New Delhi: Canada has shifted its immigration policy towards “a targetted recruitment of top tier H-1B visa holders from the US” after capping its admission of foreign students, including Indians, by 25-32 percent.
In one of its biggest immigration overhauls, the Canada’s Carney government Tuesday unveiled a 1.7 billion dollar initiative aimed at attracting top-tier professionals from the US as part of the 2025 budget amid US’ decision to increase fees for H-1B visas to $100,000—a significant departure from the previous Trudeau government’s pro-immigration policies.
“The expertise of these researchers will help advance our global competitiveness and contribute to the economy of the future,” the Canada budget document said.
Immigration restrictions
The new budget aims to reduce the number of temporary immigrants over the next 3 years. The cuts involve reducing the intake of immigrants in the temporary foreign worker programme and the international student programme. According to local reports, the 2026 target for temporary foreign worker arrivals is now 60,000 down from the 82,000 in 2025 and the international target is around 1 lakh down from an intake of around 3 lakh last year.
According to Bloomberg, the Canadian budget aims to bring in 3,80,000 permanent residents per year from 2026 through 2028. But it is cutting temporary residents from 3,85,000 in 2026 to 3,70,000 for the following two years.
This reflects a reduction of over 40 percent from this year. For international students, the target is to issue 1,55,000 visas for 2026 and a further reduction of 1,50,000 by 2028, the report said.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government had earlier projected 3,05,900 permits annually from 2025 to 2027.
In 2024, Canada also revised its tourist visa policy, ending the practice of issuing 10-year multiple entry visas in order to curtail immigration.
Shifting policies
As reported by ThePrint earlier, Canada had introduced a series of changes to its immigration system in order to curtail their affordability crisis, following a record population boom at the end of COVID-19. The population shot up by 1.27 million (3.2%), the country’s highest since 1957.
According to Statistics Canada, the population boom was largely due to temporary workers and students allowed into the country. According to the government, without these temporary immigrants, the population growth would have been just a third of this figure.
The population boom was part of Trudeau’s post-pandemic immigration vision that saw fewer restrictions on temporary workers. In 2023, over 8,00,000 immigrants to the country were non-permanent residents, primarily temporary workers and students.
The government is now aiming to reduce the share of non-permanent residents to less than 5 percent of the population by the end of 2027. This has led the government to change course on its immigration policy, introducing curbs on student migration and resuming restrictions on the temporary workers programme.
In January 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that the number of international students allowed into Canada would be reduced to 3,60,000—a 35 percent decrease from 2023, as well as a cap on the number of international students allowed in each province along with a reversal in the expansion of temporary worker permits and permanent residence in the country.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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