The Canadian government announced the provincial and territorial allocations under the international student cap are finalized for 2025.

Key Points:

  • As BAL reported, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) capped the number of study permit applications in 2024 and reduced the number of international students by about 40%.
  • For 2025, IRCC plans to issue a total of 437,000 study permits, which represents a 10% decrease from the 2024 cap.
  • Of the 437,000 study permits expected to be issued in 2025, the government breaks down allotment by province or territory and by student cohort.
  • Of the 2025 target for study permits, 120,724 are expected to come from PAL/TAL-exempt students, while 316,267 are expected to come from PAL/TAL-required groups.

Additional Information: Master’s and doctoral students, as well as most applicants applying from within Canada, are now required to submit a provincial attestation letter or territorial attestation letter (PAL/TAL) as part of a study permit application. This change occurred since the introduction of the cap last year. The government is reserving spaces specifically for graduate students and adding a new PAL/TAL exemption for exchange students, ensuring that Canadian students can continue to benefit from reciprocal agreements to study abroad. Officials also want to target issuing a specific number of study permits for capped cohorts so that provinces and territories issue the same number of study permits to graduate students in 2025 as they did in 2023.

The government is reducing targets across multiple immigration streams to strengthen programs and help ease the strain on housing, healthcare and other services. This measure specifically is designed to ease pressures in rental markets with high student populations.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice Group.

Copyright © 2025 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Reprinting or digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with the express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. For inquiries, please contact copyright@bal.com.