June 30, 2026: Only 22,405 New Student Arrivals Versus a 155,000 Target

IRCC’s dashboard on student and temporary worker numbers, last modified August 20, 2026, now publishes a mid-year count. Data is as of June 30, 2026. New student arrivals from January to June 2026 total 22,405. The 2026 student arrivals target is 155,000. New worker arrivals in the same six months total 98,125. The 2026 worker arrivals target is 230,000.

Those are official arrival counts, not permit-holder stock. Combined student and worker arrivals in the first half of 2026 were 67% fewer than the same period in 2024, a drop of 249,380 people. New student arrivals were 82% fewer than the first half of 2024, down 102,520. New worker arrivals were 60% fewer, down 146,865.

This is not a new program. It is the first half-year scorecard against the reduced 2026-2028 levels plan. The change that matters for you is the gap between the cap and actual landings, and what that means if you already hold a permit.

What the official tables say

IRCC’s annual arrivals table:

Student arrivals stayed low all spring. January 2026 was 6,940. February and March were 2,135 and 2,075. April rose to 4,905, then May 3,330 and June 3,025.

Worker arrivals are mostly International Mobility Program, not TFWP. In June 2026 IRCC counted 3,985 TFWP arrivals and 16,345 IMP arrivals.

The stock of people already in Canada is larger than these arrival numbers. As of June 30, 2026, IRCC counts 632,535 people who hold a study permit and 1,554,470 people who hold only a work permit. People who hold both a study permit and a work permit are counted as study permit holders.

On August 20, 2026 IRCC corrected an earlier work-permit-only stock series from December 2023 to June 2026. The figures above are from the corrected page.

What these numbers do and do not include

Do not treat an arrival total as a refusal rate or as spaces left in the cap.

IRCC excludes permit extensions, asylum claimants, seasonal agricultural workers, and Temporary Foreign Worker Program stays of 270 days or less where the start and end dates fall in the same calendar year. A person issued both a study permit and a work permit in the same month is counted in the student group.

IRCC also states that inventories keep being processed under the rules that applied when they were filed, so newer measures take months to show up in this data.

What this means if you are a student or a worker

A 155,000 student arrivals target for the full year is already a cut from earlier years. After six months, 22,405 arrivals leave most of that target unused on paper. That does not mean a study permit filed now is easy. PAL and TAL rules, school allocation, and the living-cost table that rose to $23,448 for a single applicant outside Quebec on files submitted on or after September 1, 2026 still control who can file. We covered that table in our September 1 proof-of-funds explainer.

If you already hold a study permit, use the stock figure. 632,535 study permit holders were in Canada on June 30. Status, work hours, and PGWP eligibility turn on the permit you hold and the program you finish, not on the arrival target.

If you hold a work permit, IMP still accounts for most new arrivals. An in-Canada extension is not an arrival on this dashboard. Do not read a low arrival number as proof that an extension will be fast.

IRCC’s companion permanent residence dashboard, as of the same June 30 cut-off, records 103,750 former temporary residents who became permanent residents in January to June 2026. That is 57% of new permanent residents in the period.

What to do with the mid-year gap

If you plan to apply for a study permit, confirm the live PAL or TAL rules and the living-cost table that matches your filing date. The arrival target is a levels-plan number. It is not a promise that a complete file will be approved.

If you are already in Canada on a study or work permit, treat expiry dates as hard. An extension, a restoration, or a switch of status is a different count than an arrival. File while you still have status.

If your goal is permanent residence, Canadian work experience still feeds CEC and several category-based Express Entry rounds. A provincial nomination still adds 600 CRS points when the nomination is valid.

If you need a structured review of a study permit, a work permit, or an in-Canada PR plan, contact JSR Immigration & Legals through our consultation page, the study permit service page, or the work permit service page.

This article is general information current to September 5, 2026, and is not legal or immigration advice. Confirm the live tables on Canada.ca before you file.