New requirements for securing a visa create additional challenges for students and workers looking to enter the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada in 2024 and 2025.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller announced changes to Canada’s student visa requirements, taking effect in early 2024.[1]
In Canada and the UK, a troubling fall may be ahead for workers and students seeking visas.
In January 2024, Canada established a new cap on student visas. This “temporary” two-year cap is expected to decrease the number of international study permits available in 2024 by thirty-five percent, with provinces like Ontario being reduced by a whopping fifty percent.[2] The cap for 2025 will be decided at the end of 2024, a time when many international high school and undergraduate students may be weighing their options for the year ahead.
Canada has also raised the standard of financial stability required to qualify for a student visa. Beginning in January 2024, international students must show that they have CA$20,635 to cover their living expenses, more than twice the previously required proof of CA$10,000.[3]
The Canadian government cites “unsustainable growth” and increasing concern about protecting international students from “bad actors” as the reason for these changes.[4] Groups such as Migrant Students United have called the changes an “emotional rollercoaster” and called for regulation of predatory institutions, rather than “punishing working-class international students and their families.”[5] The Canadian government also cites pressure on the housing and healthcare systems; over the last two years, rents rose twenty-one percent throughout the country.[6] At the same time, the government must contend with the fact that international students contribute CA$22 billion Canadian to the economy.[7]The government claims that while these changes may make the admission and study permit process more competitive, it will ultimately make the international student program more robust and sustainable.[8]
At the end of 2023, the UK also announced an increase in the minimum salary required for a Skilled Worker visa from £26,200 to £38,700—a forty-eight percent increase.[9] Additionally, the UK has implemented an occupation-specific ‘going-rate’ minimum salary that employers must meet.[10] In June 2023, close to half of Skilled Worker migrants who work as chartered accountants would not have met the new occupation-specific rate.[11] The UK Home Office stated in a post on X that the change will protect worker’s wages and prioritize British talent.[12] This comes off the back of the UK’s previous ban on most overseas students bringing their families to the UK and anticipates an April 2024 increase in the minimum income requirement for family visas.[13] The UK-based Immigration Advice Service estimates that migrants contribute £42 billion to the UK economy.[14]
However, while Canada seems to be drawing ever-tighter boundaries on their international undergraduate populations, graduate student prospects are expanding. As of the spring of 2024, international graduate students who finished a one-year graduate program are eligible for a three-year work permit, in contrast to the previous one-year work permit allowance.[15] The effect of this change will likely be an uptick in permanent residency applications in the coming years, as recent graduates will have more time to gather Canadian work experience and become eligible.
Similarly, the new visa requirements in the UK do not simply reduce the number of migrants coming into the country; in some circumstances, the new income requirements may impact British workers more than migrant workers in the same occupation.[16] Furthermore, many migrant workers may be eligible for other visa types, such as Youth Mobility, Graduate, or High Potential Individual, leading to a shift in application type.[17]
The most immediate effect of these changes in both the UK and Canada will likely involve greater complexity for immigrants looking to enter for work and education in 2024 and 2025, with potential hurdles for domestic citizens from 2024 on as well.
[1] Sean Kilpatrick, Photograph of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller, in The Canadian Press, Federal Government Hikes Income Requirement for Foreign Students, Targets ‘Puppy Mill’ Schools, CBC News (Dec. 7, 2023, 3:49 PM), https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-double-income-requirement-foreign-students-1.7052387.
[2] Aaron Wherry, Federal Government Announces 2-Year Cap on Student Permits, CBC News (Jan. 22, 2024, 10:04 AM), https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/miller-cap-international-students-1.7090779.
[3] How Canada’s New 2024 Student Visa Rules Will Affect International Students, Arrive (Jan. 31, 2024), https://arrivein.com/studying/how-canadas-new-2024-student-visa-rules-will-affect-international-students/.
[4] News Release, Immigr., Refugees & Citizenship Can., Gov’t of Can., Canada to Stabilize Growth and Decrease Number of New International Student Permits Issued to Approximately 360,000 for 2024 (Jan. 22, 2024), https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2024/01/canada-to-stabilize-growth-and-decrease-number-of-new-international-student-permits-issued-to-approximately-360000-for-2024.html.
[5] Kevin Maimann, B.C., Ontario Vow to Crack Down on Diploma Mill Schools Exploiting International Students, CBC News (Jan. 23, 2024, 4:00 AM), https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/provinces-cracking-down-on-private-institutions-1.7091194#:~:text=CBC%20News%20Loaded-,B.C.%2C%20Ontario%20vow%20to%20crack%20down%20on%20diploma%20mill%20schools,for%20the%20next%20two%20years.
[6] Immigr., Refugees & Citizenship Can., supra note 4 (“Rapid increases in the number of international students arriving in Canada also puts pressure on housing, health care and other services.”); The Canadian Press, Canada’s Average Asking Rent Jumped to Almost $2,200 in February, Global News (Mar. 11, 2024, 6:36 PM), https://globalnews.ca/news/10352202/rent-prices-february-2024-canada/.
[7] Wa Lone, Why is Canada Capping Foreign Students and Who Will Be Affected?, Reuters (Jan. 31, 2024, 11:13 AM), https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/why-is-canada-capping-foreign-students-who-will-be-impacted-2024-01-22/.
[8] See Immigr., Refugees & Citizenship Can., supra note 4 (describing the Canadian government’s commitment to “developing a sustainable path forward for international students”).
[9] CJ McKinney & Melanie Gower, Changes to Legal Migration Rules for Family and Work Visas in 2024, House of Commons Libr.(May 29, 2024), https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9920/.
[10] Id.; Ben Brindle & Madeleine Sumption, How Will New Salary Thresholds Affect UK Migration?, The Migration Observatory at the U. of Oxford (Dec. 6, 2023), https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/how-will-new-salary-thresholds-affect-uk-migration/.
[11] Id.
[12] Home Office (@ukhomeoffice), X (Apr. 4, 2024, 6:20 AM), https://x.com/ukhomeoffice/status/1775830787763359947.
[13] Id.
[14] The Effect of Immigration on the UK Economy, Immigr. Advice Serv., https://iasservices.org.uk/the-effect-of-immigration-on-the-uk-economy/ (last visited Aug. 9, 2024).
[15] How Canada’s New 2024 Student Visa Rules Will Affect International Students, supra note 3.
[16] Brindle & Sumption, supra note 10.
[17] Shannon A. Donnelly et al., UK Government Announces Plans to Reduce Migration, Morgan Lewis: LawFlash (Dec. 8, 2023), https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2023/12/uk-government-announces-plans-to-reduce-migration.
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