The Canadian government is more than doubling the amount of money international students must show for their living expenses when they apply for their study permit.
The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued a statement stating that starting Jan. 1, 2024, students applying to come to Canada must show a minimum of CAD 20,635 per year for living expenses. This is roughly 75-percent of the low income cut off (LICO).
The LICO in Canada is defined as the minimum income necessary to ensure that an individual doesn’t have to spend a greater than average portion of their income on necessities.
Minimum Might be Increased
After 2024, the CAD 20,635 threshold will be adjusted every year based on the LICO update from Statistics Canada.
Students who have already come to Canada can meet their living cost needs by working here, provided they are allowed to do so.
Until now, students had to show a minimum of CAD 10,000 per year for their living costs.
However, over the past years, particularly since the Covid, inflation rapidly increased with a related increase in cost of living.
Student Welfare Concerns
Over the past few months, Canadian media had reported that international students were seeking help of food banks to meet their basic needs. However, food banks are meant for low-income families and many food banks, particularly those in major cities in Ontario, had complained that they are unable to serve the needy because of the increased use by international students.
Some food banks have stopped giving food for international students.
But the government is aware that the significant raise in living costs requirement will make it harder for many students from around the world to want to come to Canada to pursue higher education.
To address this issue, the government says it plans to implement “targeted pilots” to test ideas to help “underrepresented cohorts of international students”.
It is not clear whether the government meant it will make exceptions in this requirement for students from less developed countries, or whether it meant students who have excelled themselves in academics but are financially unable to meet the new requirement will have special arrangements to come to Canada to study.
