Foreign students applying to study in Canada will need to prove they have double the amount of money in their bank accounts that is currently required next year.
Starting on Jan. 1, international students will have to show they have access to $20,635, more than double the current $10,000 requirement, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced in a news release on Thursday.
“Our aim is to strike the right balance between welcoming international students and making sure they have all they need to thrive,” Miller said.
The amount will be adjusted yearly based on cost of living data from Statistics Canada.
“Future increases will be tied to the low income cut-off (LICO) that Statistics Canada publishes every year,” the news release said.
The amount of $20,635 represents 75 per cent of the LICO. Students will have to prove they have access to this amount in addition to their first year of tuition and travel costs.
The 2024 requirement has been raised to reflect the current cost of living and to ensure that students can support themselves while studying abroad. Prior to this update, it had not been changed since the early 2000s.
As a result, the financial requirement has fallen behind the cost of living over time, consequently students are arriving in Canada only to learn that they don’t have enough funds.
The new policy should help to prevent student vulnerability and exploitation, and puts the onus on educational institutions to only take the number of students that they can provide adequate support for.
Miller warned that visa limitations may also be implemented to ensure that educational institutions provide adequate and sufficient student supports.
“We are revising the cost-of-living threshold so that international students understand the true cost of living here. This measure is key to their success in Canada. We are also exploring options to ensure that students find adequate housing. These long-overdue changes will protect international students from financially vulnerable situations and exploitation,” Miller concluded.
Currently, international education accounts for more than $22 billion in economic activity annually in Canada.
