Canada launches pilot project to streamline review process for rejected study permits

Those who have had their Canadian study permit rejected may soon benefit from a new pilot project.

Canada’s Federal Court has announced the Study Permit Pilot Project, designed to streamline the process of requesting judicial review of rejected study permit applications. It launches on October 1.

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Under the Pilot, people who apply for leave and judicial review of their study permit refusals may be able to complete the entire procedure in under five months, rather than the current processing time of 14-18 months. An application for leave and judicial review is a process where an individual seeks permission from the Federal Court of Canada to challenge an immigration decision.

Under normal procedures, a judge first decides whether to grant leave (permission) to an applicant to proceed with judicial review. If this leave is granted, then the case for judicial review is heard and assessed on its merits. Under the new Study Permit Pilot Project, requests for leave and judicial review will be considered at the same time.

There is no additional fee for opting into the project, although filing for leave and judicial review costs $50.

Who is eligible?

Students may be eligible for the Study Permit Pilot Project if they applied for a study permit, and received a letter of refusal from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Other criteria include:

• Both the prospective student (the Applicant) and IRCC opting in to the pilot project;
• Both parties agreeing on the underlying facts, as evidenced by the application materials submitted to IRCC by the Applicant, including the full reasons for the IRCC decision;
• The facts/issues of the case—either the initial study permit application, the refusal from IRCC, or both—being straightforward (e.g. no factual or legal issues of inadmissibility or national security and no request for a certified question);
• The applicant not needing to request an extension of time to file the Application for Leave;
• The parties not using affidavit evidence (affidavits are used to introduce new evidence, which is not permitted under this new pilot project)

Study permit applicants applying from within Canada, have 15 days from the day they received their study permit application refusal to apply under this new initiative. Applicants applying from outside Canada, have 60 days from the day they receive their study permit application refusal to apply.

How to apply

All documents have to be filed online using the court’s electronic filing system. To opt in, applicants have to file an application for Leave and Judicial Review using Form IR-1,and mention the Pilot Project in three specific places of the application. More details can be found here.

After filing documents, a judge will decide on the application and notify the applicant.

Why are the Federal Court and IRCC taking these measures?

In their press release, the Canadian Federal Court cited an increase in leave and judicial review requests as a key reason behind the start of their joint pilot with IRCC.

“The Federal Court is on track to receive 24,000 immigration filings by the end of [the] December. That (figure) is approximately four times the yearly average the Court experienced in the five years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic.”

There has been a wave of new policies around Canada’s admittance of new international students and graduates in 2024 as the country’s immigration department seeks to respond to affordability and housing stock pressures by reducing the number of temporary residents (those on a study or work permit or visitor visa) already in Canada.

In January, IRCC announced the first-ever cap on international students, limiting the total number of newly issued study permits to 485,000 in 2024. Initially a temporary policy, this change applied to most undergraduate and college students, with master’s and PhD students exempted from these restrictions. The federal government proceeded to assign international student allocations to each provincial and territorial government, based on this new cap.

In a recent update to these policies, Immigration Minister Marc Miller held a press conference on September 18th, restating his commitment to the international student cap and announcing several additional measures including:

• Reducing the targets of newly issued study permits by 10% from 2024—to 437,000 new study permits in 2025;
• Including master’s and PhD students in the revised targets;
• Adding a language eligibility criterion to the issuance of Post-Graduation Work Permits (PGWPs) to international graduates, based on their level of study;
• Limiting eligibility of PGWPs for college students to those who are studying in a program linked to an area of high-labour demand; and
• Limiting the eligibility of Spousal Open Work Permits (SOWPs) for spouses of master’s students based on the length of the education program.

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