Kelowna 
In a welcome announcement for international students in Canada, Marc Miller, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, has extended the waiver on the 20-hour-per-week work limit for international students.
Canada has a cap in place restricting international students from working more than 20 hours off-campus per week during their academic sessions. However, this limit was temporarily removed as part of a pilot program, allowing students to work more than 20 hours per week. This policy was set to expire at the end of December 2023.
Under the new extension, the waiver will continue until April 30, 2024. This means international students who are already in Canada, or those who have applied for a study permit by December 7, 2023, can continue working off-campus without the 20-hour limit.
Per the news release, the government is also considering future policy options, including potentially increasing the off-campus work limit to 30 hours per week during academic sessions.
Canada’s regulations regarding the work cap are strict. Students found to have violated these limits risk losing their student status, being denied future study or work permits, or even facing deportation.
Canada today also announced an increase in the cost-of-living requirement for study permit applicants to $20,635, reflecting 75% of the low-income cut-off (LICO), to address the outdated $10,000 threshold set in the early 2000s, which has not kept pace with rising living costs.
International students who begin their studies before September 1, 2024, can count online learning towards their post-graduation work permit if it’s less than 50% of their program, a policy incepted in 2020 due to pandemic travel restrictions and scaling down in September 2022.
Additionally, a temporary policy offering an extra 18-month work permit to post-graduation work permit holders will not be extended beyond December 31, 2023, initially introduced to counter pandemic-related labour market disruptions.
