Canada Witnesses 60% Decline In Overseas Student Arrival Till September In 2025

Overseas student immigration and temporary workers' arrivals to Canada have taken a sharp decline in 2025, according to data recorded up until September that was cited by reports.

The number of non-native students went down by 60% and the percentage of temporary workers has also seen a downturn of 40%.

The data recorded a 53% decrease in the migration of both foreign students and temporary workers to Canada, which lead 308,880 more people not arriving in the country in comparison to the year-ago period.

Immigration of overseas students to Canada in September 2025 was 11,390, compared to 28,910 in September 2024, a downturn of 60%.

As many as 4.73 lakh owned a study permit as of Sept. 30, 2025, whereas 14.94 lakh have a work permit and 2.51 lakh were in possession of both a work and study permit.

Canada received 2.5 lakh students who immigrated there between January and September 2024, as compared to the 1 lakh students in the same period in 2025, which indicated a decline of 1.5 lakh students, this also indicated a downturn of close to 60%.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department is set to issue 4.37 lakh study permits in 2025, a 10% decline from the 2024 study permit limit. The student permit allocation process has also got more strict, with an attestation letter now being needed from a province or territory for every application sent to the immigration body.

Additionally, overseas students trying to get a curriculum licensing arrangement are barred from qualifying for a post-graduation work permit.

Open work permits will now be limited to the significant others of students in master’s and doctoral programmes, with those in undergraduate and college programmes not receiving the same permissions.

Canada also rejected in August up to 74% of the applicants from India who were registering for permits for post-secondary education institutes, reports said.