Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) has announced that it will not extend the temporary public policy which allowed certain international students to work more than 20 hours per week. This fall, IRCC intends to roll-out a new allowance for international students to work up to 24 hours per week off-campus.

Typically, eligible study permit holders may only work up to 20 hours per week off-campus during the regular academic session. Then, during regularly scheduled breaks, they may work full-time hours. In October 2022, IRCC introduced a temporary public policy allowing eligible study permit holders to work off-campus more than 20 hours per week during the regular academic session. On April 29, 2024, IRCC confirmed that this policy would end on April 30, 2024 and would not be extended further.

IRCC previously suggested that it would explore the option of permitting eligible study permit holders to work off-campus up to 30 hours per week during the regular academic session. However, IRCC has now stated that it intends to increase eligibility to only 24 hours per week. This change is expected to take effect in Fall 2024.

Eligible study permit holders will continue to be able to work off-campus more than 20 hours per week during regularly scheduled breaks.  

Employers should ensure that any study permit holders work only the hours they are eligible for, in light of this temporary public policy coming to an end. This will undoubtedly cause difficulty for Employers who rely on international students to make up part of their labour force.

IRCC’s full News Release can be found here.

If you have any questions about this topic, or any questions relating to workplace law generally, please do not hesitate to contact a Mathews Dinsdale lawyer.