Canada to Double Cost-of-Living Requirement for International Students

Immigration Minister Marc Miller in a file photo. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

In an effort to limit the number of international students coming to Canada, Immigration Minister Marc Miller has announced a near doubling of the money student applicants will need to prove they have before acquiring a student visa.

“In welcoming international students, we have a responsibility to make sure that students are supported when they come to our country,” Mr. Miller said during a press conference on Dec. 7.

“Ahead of September 2024, we are prepared to take necessary measures including significantly limiting visas to ensure that designated learning institutions provide adequate and sufficient student support as part of the academic experience.”

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, applicants will need to show they have $20,635 in funds—not including tuition—to support themselves in Canada. Applicants currently have to prove they have $10,000 in funds per year before coming to Canada, a cutoff that has not been changed since the 2000s.

Mr. Miller said the change reflected a more “accurate cost of living level” that would allow international students to arrive in the country with the “necessary resources to live and study in Canada.” He added that future increases to the amount would be tied to the low-income cutoff that Statistics Canada publishes every year, which is the income threshold where families will need to spend 20 percentage points more than the average family on food, shelter, and clothing.

The immigration minister also announced that the waiver on the 20-hour per week off-campus work limit—which was launched as a pilot in November 2022 and set to expire at the end of December 2023—would be extended to April 30, 2024, for international students. He also said Ottawa is mulling expanding that limit to 30 hours per week while classes are in session, as “our data shows us that 80 percent of international students work more than 20 hours per week.”

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Mr. Miller said while it would be a “mistake” to blame international students for Canada’s ongoing housing crisis, “it would also be a mistake to invite them to come to Canada with no support including how to put a roof over their heads.”

Mr. Miller also said that colleges and universities have a responsibility to ensure there are enough resources to support students, citing concerns that some provinces have the university equivalent of “puppy mills” that are “churning out diplomas.”

“This is not a legitimate student experience. There is fraud and abuse, and it needs to end,” he said.

The number of international students in Canada has hit record levels, with government figures showing more than 807,000 study permit holders in the country in 2022, an increase of over 190,000 from 2021. According to the federal government, international education accounts for more than $22 billion in economic activity annually in Canada.