The New Canadian Student Visa Update and how it might Affect You

Restriction on PGWP eligibility and a Tighter Cap on study permit approvals

On 18th September Canadian Immigration minister announced three more updates for the international students. The former temporary measures to initiate a cap on international students will be made permanent. That means from now on every year IRCC will allow a specific number of study permits. In the year 2025, 435k study permits will be issued which is 10% less than the previous year. 

The three updates includes: 

-The MS and PhD applicants will require a provincial attestation letter from the province. 

-The Post graduate work permit holders will need a IELTS general training score to apply. 

-The Spousal Open work permit will only be given to the spouse of the MS and PhD students whose masters is more than 16 months long. 

These are the main updates. I know a lot of you are panicking and have lots of questions. I didn't reply to most of them because it's still too early to comment on everything. In this section I am just sharing my un-expert opinion regarding how it might affect you.

The Provincial Attestation Letter:

Earlier this year Canada introduced Provincial Attestation Letter or PAL for Undergraduate and college students. The MS and PhD applicants were exempted from submitting one. This is just a letter confirming that your province and your educational institution has enough space available for you to study and live in this province. Quebec has had a form of provincial attestation letter called CAQ for a long time. This is a simple document and nothing to be worried about. You personally don’t have to do anything on your part to obtain this letter. Once you get accepted by any university their administrative office will make arrangements to apply for this letter on your behalf. No extra charge is required. SOme universities expect you to confirm the seat by paying a minimum amount before they apply for your PAL. The only downside is it takes 15-20 days to get this letter after you are done with your offer letter. Normally students start preparing for their visa, once they get the PAL from the university they submit it in the IRCC portal along with other visa documents. You dont have to worry about PAL in the admission phase. The PAL is mainly introduced to limit the university from admitting more students than they can house. This year I have worked with several undergraduate applicants and a few diploma students. All of they got their PAL without any hassle. I am sure for the MS students the process will be smooth as well. 

New requirement for Post Graduate Work Permit:

This is another useless measure taken by the government to limit work permit to the undeserving candidates. They required CLB 7 for University students and CLB 5 for the college students for work permit. That menas from now on after you finish your degree in Canada, you will need to appear in a IELTS general training and get CLB 7. Now CLB 7 is a silly requirements. The equivalent IELTS score for CLB 7 is band 6. I don't think there are any Bangladeshi living in canada on study permit who would be unable to get this score. This is fairly easy. You just have to spend some extra dollar thats it. Since we don't have any control over the decisions taken by the government the best we can do is to set a strategy. If I were in this position I would probably take this test the summer before graduation when the regular academic pressure is low. Then finish the graduation and apply for PGWP. IELTS is not something you should worry too much about. Your main goal should be securing a JOB that fulfill your PR requirements. Someone asked me about the requirements regarding public colleges. We have to remember the students from private vugichugi colleges (here is a list of vugichugi colleges) are not even allowed to apply for PR since January. Only the public college students are eligible and they will need to show a CLB 5 score. Nothing has been mentioned about private universities. If your university is under the DLI list you are good to go. Personally I always prefer public universities then again not everyone is equally gifted so no judgment against those who choose private universities. 

Limit for Spousal Open work permit:

This one was real scary and has impacted a lot on students planning to come to Canada along with their family. In the past any post secondary students be it collagen, undergraduate or graduate level students, anyone could bring their  spouse on open work permit. Even I brought my spouse under this visa and it was one of the best ways to tackle your finances during your stay in Canada. A spouse on an open work permit can work full time and in most cases both spouses together could earn enough money to finance the study and living cost without bringing any money from Bangladesh. But this opportunity has created a huge pressure on the labor market. The employer always preferred the OWP holders as they can work full time. The student found it increasingly harder to find suitable part time opportunities. The unemployment rate has climbed rapidly in the past two years. To balance this unemployment rate this measure is taken where only the spouse of a student who is coming to study a more than 16 months program can get a work permit from now on. Anyone with a one year MS degree can get three years post graduate work permit but their spouse can't get OWP. 

How can we deal with this situation? First of all, if your financial situation is not stable, if you think studying in a 2 year program is unaffordable for you, if your spouse is unable to support financially, you should still consider a one year program. You can come to Canada without your spouse which will make country ties easier to show. Once you are done with your studies within a year apply for PGWP, get a full time job and apply for spousal OWP. Your spouse will be here in less than 2 years. The spouse of professional job holders can get a spousal OWP. That's the less convenient way for the people with financial difficulties. If you are financially strong you can certainly apply for a 2 year MS and apply along with your spouse. Even though the tuition is higher in a 2 year MS, if your spouse is there to support you financially after you come to Canada, the extra cost is well worth the risk. If I were in this situation I would choose option 2. 

It is what it is. There are immigration restrictions all over the world. I was looking into immigration updates in Australia, US, UK, Sweden, Finland. All of these countries have tightened the conditions to get into these countries. People are saying PR will be harder in the coming days. Of course PR will be harder. I applied for PR 5 years ago and it was the most stressful time of my life. No one is going to hand out a foreign passport without effort no matter what country you go to. Settling abroad is never easy, don't look for an easy way out, you will end up getting scammed. Make sure you know this is hard and prepare accordingly, many people have done it before you, if you are serious and patient you can figure this out as well.

Email me an info@tomarahman.com if you need help in your study abroad journey. thanks.