50% Drop in Study Permits Issued to Indian Students by Canada in 2025: Report

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a limit of 316,276 students for new international students this year, but present trends suggest only 20-30% of that target may be met.

The Wire Staff

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a limit of 316,276 students for new international students this year, but present trends suggest only 20-30% of that target may be met.

50 drop in study permits issued to indian students by canada in 2025 report

A collage of the Canadian (Photo: abdallahh/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0) and Indian (Photo: Clément Bardot/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0) flags.

New Delhi: A sharp decline has been recorded in the study permits issued to Indian students by Canada in 2025. As pr a report by ICEF Monitor, a 50% year-on-year drop has been recorded as as approvals fell from 188,255 in 2024 to only 52,765 in the first seven months of 2025, reported Economic Times. The estimated total for the year could end up being around 90,454, which is a whopping 67.5% down from 2023 levels.

The INCEF Monitor report reveals that only 143,485 study permit applications across all nationalities were processed by Canada between January and June 2025, of which 104,980 were from new applicants. Of this, only 31,580 were approved, making the approval rate just above 30%, compared with 51% in the same period in 2024.

At present, Indian students make up for a major share of Canada’s international students, especially in provinces such as Ontario, where they represent over 60% of enrolments.

The Economic Times report added that the steep decline has forced educational institutions to introduce emergency measures such as scholarships and increased online course offerings.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a limit of 316,276 students for new international students this year, but present trends suggest only 20-30% of that target may be met.

From January to July 2025, only 44,105 new international students arrived in Canada, registering a 68.97% decrease from 142,175 in the same period in 2024.

At the same time, the total number of active study permit holders decreased from 1,023,785 in January 2024 to 785,830 by July 2025, showing a 23.2% overall decline.

This article went live on February twenty-third, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-four minutes past seven in the evening.

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