Quebec announces cap on international student applications

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Quebec announced that it will be capping the number of international student applications it receives.

The province has announced that the maximum number of applications that it will receive under the Foreign Student Program is 124,760, in the period between February 26, 2025, and February 26, 2026.

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It has further detailed how this limit will be allocated between vocational training, colleges, and universities.

The breakdown of maximum number of applications that will be received in the period between February 26, 2025, and February 26, 2026 is as follows:

Post secondary institutions	Number of study permit applications to be accepted
Vocational training	32,261
Colleges	29,200
Universities	63,299
Total	124,760

This cap applies to all study applications received after February 26, 2025. It is further broken down by educational institution and degree type.

This is the first cap time the province has announced such a cap on international students.

The cap specifically reduces the number of applications received by vocational training and college networks. As per the Government of Quebec, the aim is to lower the number of applications received by these institutions while stabilizing the number of applications by new students in the university network, leading to an overall reduction in enrollment in the province.

It’s worth noting that this cap is for applications it will accept for processing and not the number of study permits the province will issue.

Exceptions to Quebec’s international student cap

The International student cap does not apply to the following cohorts:

• Those who submitted their application form before February 26, 2025;
• Those applying to extend their stay in the same vocational training study program and within the same educational institution originally admitted;
• Dependent children accompanying their parents staying in Quebec as a temporary foreign worker or foreign student;
• Those applying to study at the primary or secondary levels;
• Those who applied for protection under paragraph (b) or (c) of section 95(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act;
• Those admitted to prescribed supplementary training by a professional order (an organization that regulates professionals to protect the public) in the health sector; or
• Those selected under the Excellence Scholarship Program for Foreign Students and applying to pursue professional training.

Temporary residents to be included in Quebec’s upcoming Immigration Levels Plan for the first time

Jean-François Roberge, Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, has stated that the one-year cap has been implemented so that the government can continue to “reassess the situation and adjust according to Quebec’s strategic needs, taking into account new trends that might emerge.”

To that note, the Government of Quebec has announced that temporary immigration targets will be taken into consideration in this year’s Immigration Levels Plan for the first time.

The objectives mentioned in Quebec’s upcoming Immigration Levels Plan, expected in the third quarter of 2025, will inform decisions on applications that will accepted under the Foreign Student Program in the following years.

Quebec’s Immigration Levels Plan 2025 (announced last year) did not provide targets for admissions of temporary residents, but did state that temporary resident admissions targets would be established the following year.

Federal government's study permit cap for 2025

In January, the Canadian federal government also capped the number of study permit applications it would receive at 550,162. Unlike Quebec's cap, the federal government's cap is in effect until December 31, 2025.

This means Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will only process study permit applications until the cap has been reached. Further applications will not be accepted for processing and application fees refunded. This is a reduction from the number of study permit applications that IRCC accepted in 2024 which is 606,250.

The federal government has also broken down the the number of study permits it expects to issue according to province in 2025. The expected number of of study permits to be issued to all cohorts requiring Provincial Attestation Letters (PALs) in Quebec is 72,977.

The federal government first started capping study permit applications in 2024 in an effort to stabilize the growth of temporary residents in the country.

 

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