IRCC Canada Released the List of 966 Eligible Academic Programs for PGWP

The so common and essential Canadian Dream for Indian Students is fast becoming a distant reality now, as IRCC (Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada) is coming down hard on laws regarding international students, in order to protect the integrity, quality and vulnerabilities of incoming students and their own population. To further strengthen this, IRCC Canada has declared to remove SDS ( Student Direct Stream ) now which was meant to make the Study Permit Application process smoother and provide students with fast tracked responses. Thus, Study Permit responses could now take up to 8 weeks which was around 3 weeks under SDS disturbing the equation for so many students who are in the process and also those who are aspiring to study in Canada in coming time. A lot of them would have had to change their plans, a lot of them who had their applications in the process are also stuck in the uncertainty.

Years of creative cooperation between Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) led to the creation of the Student Direct Stream. The DLI compliance reporting portal was made possible by earlier iterations of the program, which also improved information sharing. Originally created in collaboration with Scotiabank, the Student GIC made sure that students had access to the money they needed to support themselves while in Canada. Other requirements, such as police certificates and language test results, gave students confidence and helped to speed up processing times and increase approval rates. SDS decreased student vulnerability and helped make the process more predictable for both students and institutions, even though it was mostly used by Indian applicants.

A lot of students in the South Asian Region and Africa have been affected by this change of law, effective immediately from 8th November 2024, a lot of applications and visa files have been stopped and scrapped midway, bearing a great impact on the stakeholders as well as the representatives of Canadian Institutions across nations. Students are seeing their dreams fade away quickly, due to the constant and stringent law changes.

A lot of stakeholders and important people of the field cried foul, as they were assured that no major changes were going to be announced in frequent meetings previously, before dropping this hammer blow to the sector, catching them unawares. A lot of people are worried with constant changes in laws in the last few months, it has deeply affected the image of Canada as an international education destination and it will take a lot of effort to sell the dream to students with so many filters in place, eventually students leading to discovery of alternative options and study abroad destinations.

It has come to notice that due to this announcement, a lot of students have been left mid application, while a large portion of study abroad agencies dealing with students and handling them amidst constant deferrals are starting to get concerned as to how much time it will take to process applications, and whether they will get there in Canada at all.

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