Update following the January 22 Federal Government Announcement about Study Permits
**This page will be updated as more information becomes available from the federal and provincial governments.**
Intake cap on international student permit applications
IRCC announced a two-year temporary measure to stabilize the number of international students in Canada. For 2024, the cap is expected to result in approximately 360,000 approved study permits, a decrease of 35% from 2023. IRCC will allocate a portion of the cap to provinces and territories based on population.
To implement the cap, as of January 22, 2024, every study permit application submitted to IRCC will also require an attestation letter from a province or territory.
Why is this in place:
In recent years, the integrity of the international student system has been threatened and more students have been arriving in Canada without the proper supports they need to succeed. This change has been implemented to help stabilize the number of international students arriving and ensure genuine students have access to the supports and resources they need to be successful in their studies.
Attestation Letter
IRCC announced that as of January 22, 2024, study permit applications from outside Canada will require an attestation letter from the province or territory where they plan to study. The province of Alberta has a process in place for issuing attestation letters to students. You do not have to apply for your attestation letter. If you require a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL), our Admissions office will request a PAL on your behalf. Your Letter of Acceptance (LOA) and PAL will be issued to you within 5 business days after you pay your tuition deposit and accept your offer of admission.
- Students with a Letter of Acceptance for an undergraduate program at the University of Lethbridge are required to submit an attestation letter from the province of Alberta with their study permit application. Applications submitted on or after January 22, 2024, without an attestation letter will be returned and application fees will be refunded. Do not apply for a study permit until you have obtained an attestation letter.
- Students with a Letter of Acceptance for a master's or doctoral program* at the University of Lethbridge do not require an attestation letter from the province of Alberta to apply for a study permit.
*Check box 19 of your Letter of Acceptance from uLethbridge to see your level of study
Students who have already received approval of their study permit application or whose study permit application was submitted before January 22, 2024, are not impacted by this announcement.
Impact on current students
Current international students at uLethbridge will not be impacted by these announcements and do not require an attestation letter to extend their study permit.
Please review our FAQ on Provincial Attestation Letters for more information.
Spousal Open Work Permit
IRCC announced that the eligibility requirements to get an open work permit as a spouse or common-law partner of an international student will change.
Open work permits will only be available to spouses of international students in master’s and doctoral programs and professional programs (e.g., Nursing, Education). The spouses of international students in other levels of study, including undergraduate and college programs, are no longer eligible.
Post Graduation Work Permit
IRCC announced changes to the eligibility criteria for the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) that will take effect on September 1, 2024.
- International students who begin a study program that is part of a curriculum licensing arrangement (one where a private college has been licensed to deliver the curriculum of an associated public institution) will no longer be eligible for a PGWP upon graduation. This measure does not affect students who complete any undergraduate or graduate program at the University of Lethbridge.
- Graduates of master’s and other short graduate-level programs will soon be eligible to apply for a 3-years work permit.
If you are a current ULethbridge student and have questions about this information, please contact your international student advisors at international.advice@uleth.ca
| Your situation | Attestation Letter Requirement |
|---|---|
| I am already in Canada and have a study permit | Exempt. No attestation letter required |
| I have already received approval of my study permit but have not travelled to Canada, yet | Exempt. No attestation letter required |
| I applied for my study permit before January 22, 2024 and I am waiting for a response form IRCC | Exempt. No attestation letter required |
| I need to extend my study permit | Exempt. No attestation letter required |
| I am an incoming undergraduate student | Attestation Letter Required. Delay your study permit application until the attestation letter process has been determined and you obtain one. |
| I am an incoming graduate student admitted to a Master's or Ph.D. Program | Exempt. No attestation letter required |
| I am an exchange student and will attend ULethbridge for one term | You can apply for a TRV or an eTA to come to Canada as a visitor. No Study Permit required. To apply for a Study Permit, an attestation letter is required. |
| I am an exchange student and will attend ULethbridge for two terms | Attestation Letter Required. Delay your study permit application until the attestation letter process has been determined and you obtain one. |
| I am an incoming undergraduate student | Attestation Letter Required. Delay your study permit application until the attestation letter process has been determined and you obtain one. |
| I will enroll in the English for Academic Purposes program for more than six months | Attestation Letter Required. Delay your study permit application until the attestation letter process has been determined and you obtain one. |
If you require a PAL to apply for your study permit, once you accept your Offer of Admission and pay your tuition deposit, Admissions will request a PAL on your behalf to the Government of Alberta. Once Admissions receives your PAL, they will issue your Letter of Acceptance and PAL through MyCreds and sent to your @uleth.ca email address. This process takes 5-7 business days. Delay your study permit application until you receive your PAL unless you are exempt from that requirement.
Please access this inbox in advance so you can retrieve your certified and secure study permit application supporting documents (LOA and PAL) once Admissions issues them to you. If you have any issues setting up your Webmail, review the account help page.
The study permit application has two separate sections for the LOA and PAL. To upload these documents to your study permit application you can do either:
- Using Adobe Acrobat or another free PDF editor, you can extract the pages and upload separate documents to each of the study permit application sections, or
- Upload the same document (LOA + PAL) to both, the LOA and the PAL sections of the application.