British Columbia’s Game-Changer: New Provincial Attestation System for Int’l Students!

Highlights:

• The BC Ministry of  Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills has confirmed that it has received 83,000 undergraduate study permit applications for 2024.
• This is comparatively less in comparison to 97,000 study permit applications submitted by students applying to study in BC in 2024.
• The province has also announced that, beginning March 4, 2024, it will start issuing the new Provincial Attestation Letters (PALs). These letters are required by all provinces and territories under Canada’s International Student Cap.

British Columbia is Canada’s westernmost province, and one of the leading higher education destinations for international students within Canada. On March 1, the BC Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills released details of how the international student cap will be implemented within the province’s education system.

Indeed, this week’s announcement means that BC is one of the first provinces – after the Province of Quebec, which had already implemented a PAL-like mechanism—to set-up a process for issuing PALs in response to the new criteria announced by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on January 22, 2024.

Commenting on the international student cap, and the PAL requirement that arises from it, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills Lisa Beare said, “Our ministry is ensuring that we lessen negative impacts to our post-secondary institutions and that international students get every opportunity to succeed in their higher education in BC.”

The Ministry explains, “The Provincial Attestation Letter is a verification letter that will be sent from the province to the institution, then from the institution to the international applicant. The letter will act as proof that the applicant has been admitted within the [cap limit] set by the federal government. Applicants need to submit the attestation letter along with their study permit application. Institutions that use their full quota of allocation will not be able to process more applications until a new allocation is issued by the federal government for the following year.” 

All designated learning institutions (DLIs) in BC (British Columbia) have now been allotted their overall provincial cap quota for 2024. A separate advisory from the Ministry adds that all DLIs will be required to reconfirm the number of PALs they will need for 2024 by 1 June, noting that “any extra Provincial Attestation Letters requirements will be [re]distributed”.