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Canada has announced an end to its Student Direct Stream (SDS) program for selected countries, impacting international students from 14 nations who previously benefited from an expedited study permit process. This change affects students from India, Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam, and Nigeria, through Nigeria Student Express (NSE) initiatives.
The SDS program was initially designed to speed up the application process for international students from these countries by allowing faster processing times if they met specific criteria.
While no specific reason was given for the change, the immigration department noted that with this change, applicants from these nations will now apply through the standard study permit process.
According to IRCC’s 2024 report to Parliament, in 2023, Canada experienced a record influx of international students, issuing approximately 682,889 study permits—a significant increase compared to 550,187 in 2022. This surge, driven by factors like Canada’s post-graduate work opportunities, has seen study permit applications more than double over the last five years, with applications peaking at 914,000 in 2023. Given this unprecedented growth, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada) has introduced measures to regulate study permit intake, including capping applications starting in 2024 to ensure sustainable growth and adequate support for incoming students.
IRCC also reported that India, Nigeria, the Philippines and China were consistently among the largest source countries for international students. The Department’s updated guidelines, introduced in January 2024, require stricter financial documentation to ensure students are financially prepared, helping mitigate fraud risks and support student success in Canada.
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