard University has a strong chance to prevail in its immigration battle with the Trump administration over the right to enroll international students. After Harvard refused the Trump administration’s demands for the federal government to take over the university’s hiring, admissions and governance policies, the Department of Homeland Security removed the school’s certification to admit international students. The high-profile action against Harvard came as the Trump administration’s nominee for director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said he would eliminate Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT, another measure educators warn could cause international student enrollment at U.S. universities to plummet.

The Trump Administration’s Immigration Decision On International Students

On May 22, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem sent a letterto Harvard: “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program [SEVP] certification is revoked.”

Without the certification, a school cannot enroll international students.

Enacted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the SEVP rules and certification process were intended to encourage schools to report when students dropped out or no longer maintained a required course load and to remove fraudulent or illegitimate schools. The rules were never intended to be used to punish universities for not complying with unrelated demands by ending their ability to enroll international students….

The Wall Street Journal asked, “Is Trump Trying To Destroy Harvard?” in a recent editorial. “The Trump Administration has frozen billions in federal grants to Harvard University, threatened its tax-exempt status and sought to dictate its curriculum and hiring,” wrote the Journal. “Now the government seems bent on destroying the school for the offense of fighting back. And for what purpose? That’s how we read the Department of Homeland Security’s move Thursday to bar foreign students from attending the world-renowned institution.”

The editorial labeled the move against international students, a quarter of Harvard’s student body, “whose futures are suddenly in disarray,” to be “a short-sighted attack on one of America’s great competitive strengths: Its ability to attract the world’s best and brightest.”…

Source: Harvard Has Strong Chance To Prevail Over Trump In Immigration Lawsuit

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ICYMI: Foreign student asylum claims hit record high in 2024, set to grow in 2025

2025/05/21 Leave a comment

Of note. About 4 percent of all students is 2024:

International students filed a record 20,245 asylum claims last year, with 2025 on track to surpass that number, according to federal immigration data obtained by Global News.

The claims are rising, even as Ottawa cuts the number of study permits it issues, with Prime Minister Mark Carney pledging like his predecessor Justin Trudeau to return Canadian immigration to “sustainable levels.”

The newly released figures also suggest that 2025 could see an even greater number of claims by foreign students. In the first three months of the year, international students filed 5,500 asylum claims, a 22 per cent increase from the same period last year.

The data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada show the number of international students seeking asylum last year was nearly double the 2023 figures and six times higher than in 2019.

Immigration lawyers say the numbers will keep trending upwards, as the federal government restricts previously available pathways to permanent residence, and as the backlog for adjudicating cases continues to balloon.

“The government has closed a lot of doors for international students to apply for permanent residence through regular streams,” said Toronto-based immigration and refugee lawyer Chantal Desloges.

“As a result, it’s funneling people to look for other solutions.”

Pressure grows to ‘dial back’ levels

During his first news conference as prime minister, Carney repeated his pledge to cap the total number of temporary workers and international students to less than five per cent of the Canadian population by the end of 2027, down from seven per cent.

“This will help ease strains on housing, on public infrastructure and social services,” said Carney on May 2.

Source: Foreign student asylum claims hit record high in 2024, set to grow in 2025

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