Overview
- Canadian High Commissioner Chris Cooter told Indian media that Canada welcomes students, noting the country now hosts about 400,000 international students and that intake has not reached the current caps.
- Officials say caps were introduced a few years ago to ease housing shortages and to shut down low-quality 'fly‑by‑night' colleges and that those problems have been addressed.
- The government has acknowledged inconsistent and slow visa processing and says it is working to improve approvals and consistency after the prime minister’s recent visit to India.
- Separate reporting shows renewed uncertainty on the ground, including April deportation notices tied to the new immigration law Bill C-12 and news of some Indian-origin men being removed from Canada and students returning home for financial or immigration reasons.
- Longer-term trends show a sharp fall in new Indian arrivals: a report cited that India’s share of incoming students slipped from 51.6% in 2023 to 8.1% by September 2025 and that new arrivals were far lower in early 2026, a shift that could reshape recruitment and family decisions about study abroad.