Employers are having unprecedented difficulty finding and retaining the labor they need to operate their operations during this period of economic recovery and expansion. The Canadian government is continuing to make significant efforts to address the current workforce shortages.

That Respectful Individual The temporary easing of the 20-hour per week restriction on the number of hours that qualified post-secondary students are permitted to work off campus while classes are in session was announced today by Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship. As a result, qualified students will be able to work up to 40 hours a week away from campus while classes are in session.

Beginning on November 15, 2022, and lasting through December 31, 2023, international students studying in Canada who have off-campus employment permission noted on their study permits are exempt from the 20-hour-per-week restriction. Foreign nationals who have already requested a study permit are also qualified to benefit from this transitional change as of right now, assuming their application is approved. Only foreigners can take advantage of this chance.

This program will increase the number of workers available to support Canada’s post-pandemic growth and make it simpler for many international students to gain crucial work experience in Canada. This temporary modification still enables overseas students to pursue their academic goals while recognizing the significant contribution they can make to alleviate our workforce needs. Each of the more than 500,000 international students studying in Canada at the moment has the option of working longer hours. Those who have been given a study permit must nevertheless maintain a good job-study balance since they lose their ability to work off campus if they either fully give up on their academic goals or scale down to part-time study.

In addition, a pilot initiative to automate the extension of study permits will start this month at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The types of applications that are being reviewed as part of this trial have a consistently high approval percentage because all candidates have already been given authorization to study in Canada. In order to improve customer service, a small number of candidates will be given the chance to have their extended study permit processed as part of the trial program much more rapidly. In order to reduce the time it takes to process applications and to give officers more time to concentrate on more complicated ones, the pilot program will be expanded if it is successful.

The announcement that was made today is a component of a bigger set of actions that are intended to support Canada’s efforts to speed up application processing times and customer service while also assisting international students and graduates.

Additional programs that have just lately been implemented to assist international students and recent graduates include the following:

• A transitional moment for students who are studying online while living abroad.
• An opportunity to seek an additional 18-month open work permit for those whose post-graduation employment permits have already expired or are about to do so.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) keeps raising the bar for immigration processing in response to the enormous interest applicants from all over the world have shown in Canada. The department’s ongoing initiatives and enhancements to customer service are intended to strengthen Canada’s immigration system, reduce application backlogs, reduce wait times, and enhance customers’ overall experiences.

Quick Pointers:

Most international students participating in postsecondary programs are permitted to work on or off campus, and the approval is printed right away on their study permits. Nearly 50% of international students who were enrolled in postsecondary programs in Canada in the past said they worked while they were there.

Before the announcement was announced today, any student with clearance to work off campus was only permitted to work a maximum of 20 hours per week while courses were in session. Still, they were permitted to work full-time during scheduled breaks. If a student is qualified, there is no restriction on how many hours they can work on campus.

From the start of the year 2022 until the end of August 2022, more than 452,000 applications for study permits were processed. In 2021, a record year for the number of applications received, 367,000 applications were processed in the same amount of time. This represents an increase of 23% from the previous year.

97% of the almost 119,000 applications for study permit extensions submitted in 2021 were approved by the IRCC. Between January 1, 2022, and the end of August 2022, more than 135,000 applications were processed, with an overall acceptance rate of 96%.

For the pilot program to automate the process of extending study permits, applications must meet specific criteria for the process to be automated. Applications that don’t meet the requirements will need to undergo a more time-consuming evaluation by officers. Applications won’t be rejected, and the automatic system won’t suggest rejection. Officers will still make all decisions about the application’s rejection.