Canadian Study Permits For Indians Down By 40%

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – The Canadian government processed almost 146,000 new study permit applications for Indian nationals from July to October 2002.

But across the same period in 2023, it processed fewer than 87,000, representing a year-over-year decrease of 41 percent, data released by Apply Board, an online platform for international student recruitment, said.

This means that almost 60,000 fewer student visas were processed for Indian students from July to October 2023 than over the same period in 2022.

From January to June 2023, the Canadian government processed 25 percent more study permit applications from Indian students than it did over the same period in 2022. The sharp drop comes even as the Canadian government announced last month that it will more than double the cost-of-living financial requirement for incoming international students beginning January 1, 2024.

So going forth, a single applicant will need to show they have $15,181 in addition to their first year of tuition and travel costs.

While it remains to be seen how the announcement will impact international students in terms of numbers, the reason for the drop in the later part of 2023 was attributed to a growing number of Indian students taking on to social media to speak about the hardships they faced in Canada.

In September last year, students from Punjab actively took to ‘X’ to speak about skyrocketing house rents in the country, which was forcing many of them to stay in cramped basement setups.

The data further said it is unlikely that the India-Canada relations, which has nosedived will depress the volume of study permit applications processed from India.