International students who apply to come to Canada from January 1, 2024, will need to show significantly more funds under changes to the program announced on Thursday.

The amount will increase from $10,000 to more than $20,000, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said.

Miller also announced updates for three existing temporary policies.

He extended the waiver on the 20-hour-per-week off-campus work limit to April 30, 2024. It had been due to expire at the end of the year. “We continue to examine options for this policy in the future, such as expanding off-campus work hours for international students to 30 hours per week while class is in session,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said.

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A further measure allowing students to count online studies towards the length of a future Post-Graduation Work Permit has also been extended to include students who begin a program before September 1, 2024. The time spent studying online must constitute less than 50 per cent of the studies.

Lastly, the measure allowing an additional 18 months for PGWP holders whose existing work permit was expiring, introduced during Covid-19, will expire at the end of this year and not be extended.

Students Will Now Require $20,635 In Unencumbered Funds

The move to increase the funds required by international students is designed to ensure new foreign students have enough money to live while they are in the country.

New candidates will need to show they have $20,635, which is 75 per cent of the Statistics Canada low-income cut-off, the minimum amount the federal government says is needed to live in the country.

The previous requirement was to show $10,000 in unencumbered funds, an amount that hadn’t been updated since the early 2000s. 

The change follows reports of international students visiting food banks to survive. Some of Canada’s food banks – intended to feed the needy – said they would no longer open to international students.

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“International students provide significant cultural, social and economic benefits to their communities, but they have also faced challenges navigating life in Canada,” Miller said.

“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.”

International education accounts for more than $22 billion in economic activity annually, greater than Canada’s exports of auto parts, lumber or aircraft, and supports more than 200,000 jobs in Canada.

The new financial guidelines are also being applied to the Student Direct Stream, a special study permit application process available to residents of 14 countries that requires additional up-front information from the applicant and provides priority processing.

Quebec has established its own cost-of-living threshold for international students destined for Quebec’s learning institutions and has continued to raise this threshold periodically.