CAN Pathways

Home » News » Immigration » Canada Allows Foreign Students To Work Off-campus Above 20 Hours Per Week

Canada Allows Foreign Students To Work Off-campus Above 20 Hours Per Week

To Work Off campus Above 20 Hours Per Week

Share This Post

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has revealed a new temporary measure that will be implemented to alleviate Canada’s long-standing labor shortages. According to Fraser, this will make it possible for the roughly 500,000 international students already studying in Canada to work additional hours.

In a transition that will help Indian students compensate for the falling value of the rupee and counteract inflation, Canada has permitted international students to work more than 20 hours per week off-campus while the lecture is in session.

This move was made in response to Canada’s opening doors to more international students. This will be allowed as a precautionary measure beginning on November 15, 2022, and continuing until December 31, 2023.

Currently, overseas students in Canada are permitted to work off campus for a maximum of twenty hours per week while enrolled in classes. This restriction is suspended for predetermined breaks, such as the summer and winter vacations.

Because of this initiative, approximately five lakh international students who are eligible and already studying in Canada would be able to work additional hours potentially.

According to the announcement by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on Friday in Ottawa, those individuals who have already applied for a study permit will also be eligible for the new policy, which will help alleviate labor shortages.

According to Fraser, Canada has already handled more than 4.52 lakh applications for study permits since the beginning of the year. This represents a 23 percent increase compared to the 3.67 lakh applications processed over the same period in the previous year.

Over 6.20 lakh people lived in Canada in 2021, with one-third of them hailing from India.

This strategy permits overseas students to financially support themselves while simultaneously attempting to ensure that the student’s primary concentration is completing their education rather than finding a job in Canada.

However, to address the problem of roughly 10 lakh unfilled job positions, the government of Canada has temporarily relaxed this restriction for a little over a year.

In recent years, Canada has placed a significant emphasis on attracting permanent residents through the admission of international students. The majority of the 4,05 lakh immigrants who were granted citizenship in 2017 came from this category.

Research indicates that most international students intend to apply to become citizens or permanent residents of Canada once they have finished their education here.

According to Statistics Canada, overseas students who gain permanent residency in Canada due to their prior experience living in the country on visas tend to integrate swiftly into the Canadian labor market. This is because they have studied in the country.

Post-Graduation Work Permits are available through Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). These permits allow the holder to work for three years for any employer of their choosing.

International students who apply to study in a recognized educational program in Canada can now acquire permission to work off campus for a maximum of twenty hours per week while enrolled in the program. This restriction is suspended for predetermined breaks, such as the summer and winter vacations.

This strategy permits overseas students to financially support themselves while simultaneously attempting to ensure that the student’s primary concentration is completing their education rather than finding a job in Canada.

However, because there are approximately one million unfilled job positions, the government of Canada has decided to relax this restriction for the time being.

Fraser stated that this policy would make it possible for the over 500,000 international students who are eligible and are already in Canada to work longer hours.

The number of international students who choose to study in Canada is among the highest of any country in the world. Over 620,000 students from other countries were enrolled there in 2021, which had more than tripled in the preceding twenty years.

In the past year, Canada handed out approximately 450,000 brand-new study permits. Demand for educational opportunities in Canada remains high due to various factors, including the high standard of the country’s educational institutions, the country’s commitment to multiculturalism, the relative affordability of the Canadian dollar, and the opportunities for work and permanent residence that Canada provides.

In THIS announcement, Fraser also mentioned that Canada has already processed more than 452,000 applications for study permits between January and August of 2022.

This represents a 23 percent increase compared to the number of applications processed during the same period in 2021, which was 367,000. Because of this, Canada has already shattered its record for the number of study permits it processed in a single year of its calendar.

The renowned Post-Graduation Work Permit can be obtained via IRCC (PGWP). Through the PGWP qualified international students can apply for and get an open-ended work visa with a validity period proportional to the length of their educational program in Canada.

Open work permits allow foreign people to work in Canada for any employer of their choosing, regardless of the industry. The maximum amount of time that a PGWP is valid for is three years.

PGWP holders then can earn the professional work experience in Canada that is sometimes required to become eligible for an economic class immigration program.

PGWP holders typically apply for permanent residence in Canada using the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program, one of the most prominent immigration channels made available by IRCC and falls under the purview of the Express Entry system.

In addition, Canada’s various provinces and territories offer financial incentives to international graduates with domestic employment experience.

The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) streams from across the country offer permanent resident status pathways to degree holders to encourage them to continue to stay in the province or territory where they graduated and continue contributing to the labor market as immigrants. One of these streams is in Quebec, and the others are across the country.

Over the past few years, and particularly during the epidemic, Canada has increasingly looked to permanent residents among international students as a vital supply of permanent residents.

For example, the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) aimed to surpass Canada’s record for the number of new immigrants who landed in the country in a single year by relying heavily on international graduates in the year 2021.

IRCC accomplished this goal by extending invitations to and successfully landing a substantial number of candidates for the Canadian Experience Class.

In addition, in 2021, it implemented a Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) program, which made it possible for approximately 90,000 temporary residents to apply for immigration.

Fraser proposed a strategy in September to assist more temporary residents in acquiring permanent residency. This approach will be incorporated into the revised Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025, which will be announced on November 1.

For more information

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

Take Our Quick immigration Assessment

Evaluate your eligibility for Canadian visa

Talk to our expert

Book a consultation with Canpathways to learn more about us and the range of services we offer

More To Explore

More To Explore

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Slide Up Social Icons
Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top