How the International Student Cap Will Impact Post-Grad Work Permits

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller speaks to the media during the federal cabinet retreat in Montreal, on Jan. 22, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi)

International students starting a study program as part of a curriculum licensing arrangement will no longer be eligible for the Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) as of September 2024.

That’s because beginning Sept. 1, postgraduate work permits will no longer be available to public-private institution models. Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the change this week as part of Ottawa’s two-year cap on the number of study permits it approves. The government plans to reduce the number of new student visas by 35 percent in a bid to lessen the pressures on housing, health care, and other services in Canada.

Mr. Miller also announced international students who have graduated from masters programs or other short graduate-level programs will be able to apply for a three-year work permit. Under the current criteria, the length of a PGWP is based on the length of the student’s study program.

“This criteria materially limits masters students as it shortens the amount of time they are eligible to gain Canadian work experience and eventually transition to permanent residency,” Canadian immigration news website CIC News said in a blog post.

The availability of open work permits for accompanying spouses of international students will also be limited. Permits will only be available for the spouses of students enrolled in masters and doctoral programs, as well as professional programs such as medicine and law.

The spouses of international students in other levels of study, including undergraduate and college programs, will no longer be eligible.

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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced last month that full-time international students already in Canada, “and those who submitted a study permit application prior to Dec. 7, 2023, will continue to be able to full-time work off-campus until April 30, 2024.”

No Permits for Public-Private Institutions

The CEO of Universities Canada is applauding Ottawa for removing work permit eligibility for graduates of private-public college programs.

CEO and interim president Philip Landon told The Toronto Star that the government’s announcement “goes a long way” to addressing an ongoing concern about the legitimacy of the programs.

Public-private college partnerships permit taxpayer-funded colleges to provide curriculum at a fee to their private career college partners which are attended primarily by international students. These partners hire their own instructors to deliver the programs. Graduates from the private colleges then receive a public college credential, making them eligible for post-graduation work permits as a pathway for permanent residence.

Mr. Landon said while denying work permit eligibility is a good move, he is less sure about other aspects of the announced changes. He said the government should target private career colleges and not penalize public institutions when limiting international student visas.

“There are some good measures which we applaud, and others we’re still unsure of because the devils are in the details,” said Landon, adding that the changes could affect universities’ bottom lines depending on how provinces implement the study permit cap.

Former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who is now housing minister, said that some private institutions should permanently close their doors.

“There are some schools that, frankly, have come to exist to profit off the backs of vulnerable international students under the false promise of permanent residency that should never have been made,” said Mr. Fraser.

“I expect that some of those schools may end up closing. And I think that may be a good thing, because it wasn’t doing a service to the students who came here, it wasn’t doing a service to the communities in which they were located.”

Between the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2023, the number of international students in Canada surged from 359,657 to 542,430, according to an October 2023 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada response to an Inquiry of Ministry. This marked a rise of just over 50 percent in four-and-a-half years.