Recently, IRCC declared the approval of four new English language tests for student Direct stream, SDS. This means that the SDS applicants will now be able to submit the test results of the newly approved tests.

As per the IRCC, the change will be effective on August 10, 2023, and the department will start accepting the four new test results for the SDS stream.

The newly IRCC-approved eligible tests are mentioned below:

  • CAEL
  • PTE Academic
  • CELPIP General
  • TOEFL iBT Test

All new test results must reflect the abilities of applicants in the following areas: Speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

In a CELPIP general test, the applicants must score at least 7 in all of the four language-speaking capabilities, which is comparable to the Canadian Language Benchmark.

In the TOEFL iBT Test, applicants must score at least 83, and in the other two tests, namely Pearson PTE Academic and CAEL, the applicants must have the least score of 60.

Applicants of the SDS stream are required to complete all the tests in person, and online and remotely supervised tests will not be accepted.

For SDS applicants, IELTS General and IELTS Academic were the only IRCC-approved tests before the acceptance of these tests.

What is the Student Direct Stream of Canada?

The Student Direct Stream or SDS provides students with fast processing of study permits. Only the students of specific countries can apply for SDS, including Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, China, India, Morocco, Philippines, Senegal, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Pakistan, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam. All study permit applications that are eligible for SDS have a service standard of 20 days.

The Student Direct Stream was effective in 2018 and is especially famous among Indian students.

The eligibility requirement for SDS.

Besides being a citizen of any of the above-mentioned countries, applicants must also satisfy the following requirements.

  • Applicants must submit a copy of the acceptance letter from a DLI, a Designated Learning Institution in Canada.
  • Applicants must submit proof of his/her medical examination.
  • Applicants must submit proof of obtained Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) of $10,000;
  • Applicants must submit proof of successful submission of his/her annual fees.
  • Applicants must submit proof of language test results with an IELTS score of 6 in English or NCLC 7 in French. The language test must be performed within two years of the submission of the SDS application.
  • Applicants must submit the SDS application offline at a Visa Application Center.

The hike in the International student population in Canada

According to the IRCC, by the end of 2022, more than 800,000 international students immigrated to the country for study purposes. This was the tallest number of overseas students in Canada’s history.

Since 2008, the population of international students in Canada has increased four times due to various domestic as well as international reasons. On the national level, the federal government and the Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) of Canada have increased their efforts to recruit international students for several reasons, including social, cultural, and economic. On the global level, the increase in the middle-class population has elevated the number of overseas students.

Numerous international students prefer Canada because of its high-class education, plenty of immigration and work possibilities, and its multiculturalism.