Canada steps up efforts to welcome French-speaking international students

Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:40:48 +0000

Canada is redoubling its efforts to welcome French-speaking newcomers to enrich the linguistic, social, cultural and economic fabric of Francophone minority communities (FMCs). Last week, immigration minister Marc Miller announced that the new Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot (FMCSP) program will be launched on August 26, 2024, in partnership with designated French-language and bilingual post-secondary learning institutions (DLIs).

The new pilot program plans to make access to Canada’s International Student Program fairer for a wide range of international students in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, regions where that the study permit approval rate has been low in the past.

The pilot program, a flagship measure of the Policy on Francophone Immigration, and will benefit FMCs by helping them attract and retain international students. To improve the approval rate, students and their families will be exempted from having to demonstrate that they will leave Canada at the end of their temporary stay. In addition, the required financial threshold will be adjusted to reflect 75 per cent of the low-income cut-off associated with the municipality where the institution’s main campus is located.

Pilot program participants will also benefit from a direct pathway from temporary to permanent status after obtaining their diploma, and they will have access to settlement services while they’re studying to help them integrate successfully into their communities.

Although an annual cap for most study permit applications was established on January 22, 2024, the FMCSP is not included in the overall cap. Each participating DLI will be allocated a limited number of acceptance letters that can be issued for the purpose of processing study permits under the pilot program.

The maximum number of study permit applications that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will accept under the pilot program is 2,300 for the first year. A cap for the second year of the pilot program will be set by August 2025.

Miller also announced the addition of 10 communities to the current 14 existing Welcoming Francophone Communities (WFC) initiative.

The post Canada steps up efforts to welcome French-speaking international students first appeared on Canadian Immigrant.
http://canadianimmigrant.ca/feed