International students will soon be allowed to work more than 20 hours a week to help fight the current labour shortage crisis, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has announced.
From November 15, 2022, until December 31, 2023, international students who are in Canada and who have off-campus work authorization on their study permit will not be restricted by the 20-hour-per-week rule.
“With the economy growing at a faster rate than employers can hire new workers, Canada needs to look at every option so that we have the skills and workforce needed to fuel our growth,” Fraser said.
He added: “Immigration will be crucial to addressing our labour shortage. By allowing international students to work more while they study, we can help ease pressing needs in many sectors across the country, while providing more opportunities for international students to gain valuable Canadian work experience and continue contributing to our short-term recovery and long-term prosperity.”
Foreign nationals who have already submitted a study permit application, as of today, will also be able to benefit from this temporary change, provided their application is approved.
A statement posted on the Canada.ca website adds: “With more than 500,000 international students already in Canada available to potentially work additional hours, this temporary change reflects the important role international students can play in addressing our labour shortage while continuing to pursue their studies.”
The labour market remains exceptionally tight, with nearly one million job vacancies reported in the second quarter of 2022.
Fraser also announced a pilot program to help automate the application process for students to extend their study permits.
That will allow for some applications to be automatically approved, but the new process will not automatically reject claims.
Fraser says the pilot is aimed at reducing immigration backlogs and freeing up officers to work on more complex applications.
