By Vipal Monga


TORONTO--Canada's government on Monday said it would apply a two-year cap on undergraduate student visas, limit international students' ability to apply for work permits after graduating and restrict undergraduate students' ability to use visas to bring spouses to Canada.

Immigration minister Marc Miller said Canada would limit the number of student visas it issues this year and next to 364,000, a 35% decrease from existing levels. The move is the first major rollback of immigration policies announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which has made boosting immigration central to its economic agenda.

When Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, there were 352,325 student-visa holders in Canada, according to government statistics. Last year, the number jumped to roughly 900,000.

Miller said many international students have been charged high tuition fees by private colleges in Canada that have not lived up to the promises they made to the students. In many cases, students have been given degrees that don't set them up for their professions, said Miller.

"It is not the intention of this program to have sham commerce degrees or business degrees that are sitting atop a massage parlor that someone doesn't even go to and then they come into the province and drive an Uber," said Miller.

The number of foreign students at Canadian universities and vocational colleges hit record levels last year. Government ministers have said that the numbers are increasing demand for housing, causing rents to rise in cities and towns already struggling to house existing residents.

Trudeau's government has been flailing in public opinion polls, weighed down by criticism he has failed to deal with a housing shortage that is driving up home prices in the Group of Seven country with the lowest number of dwellings per capita.

The Canadian government has set an ambitious target for immigration into Canada. It is seeking to give permanent-residency status-Canada's version of the U.S.'s green card-to 485,000 immigrants this year, increasing the target to 500,000 in 2025, which would be roughly a 25% increase from 2021 numbers.

The increased immigration is driving demand for housing. Prices in Canada remain among the highest in the world, and rents have also surged. According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp., a government-backed mortgage insurer, Canada's vacancy rate for rental units fell to 1.9% in 2022, their lowest level since 2001.


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-22-24 0947ET