This is how immigration rules will change in 2025

The changes come after years of accelerated population growth, a trend that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has attributed to increased immigration aimed at addressing labor shortages during Canada’s economic recovery (COVID-19). 19).

This text is a translation from CTV News.

“When the post-pandemic boom petered out and businesses no longer needed this additional labor assistance, the federal team could have acted more quickly,” Trudeau said in a video released last November.

“We have the means to put a stop to it. This is what we do.”

Here’s what you need to know about the changing rules:

How many immigrants will Canada accept in 2025?

This year, Canada expects a decline in the number of new immigrants for the first time since COVID-19 shutdowns, part of a plan that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says will “put a damper on population growth in the short term,” according to a press release published in October.

Presented as an effort to ease pressure on housing and social services, this change will result in the following measures:

• Permanent resident (PR) targets will be reduced from 500,000 to 395,000.
• The PR targets for 2026 and 2027 are 380,000 and 365,000 respectively.

In addition, Canada plans to curb the long-term growth of the non-permanent resident (NPR) population, by taking measures aimed at

• Reduce the proportion of NPRs in Canada from 6.5% to 5% of the population.
• Decrease NPR’s total population by approximately 445,000 people this year and another 445,000 next year, followed by an increase of 17,439 people in 2027.

In short: the admission of new permanent and non-permanent immigrants is expected to decline in the coming years.

Will Canada grant permanent resident status in 2025?

Federal projections show that more than 40% of newcomers granted permanent resident status this year will be people already residing in Canada as NPRs, as part of what IRCC calls its “focus on Canada “.

IRCC says this year the majority of new PRs will be economic immigrants, about 25% will be family immigrants and the rest will be reserved for refugees, protected persons and others.

Among all people who will obtain PR status over the next year, 8.5% are expected to be Francophones living outside Quebec, a proportion that is expected to reach one in ten by 2027. Quebec, which manages some aspects of immigration separately from the federal system, said about 80 per cent of immigrants admitted to the province next year are expected to know French.

In short: most new RPs will be workers, followed by family members, then refugees. A growing share of PR will be French-speaking.

What’s changing for temporary workers?

This year, the majority of new PRs will be workers, with 285,750 entering Canada under the international mobility program and 82,000 under the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program.

Eligibility criteria for these work programs will be stricter, according to the government, following concerns raised in recent years by employers who have misused the system to access cheap labor.

“We’ve seen far too many big companies do this,” Trudeau said in his November video speech. “We’re making the system work for Canadians and newcomers, rather than the big box stores, restaurant chains, immigration consultants and fake colleges that exploit it.

Here are some of the new rules:

According to Immigration Minister Marc Miller, these last two changes alone are expected to reduce the total number of post-graduation work permits by 175,000 over the next three years.

In the meantime, the Canadian TFW program has seen its scope reduced:

• For low-wage jobs, employers can now only hire 10% of their workforce through the program (with some exceptions).
• New applications for low-wage TFWs will only be accepted in regions where the unemployment rate is less than 6% (with exceptions).
• Low-wage TFW jobs will now only last a maximum of one year, compared to two years previously.
• The minimum wage for a worker in the high-wage category increased to the median wage of the province or territory, plus 20%. Previously, the minimum wage was equal to the median wage in the work region.

The government also says it plans to continue cracking down on abuses of the TFW program, citing a 36% year-over-year increase in fines issued in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

In short: the conditions for obtaining a work permit are increasingly strict, particularly for temporary foreign workers.

Does Canada still accept foreign students?

Since the start of 2024, foreign student visas have been subject to admission caps, both at the federal level and by province or territory, weighted according to the distribution of the population.

These caps were first introduced last January following what IRCC called “unsustainable growth” in Canada’s international student system.

This year, the cap for study permit approvals is 437,000, up from 485,000 in 2024, which is expected to result in the arrival of approximately 305,900 international students in 2025. Subject to future revisions, this number of new arrivals is expected to be maintained until 2027.

In addition, there are more and more students pursuing master’s and doctoral studies:

Students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees are no longer excluded from the cap and will now be required to submit provincial or territorial letters of attestation as part of their application. Approximately 12% of licensure approvals will be allocated to advanced degrees.

Full-time international students with permits can now work off campus up to 24 hours per week. When classes are not taught, for example during summer or winter holidays, eligible international students can work full-time.

Work hour caps have fluctuated in recent years, from unlimited hours during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery to a stricter limit of 20 hours until November last year.

In short: caps on foreign student work permits are increasingly strict, and graduate students are no longer exempt. Authorized full-time students can now work more hours than before in their off-campus employment.

What about asylum seekers?

The admission targets for refugees and protected persons will also decrease: 58,350 people are expected to arrive this year, then 55,350 in 2026 and 54,350 in 2027.

Additionally, IRCC has suspended refugee sponsorships from private groups, citing a volume of applications that consistently exceeds available places. Until the end of 2025, Canada will not accept new sponsorship applications from groups of five private sponsors or community organizations.

Since last February, the federal government has required Mexican visitors arriving by air to apply for a Canadian visitor visa, unless they already hold a U.S. non-immigrant visa or are new to the country. have held a Canadian visa in the last ten years. According to IRCC, these new stricter rules follow a large number of asylum applications rejected, abandoned or withdrawn in recent years.

In summary, Canada will admit fewer refugees than before over the next three years and has suspended some forms of sponsorship of new refugees. Visitors arriving from Mexico by air will need to apply for a visa, unless they have held one within the last ten years or have one from the United States.

What about visitors on short-term visas?

In November, IRCC announced that 10-year, multiple-entry visas would no longer be the standard document for visitors to Canada.

Previously, visas allowing visitors to enter and exit the country multiple times over a ten-year period were issued routinely, but according to the latest updates from the federal government, the duration and flexibility of these permits will now be determined on a case-by-case basis by visa officers.

Additionally, as a result of what the IRCC calls “bad actors” abusing the policy to deceive potential foreign workers, visitors are no longer allowed to directly apply for a work permit while already staying in the country.

A pandemic-era policy allowing permit applications in these circumstances, put in place to account for difficulties entering and exiting Canada amid containment measures, was set to end in February, but was canceled prematurely last August.

To find out more, visit the ministry’s visitor visa homepage.

In short: visas authorizing more than one visit to Canada will now be issued on a discretionary basis, and their duration will also vary. Visitors must now leave Canada before applying for a work permit.

What will be the impact on Canada?

According to IRCC estimates, Canada’s population is on track to experience a marginal decline of 0.2% this year and next, followed by an increase of 0.8% in 2027.

Due to recent and upcoming reductions in immigration, IRCC estimates that Canada’s housing supply deficit is expected to narrow by 670,000 units over the next three years.

Michael Donnelly, associate professor of political science at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto, notes that in the realm of public opinion, immigration and housing supply are deeply linked.

“Often the most violent struggles are around housing,” he said in a November interview with CTVNews.ca. “It’s no surprise that after the pandemic, housing prices skyrocketed and immigration started to pick up, and that became a hot spot.

Although Mr. Donnelly notes that the relationship between housing and immigration is complex, he says Canadians have lost confidence in the federal Liberals’ ability to control immigration, breaking a long-term trend of presumed stability.

It will take them a while to convince people that things are completely under control, and there will probably be an election before they do.