During President Tô Lâm’s state visit to Ottawa on 24-25 September 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Vietnamese leader signed a Joint Statement upgrading bilateral relations to a Strategic Partnership built on eight pillars, including trade, education and people-to-people exchanges. Although the agreement focuses broadly on economic and security cooperation, it contains several mobility-relevant commitments. The two governments agreed to explore a bilateral Security and Law-Enforcement Dialogue, accelerate talks on an ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement and enhance cooperation on transportation, supply-chain management and digital transformation. Officials noted that visa-processing times for Vietnamese students and workers have lengthened since Canada imposed a national cap on study-permit approvals; the new framework aims to address bottlenecks by expanding consular cooperation and information sharing. Education stakeholders welcomed language supporting “enhanced scholarships, academic mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications.” Canadian universities hosted more than 21,000 Vietnamese students in 2025, making Vietnam Canada’s fifth-largest source country. The Strategic Partnership could pave the way for streamlined student-visa adjudication and new reciprocal work-placement schemes. Business councils from both countries said they would urge Ottawa to increase the annual quota under the International Experience Canada (IEC) programme, which currently offers only 1,000 working-holiday visas to Vietnamese youth. Mobility professionals predict demand will surge if mutual skills-recognition agreements in digital-technology and agri-food sectors progress. For Canadian employers eyeing Southeast Asia, the upgraded relationship signals a friendlier environment for deploying Canadian talent to Vietnam and recruiting Vietnamese professionals. Companies should monitor forthcoming announcements from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for any pilot programmes that may emerge from the new partnership.
