Since 2024, Indian students pursuing international education have had to deal with a volatile landscape, with popular study-abroad destinations unveiling new policies. Australia and the United Kingdom increased visa fees considerably, and the nation with the largest number of Indian students, Canada, placed caps on intake, and it will decrease by another 10 percent this year. Furthermore, getting an F1 visa to study in the United States became more difficult.
Post-study work policies are a key consideration for international graduates who aim to secure global career prospects. While a few nations have come up with stricter controls, others still provide formal work channels.
International student caps, increased visa fees, and more stringent English language proficiency requirements—popular study-abroad countries implemented new policies in 2024. Here is a guide to assist students applying this year.
- US: The OPT program continues to be a top attraction, with graduates permitted to work for 12 months (36 months for STEM graduates). Home to 337,630 Indian students in 2024, the US job market remains the preferred destination. Nonetheless, possible policy changes such as curtailing OPT or amending H-1B visa laws may create uncertainties.
- UK: The Graduate Route, launched in 2021, enables graduates to remain for two years (three years for PhD graduates) without employer sponsorship. Despite a 23% drop in enrollments, this post-study work flexibility continues to be a major draw.
- Canada: The Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) allows work for up to three years. A recent policy change raised the part-time work cap from 20 to 24 hours weekly, allowing students to acquire industry experience even before graduation. More stringent language requirements for work visas may, however, create new challenges.
- Australia: The Temporary Graduate Visa (subclass 485) permits graduates to work for six years, subject to the level of their degree and where they are. Indian students have access to longer post-study work opportunities under the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. Australia's booming healthcare, engineering, and technology job markets continue to offer good employment opportunities.
These policies emphasize choosing destinations on the basis of career growth in the long term rather than merely education quality.
Though increased challenges prompted the students to review their areas of study to make those that come with more promising job opportunities available or look to places like Ireland and Germany, education counselors assure that strategically planning for the year 2025 sessions can enable them to adhere to plan A.
Experts are urging the students to instead view the policy changes as transient. Students ought to be sensitive to all the guidelines.
To solve the housing crisis and also avoid fraud within the visa process, Canada had introduced a two-year limit for study permits, reducing approvals by 35 percent in January 2024. Apparently, till 2024, Canada hosted 4.27 lakh Indian students, the biggest nationality.
And it is fixed strain perceivable restrictions on the quantity of study permits to 4.37 lakh in 2025, and an extra 10 percent cut was applied in 2024 alone.
In addition, university graduates need to achieve a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level 7, and college graduates need to achieve a CLB level 5 to be eligible for the Post-Graduation Work Permit—a key entry point for foreign students to stay and work in the nation after graduation.
According to the reports, with the changing policies, there may be difficulty for students who struggle with English proficiency. Also, students pursuing non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields—where language proficiency is important—may find it challenging to meet these requirements, further limiting their post-graduation employment prospects. It is advisable for Indian students studying abroad to attain proficiency in the English language to avoid any uncertainty.
To fight visa fraud with increasing worries about people exaggerating their financial resources to enter the nation, students are now required to demonstrate at least CAD 20,635 (Rs 12.19 lakh), compared to CAD 10,000 (Rs 5.9 lakh) for education and living costs, and furnish more detailed evidence of their capacity to fund these.