This June, we released the first of a two-part series about Brazilian international student mobility. There, we dove into what drives Brazilian student mobility at the macro level, including the country’s demographics, economic strength, and overall English language proficiency levels.
Now, we’re looking at how Brazilian student demand has responded to policy shifts in the big four Anglophone destinations. Where are Brazilian students applying, what study levels are they interested in, and what age groups are finding the most success? We’ll answer those questions and more below.
Key Insights at a Glance
- During the first four months of 2026, Brazilian applicants to Canada had a 90% student visa approval rate.
- 75% of Australian student visas granted to Brazilian applicants in 2025 were for English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) programs, down from 83% in 2024.
- While Brazil is not a major student population for the UK, the students who do apply have very high visa success rates.
- Following the US’s three-week pause on F-1 visa interviews in 2025, Brazilian demand rebounded faster than nearly any other student population.
Brazilian International Student Demand in Canada
Canada’s international student cap and other related policies have had a greater impact on global student demand than the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of new student visa1 applications to Canada was down 44% year-over-year in 2025, with nearly every student population demonstrating less demand for a Canadian education.2
It isn’t surprising, then, to see that study permit demand among Brazilian students softened in response to these policy changes. However, demand shifted at a more gradual rate than the global average:
The 2,900 new applications from Brazilian students in 2025 was 30% lower than in 2024. Meanwhile, global demand for Canadian study permits softened by 44%, 14 percentage points higher. And that trend has continued into 2026.
During the first four months of 2026, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) received 700 applications from Brazilian students. This was down 26% from the same period in 2025. Comparatively, the number of applications from all student populations was down by 36% over the same period. Collectively, these findings suggest that Brazilian student demand for a Canadian-based education is more resilient than the global average.
We forecast that Canada will receive around 2,200 study permit applications from Brazilian students in 2026.3 We also project that around 1,700 Brazilian applicants will be approved this year.
Brazilian students have also, historically, had much stronger visa approval rates than the global average, and the gap has widened since 2024:
The 86% approval rate for Brazilian applicants in 2025 was 45 percentage points higher than the global student average. And approval rates have climbed during the first four months of 2026 for both cohorts, with Brazilian applicants up to an 90% approval rate.
Both the received application numbers and approval rate trends show that Canada faces demand issues from Brazilian students and the broader international student community. But as visa approval rates climb, there’s a larger opportunity for success among strong applicants.
More New Study Permit Approvals for Postgraduate Students
In the first part of this series, we explored EF Education First’s English language proficiency trends for Brazil. As is the case across much of Latin America, Brazilians became more proficient in English during their twenties. In fact, Brazilians between 18 and 20 scored in the low proficiency range between 2022 and 2025, while those between 21 and 30 scored in the moderate range.
Despite the lower English language proficiency among the youngest post-secondary students, their share of Canadian study permit approvals has grown steadily since 2021. This is also true of future students aged 20 to 25:
In 2025, Brazilian students between 20 and 25 received the largest proportion of new post-secondary study permit approvals. This was the first time over the past five years that students aged 31 and over didn’t receive the largest share of approvals.
Coinciding with this shift in age cohorts, the number of approvals for Brazilian postgraduate students is rising. 530 Brazilian students were approved for a postgraduate study permit in 2025, up 42% compared to 2023. This shift aligns with Canada’s recent and renewed push toward growing demand for postgraduate studies, including its launch of a dedicated portal about Canadian graduate studies in 2025.
As the regulatory landscape evolves, Canadian institutions that build clear pathways for these applicants will be best positioned to help Brazilian students.
Brazilian International Student Demand in Australia
Like all of the big four study destinations, Australia has implemented recent policy changes, including a stricter Genuine Student requirement, higher visa application fees, and new visa-processing procedures, with the stated intention of better managing student inflows. Unlike its competitors, though, Australia has generally avoided a demand freefall.
The total number of new offshore student visa applications lodged with the Australian Department of Home Affairs (ADHA) was down 8% year-over-year in 2025.4 However, Brazilian applicants felt that shift more than most:
The 4,300 offshore applications from Brazilian students in 2025 was 25% lower than in 2024. That change was 17 percentage points steeper than the 8% decline across all offshore student populations.
However, between January and May 2026, ADHA received 1,800 offshore applications from Brazilian students, down 6% from the same period in 2025. Globally, offshore applications fell 5% during the same window. This means Brazil’s pullback has eased and now tracks close to the broader global pace.
We forecast that Australia will grant around 3,100 student visas to offshore Brazilian applicants in 2026, an 18% decline from 2025.5 For comparison, we’re expecting a 13% decline across all offshore student populations.
Brazilian students have also typically been approved at a much higher rate than the global average, though that advantage briefly disappeared in 2025:
Brazil’s 85% approval rate in 2025 was 3 percentage points below the 88% global average, the first time in at least five years that Brazilian offshore applicants were approved less often than the typical applicant. That reversed again between January and May of 2026, as Brazil’s approval rate held at 82% while the global rate fell to 72%. We expect this 10-percentage-point gap to narrow somewhat over the rest of the year, however, based on historic grant rates between June and December.
Combined, these trends show that Brazilian demand for an Australian education cooled sharply through 2025. But the pace of decline has since converged with the global average, and Brazilian applicants are again finding somewhat better odds of success than the average student.
Younger Brazilian Applicants Reshaping Offshore Demand
English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) programs have long been the most popular study level in Australia for students across LATAM. Indeed, the ELICOS sector has accounted for the majority of visas granted to offshore Brazilian students every year since 2022:
2,800 Brazilian offshore students were granted a student visa for ELICOS studies in 2025, accounting for 75% of all student visas. This proportion was down 8 percentage points from 2024, when ELICOS accounted for 83% of visas granted. Over this period, the proportion of Brazilian applicants granted a student visa for the Schools sector more than tripled, from 3% to 11%, while Higher Education’s share climbed from 3% to 4%.
This trend coincides with younger Brazilian students earning a larger proportion of visas:
Applicants between the ages of 15 and 19 accounted for 22% of the total visas granted to offshore Brazilian students in 2025, nearly triple their 8% share in 2022, and the highest proportion on record. Students between 25 and 29 were the single largest Brazilian cohort in every year since Australia’s borders reopened, but their lead disappeared in 2025, as their 27% share was equal to the 20-to-24 cohort.
Together, these shifts point to an offshore Brazilian applicant pool in Australia that is growing younger, even as English-language study remains its dominant entry point and overall demand from Brazil cools.
Brazilian International Student Demand in the United Kingdom
Global demand for the UK’s Student visa route held relatively steady through most of 2025, then began to fall sharply. Applications were down as much as 40% year-over-year by April and May 2026, extending a decline that started in late 2025.6 Brazilian demand levels, however, have largely remained resilient:
The 83 applications from Brazilian students across Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 was just 9% lower than the same two quarters a year earlier. Meanwhile, global applications fell 21% over the same stretch, more than twice Brazil’s pace of decline.
Brazilian applicants have also held onto stronger visa success outcomes compared to the total applicant pool:
Brazil’s approval rate held at 99% across the fourth quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. Meanwhile, the global approval rate fell from 94% to 86% over this period. In fact, during Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, the total number of visa refusals climbed to 10,800 (even as the number of applications dropped). This marked a 72% increase in refusals versus the same six months a year prior.
We forecast the UK will issue around 600 sponsored student visas to Brazilian applicants in 2026, a 16% decline from 2025. Global issuances are on pace to fall much further, by an estimated 27%.7
This resilience follows a longer-running shift in what Brazilian students are studying once they arrive in the UK:
Master’s programs accounted for 42% of student visas issued to Brazilian applicants in 2025, down from 49% in 2022. Bachelor’s programs climbed from 26% to 31% of the total over the same period. Together, these data points suggest that the Brazilian applicant pool is holding steadier than the UK’s broader international student population, and also gradually shifting toward undergraduate study.
Brazilian International Student Demand in the United States
The U.S. Department of State has not published any data more recent than September 2025 (the end of the previous fiscal year), but we still see Brazilian resilience in the available data.
The US paused new interview appointments for student and exchange visitor visas (F, M, and J visas) worldwide in May 2025 while it rolled out expanded social media vetting for applicants. Although appointments resumed a few weeks later, this disruption left a clear mark on fiscal year 2025: F-1 student visa issuances fell 28% globally, the steepest decline since the pandemic.8
Brazilian students felt the initial shock, but then recovered faster than average:
About 7,200 Brazilian students were issued a F-1 visa in fiscal year 2025, down just 3% from fiscal year 2024. Globally, the average decline was 9 times higher than the Brazilian one, year-over-year.
Additionally, F-1 issuances to Brazilian students fell 52% in June 2025—almost identical to the 53% global decline—as the pause hit every nationality. But in the three months after appointments resumed, Brazilian issuances climbed 24% above the same period in 2024, while global issuances were still down 30%. Brazil’s rebound outpaced nearly the entire applicant pool.9
Brazilian Demand Holds Firm Amid a Volatile Year for Global Student Mobility
Part one of this series looked at Brazil at the macro level and how its outgoing students could reshape different study destinations for years to come. It’s home to a young, growing population which is increasingly interested in studying abroad, but their goals are tempered by real barriers around English proficiency and currency swings.
While each Anglophone study destination, since 2024, has implemented or updated policies that have dampened international student demand, Brazil has typically remained more resilient than the global average. Whether it’s Brazilian approval rates in Canada soaring 45 percentage points above the global average, or Brazilian demand in the UK and US pulling back at less than half the pace of the broader applicant pool, Brazilian students are clearly sending positive signals about their intent to study abroad.
That combination—a large prospective student population, paired with demand that holds up even under policy disruption—are factors which makes Brazil worth prioritizing for the long term. Institutions and governments that treat the barriers we outlined in part one of this series as ongoing commitments rather than one-time fixes will be best positioned to reach these students.
At ApplyBoard, our teams work with institutions, international education advisors, and governments every day to help build stronger student corridors, both with Brazilians and worldwide. Reach out to our commercial partnerships team to learn how your institution can better reach Brazilian students.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. The terms student visa and study permit are generally used interchangeably for Canadian international students. Rather than student visas, Canada provides accepted international students with study permits, which allow those students to enrol in classes at Canadian institutions. When a student is accepted for a study permit, they are also usually provided with a visitor visa, which allows that student to enter Canada for their studies. In this article, we’ll use these terms interchangeably.
2. All Canadian data is sourced from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) unless otherwise noted.
3. Data for 2021–Apr 2026 is sourced from IRCC. Full-year 2026 figures are estimates extrapolated from Jan–Apr 2026 and full-year 2024–2025 IRCC data. Projections may be subject to change based on changing conditions and source data.
4. All Australian data is sourced from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, and is limited to primary applicants located outside Australia at time of application. Fiscal year (July–June) figures have been converted to calendar year figures.
5. Data for 2021–May 2026 is sourced from the Australian Department of Home Affairs. Full-year 2026 figures are estimates extrapolated from Jan–May 2026 and full-year 2024–2025 data. Projections may be subject to change based on changing conditions and source data.
6. All UK data is sourced from the Home Office, and is limited to sponsored study, main applicants only unless otherwise noted.
7. Data for 2022–Q1 2026 is sourced from the Home Office. Full-year 2026 figures are estimates extrapolated from Q1 2026 and full-year 2024–2025 data. Projections may be subject to change based on changing conditions and source data.
8. All US visa data is sourced from the U.S. Department of State.
9. Among the 45 countries with 500+ issuances in the July to September period, Brazil’s year-over-year issuance change ranked second, behind only Serbia (24.2% vs. Brazil’s 24.1%, essentially tied).
