Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has 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 pilot program is a flagship measure of the Policy on Francophone Immigration announced earlier this year and will benefit francophone minority communities (FMCs) by helping them attract and retain international students.
Key Details
- 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.
- The required financial threshold will be adjusted to reflect 75% of the low-income cut-off associated with the municipality where the institution’s main campus is located.
- The spouses or common-law partners of the principal applicants may also come to Canada under the pilot program and eventually apply for permanent residence.
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.
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.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
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. Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.