From 2014 to 2017, Canada's citizenship and immigration policies underwent significant changes that directly impacted international students in Canada, and through extension, the internationalization of Canadian higher education. Canada's International Education Strategy seeks to increase the number of international students studying in the country and to make it a global hub for education to compete with other host countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. This article is part of a larger study that looked at the relationship between citizenship and immigration policies and the internationalization of higher education in Canada. Around the time when Canada published its International Education Strategy, the Canadian federal government and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, under the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, reformed Canada's Citizenship Act. These changes significantly impacted international students studying in Canada (Adams, Macklin, and Omidvar 2014). These changes meant that international students were no longer given a time credit for the years they spent in Canada studying as an international student when applying to Canadian citizenship. The article discusses how Canada's citizenship and immigration policies impacted international graduate students who aspired to transition into permanent residents and eventually Canadian citizens. The article will discuss why international students chose Canada to pursue graduate studies, why they want to become permanent residents and Canadian citizens, and share the challenges international students face when going through Canada's immigration pathways. Last, this article will discuss the detriments of systemic barriers to Canada's citizenship and immigration pathways and how that will impact both Canadian universities looking to internationalize and ultimately Canada's future economic prosperity.