On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Quebec introduced that it will likely be capping the variety of worldwide pupil purposes it receives.
The province has introduced that the utmost variety of purposes that it’s going to obtain underneath the Overseas Scholar Program is 124,760, within the interval between February 26, 2025, and February 26, 2026.
Uncover your choices to review in Canada
It has additional detailed how this restrict will probably be allotted between vocational coaching, schools, and universities.
The breakdown of most variety of purposes that will probably be acquired within the interval between February 26, 2025, and February 26, 2026 is as follows:
| Put up secondary establishments | Variety of examine allow purposes to be accepted |
| Vocational coaching | 32,261 |
| Schools | 29,200 |
| Universities | 63,299 |
| Complete | 124,760 |
This cover applies to all examine purposes acquired after February 26, 2025. It’s additional damaged down by instructional establishment and diploma kind.
That is the primary cap time the province has introduced such a cap on worldwide college students.
The cap particularly reduces the variety of purposes acquired by vocational coaching and school networks. As per the Authorities of Quebec, the intention is to decrease the variety of purposes acquired by these establishments whereas stabilizing the variety of purposes by new college students within the college community, resulting in an general discount in enrollment within the province.
It’s value noting that this cover is for purposes it can settle for for processing and never the variety of examine permits the province will challenge.
Exceptions to Quebec’s worldwide pupil cap
The Worldwide pupil cap doesn’t apply to the next cohorts:
- Those that submitted their utility kind earlier than February 26, 2025;
- These making use of to increase their keep in the identical vocational coaching examine program and inside the similar instructional establishment initially admitted;
- Dependent youngsters accompanying their mother and father staying in Quebec as a non permanent international employee or international pupil;
- These making use of to review on the main or secondary ranges;
- Those that utilized for defense underneath paragraph (b) or (c) of part 95(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Safety Act;
- These admitted to prescribed supplementary coaching by an expert order (a company that regulates professionals to guard the general public) within the well being sector; or
- These chosen underneath the Excellence Scholarship Program for Overseas College students and making use of to pursue skilled coaching.
Short-term residents to be included in Quebec’s upcoming Immigration Ranges Plan for the primary time
Jean-François Roberge, Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, has said that the one-year cap has been carried out in order that the federal government can proceed to “reassess the state of affairs and alter based on Quebec’s strategic wants, considering new traits that may emerge.”
To that observe, the Authorities of Quebec has introduced that non permanent immigration targets will probably be considered on this yr’s Immigration Ranges Plan for the primary time.
The targets talked about in Quebec’s upcoming Immigration Ranges Plan, anticipated within the third quarter of 2025, will inform selections on purposes that may accepted underneath the Overseas Scholar Program within the following years.
Quebec’s Immigration Ranges Plan 2025 (introduced final yr) didn’t present targets for admissions of non permanent residents, however did state that non permanent resident admissions targets could be established the next yr.
Federal authorities’s examine allow cap for 2025
In January, the Canadian federal authorities additionally capped the variety of examine allow purposes it might obtain at 550,162. Not like Quebec’s cap, the federal authorities’s cap is in impact till December 31, 2025.
This implies Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will solely course of examine allow purposes till the cap has been reached. Additional purposes is not going to be accepted for processing and utility charges refunded. This can be a discount from the variety of examine allow purposes that IRCC accepted in 2024 which is 606,250.
The federal authorities has additionally damaged down the the variety of examine permits it expects to challenge based on province in 2025. The anticipated variety of of examine permits to be issued to all cohorts requiring Provincial Attestation Letters (PALs) in Quebec is 72,977.
The federal authorities first began capping examine allow purposes in 2024 in an effort to stabilize the expansion of non permanent residents within the nation.
Uncover your choices to review in Canada

