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Canada still caps most student visas. A public master’s is the exception
IRCC plans up to 408,000 study permits in 2026. Master’s and PhD students at public colleges and universities do not need a provincial attestation letter. Most undergraduate files in Ontario and British Columbia still do.
Thursday, 27 August 2026 · IRCC · 5 min read
Canada is still open. It is no longer as easy as it was in 2022. For 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) expects to issue up to 408,000 study permits. That number includes 155,000 new arrivals and 253,000 extensions. Inside that total, about 180,000 permits are for students who still need a provincial or territorial attestation letter (PAL or TAL). Once a province’s share is used up, later applications can be returned.
The rule that actually helps Indian families: from 1 January 2026, master’s and doctoral students at public designated learning institutions do not need a PAL or TAL. Their applications sit outside that bottleneck. IRCC also said it wants faster processing for doctoral students. In plain words: Canada still wants strong public-university master’s and PhD files. It does not want the same volume of diploma-mill undergraduate files.
What this means: India was the largest source country in the boom years, and then the largest group hit by the correction. Weak undergraduate and private-college files still get refused more often. A public master’s at Toronto, UBC, McGill or Waterloo is a different product from a private college in suburban Ontario. Choose the public master’s if you can.
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