The rich high education resources in North America have attracted a large number of international students around the world. Both the United States and Canada have experienced a significant drop in international student number Pollowing the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chinese students in the United States were also profoundly impacted，especially when their safety abroad was threatened in the context of uncertain China-US relations and rising unilateralism. In the mean time，the number of Chinese students in Canada has also decreased dramatically，while India has taken over as the largest country of origin there after years of phenomenal growth. Since international students remain a major income source for the higher education sector in the long term，the United states and Canada have started to implement more open and convenient policies for international students to regain attractiveness as top destirations.