Canada to give permanent residency to international students under new pilot program

Canada has launched a new pilot program to attract more international students to Francophone communities across the country, by granting them permanent residency.

The program focuses on students from Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, aiming to improve admission rates and fairness.

The program will exempt students and their families from demonstrating their intent to leave Canada after their studies. It will also lower the financial requirements on students and their families.

One-third of Canadians will be foreign-born by 2041 if immigration continues at its current rates, Statistics Canada said in a briefing note. Canadian-born residents would also become a minority in Toronto.

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The pilot opens on August 26, 2024, with a cap of 2,300 students in the first year, to be reassessed in August 2025.

Students must have a letter of acceptance from a Designated Learning Institution (DLI) under the Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot (FMCS), reports CIC News.

The program is open to students from various countries, including but not limited to Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Haiti, Lebanon, Morocco, Rwanda, and Tunisia.

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Students will be allowed to bring their spouses, common-law partners, or dependent children who are eligible for visitor visas, work permits, or study permits, says Immigration.ca

These students will be exempt from some recent changes to Canada’s International Student Program, and as such will not need to provide a Provincial Attestation Letter.

Marc Miller, the Trudeau Liberals' immigration minister, puts the blame for Canada's housing crisis on the provinces for not building enough housing.

The Liberals, meanwhile, have massively increased all forms of new arrivals to Canada.https://t.co/t50c3TNz74 pic.twitter.com/iqlSb3poVQ

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“Canada recognizes that large pools of French-speaking international students exist in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, and that the study permit approval rate in these regions has been low in the past. Thanks to the new pilot program, we will make access to Canada’s International Student Program fairer for a wide range of international students,” states the IRCC.

This comes as the Liberal government is increasingly accused of undermining Canada's immigration system, plagued by dubious diploma mills, storefront immigration services, and individuals exploiting the system to expedite their path to permanent residency and citizenship.