![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783590790_152_indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\n\u201cI basically stay up at night crying because my papers will expire on Aug. 31,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t have the right to work, and I don\u2019t have the right to study.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Ouazar Ghenima, an international student from Algeria studying at the Coll\u00e8ge sup\u00e9rieur de Montr\u00e9al, only had one exam and an internship to complete before finishing her program to become a medical secretary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all in shock, all of a sudden,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had made projects thinking we were almost done, that everything was fine, that we were going to move on to the next step \u2026 and now, we\u2019re just waiting. We don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The protesters gathered in front of the private college before marching to the offices of Quebec\u2019s immigration ministry, where they called on the provincial government to automatically transfer them to a new school where they can finish their studies.<\/p>\n
The Quebec education ministry did not provide details on why it had not renewed the permits.<\/p>\n
In an email, it said the decision was made in accordance with private education laws. According to the ministry, the four colleges were told that their permit was not renewed on June 30, and they had received advance warning that it might not be renewed between late March and early May.<\/p>\n
In the days after the closure was announced, the education ministry reached out to students to offer them alternative means of completing their studies. <\/p>\n
But for the students interviewed by The Canadian Press, those solutions did not pan out. They say they reached out to the schools, but either did not hear back because of the summer break or were told they would only be able to enroll halfway through the fall.<\/p>\n
With their immigration status tied to their school, many fear they won\u2019t be able to renew their permit when it expires in a few months, or, in other cases, in as little as two weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo get a Qu\u00e9bec Acceptance Certificate, you need to have a school admission. And to get a study permit, you need an acceptance certificate. So the first step is admission. And that isn\u2019t happening right now,\u201d said Ayoub Maouini, one of the protest organizers.<\/p>\n
In an email, the immigration ministry confirmed that international students will need to submit a new request in order to keep their status, but said the processing of their request would be adapted to the situation.<\/p>\n
Leila Betatache and Feyrouz Chiheb, who are both from Algeria, enrolled for a second degree at the Coll\u00e8ge sup\u00e9rieur de Sherbrooke the day before the school\u2019s permit was revoked. They had only just started their classes when the school shut down, and they are now struggling to transfer their degree.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no coherent, strategic plan that\u2019s being put in place,\u201d Betatache said. \u201cThey sell us dreams, but they have nothing to do with what\u2019s happening on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women were attending the protest with their children. Chiheb said the closure has had an immense impact on her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have five children \u2014 what am I going to do? We sold everything in our country, we came here for a hope, to finish our studies and find work here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI basically stay up at night crying because my papers will expire on Aug. 31,\u201d she said. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-813914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}