The true post(news Web)Furqan is one of hundreds of Pakistani students who have traveled to Canada to pursue higher education. When he arrived in Canada in 2023, like thousands of other international students there, the biggest problem he faced was accommodation.
“The biggest challenge I faced upon arriving here was that I couldn’t find a place to live,” says Furqan.
Furqan was forced to use Airbnb, where he had to pay 80 to 100 Canadian dollars per day in rent, which quickly depleted his savings.
Finally, they saw a ray of hope in the form of a local mosque.
Furqan says he went to the mosque and networked with people there. “Then he got me a room for rent in a Pakistani house through his reference.”
Furqan is not alone, there are thousands of foreign students like him in Canada who are worried about housing. Citing the housing shortage and rising rents, the Canadian government has announced a reduction in the number of visas issued to foreign students this year.
Earlier this week, Canada’s Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced that approximately 360,000 international students will be issued student visas this year (2024). According to official figures, this number of visas is 35 percent lower than last year.
The Canadian government says it has set a limit on the number of study permits for all provinces, states and territories based on population. The move will result in a significant reduction in the number of students in provinces where the number of international students exceeded the limit.
The government has directed provincial and state authorities to create a clear procedure for distributing permits to various universities and colleges.
According to the Canadian government, these temporary measures will be in place for two years and the policy will be reviewed before the 2025 study permit issuance.
According to the policy, from September 1, 2024, all international students studying under the Curriculum Licensing Program will not be eligible for a post-graduation work permit after graduation. The Curriculum Licensing Program allows private colleges to deliver the curriculum of the relevant public c
Officials say that these colleges are much less supervised than government colleges, and people take advantage of this to try to obtain post-graduation work permits.
Under the new policy, graduates of master’s and other short graduate-level programs will soon be eligible to apply for a three-year work permit. Under the current policy, the duration of a post-graduation work permit was based on the length of the student’s program of study. This made it difficult for master’s graduates to gain work experience and potentially obtain permanent residency in Canada.
In the coming weeks, open work permits will only be available to spouses of international students enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs. Spouses of international students enrolled in undergraduate and college programs will no longer be eligible to obtain open work permits.
Shahzeb Raees runs a consulting firm in Karachi that provides consultancy services to students wishing to study abroad.
According to him, the visa application approval rate for Pakistani students in Canada is more than 60 percent, which is the highest after the UK. This is why Pakistani students are flocking to Canada in large numbers.
Shahzeb agrees with Furqan that the biggest problem for Pakistani students going to Canada is accommodation, because not only is there a lack of proper accommodation there, but the rents there are also very high.
“Rents increase there almost on a quarterly basis,” he added, adding that another problem faced by students living there is that, against the law, several students are living in one apartment, which often leads to raids by authorities.
Canadian Immigration Minister Mark Mulroney says it is the government’s responsibility to ensure international students have access to the resources they need for an enriched educational experience.
Miller said that international students are a source of strength for Canadian society, but the program has become so attractive that it is being misused, so action has been decided in this regard.
He said the new policy aims to prevent these actions and ensure the integrity of the Canadian immigration system.
