Canada: Improvements For Student Permit Holders Announced

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that it will temporarily lift the cap on the number of hours that eligible post-secondary students are allowed to work off-campus during the academic session. From November 15, 2022 until December 31, 2023, international students in Canada with a study permit that allows off-campus work authorization will not be restricted by the current 20-hour-per-week rule during academic sessions. Foreign nationals who have already submitted a study permit application will also be able to benefit from the temporary policy, provided their application is approved. As a reminder, foreign nationals who stop studying or reduce their course load to study part-time are not eligible to work off-campus. Furthermore, IRCC is also launching a pilot project later this month to automate the processing of study permit extensions, which is expected to result in faster processing of extension applications and improve client service. According to the government, these measures are part of a series of initiatives to benefit international students while helping address Canada’s labor shortage. They follow recently relaxed educational requirements for certain express entry permanent residence applicants and new work benefits for former international students.