Toronto, Nov. 28 -- The Canadian government has projected a seven per cent decrease in the total number of international students issued permits next year. A release from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) noted that the total number of study permits to be issued in 2026 will be capped at 408,000. This will include the 155,000 visas issued to newly arriving international students plus 253,000 extensions for current and returning students. "This number is 7% lower than the 2025 issuance target of 437,000 and 16% lower than the 2024 issuance target of 485,000," IRCC said. IRCC said that the cap that was first introduced in 2024 "has been an effective tool in slowing the growth of Canada's temporary population" as the number of study permit holders has fallen from over a million in January 2024 to about 725,000 by September 2025. "While this progress is significant, further reductions are needed to meet our commitment of reducing the share of Canada's temporary population to below 5% of the total population by the end of 2027," it added. The immigration levels plan introduced in Parliament earlier this month had Canada sharply reducing its intake of temporary residents, including workers and international students, by nearly 43%. In its previous levels plan, the government had looked at admitting 305,000 new international students each year. However, the latest plan showed the target at 155,000, reducing further to 150,000 in 2027 and 2028. The projections for workers and students in 2026 is 385,000, going down to 370,000 over the next two years. The number of new work permits to be issued under the Temporary Foreign Worker Programme (TFWP), International Mobility Program (IMP), including those issued under humanitarian public policies, will total 230,000 next year, and drop to 220,000 in 2027 and 2028. The 2025 target for temporary residents admitted to the country was 673,650, including 367,750 foreign workers and 305,900 students. The projected figures in the 2024 levels plan were at 516,600 in 2026 and 543,600 in 2027. Indians form the largest cohorts in the impacted categories, comprising 39,790 or 20.8% of the TFWP source country, and 209,505 or 29.2% under the International Mobility Plan in 2024. Indians also accounted for 188,465 or 36.5% of the study permits issued. "We will balance the number of new arrivals with the planned departure of international students and temporary workers as their status expires in 2025 and 2026. We have committed to reduce temporary resident volumes through departures, program limits, and lower immigration levels to less than 5% of the population by the end of 2027," Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Lena Metlege Diab noted in the introduction to the plan....