Canada caps overseas college students’ working hours starting fall semester

Toronto: Canada is planning to cap the variety of hours a world scholar can work off campus to 24 per week, starting with the autumn semester in September.

Worldwide college students attend an orientation programme at a varsity in Toronto, Canada. (Provided picture)

This announcement was made by Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller in Ottawa on Monday, because the non permanent coverage to permit worldwide college students to work over 20 hours every week expires on Tuesday.

“College students who come to Canada should be right here to check. As such, permitting college students to work as much as 24 hours per week will guarantee they focus totally on their research, whereas having the choice to work, if mandatory,” a launch from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) mentioned.

Nonetheless, such college students can work limitless hours throughout a scheduled summer time break, just like the summer time trip.

IRCC additionally introduced that worldwide college students who start a school programme at a personal establishment by a licensing association with a public counterpart won’t be eligible for a post-graduate work allow after they graduate. This measure will apply to these admitted on or after Could 15 this 12 months.

“Working off campus helps worldwide college students acquire work expertise and offset a few of their bills. As worldwide college students arrive in Canada, we wish them to be ready for all times right here and have the assist they should succeed. Nonetheless, initially, individuals coming to Canada as college students should be right here to check, not work. We’ll proceed working to guard the integrity of our scholar programmes,” Miller mentioned.

The coverage, IRCC famous, makes an attempt to strike the “applicable stability” between offering college students with the choice to work with out compromising tutorial outcomes. “College students who come to Canada should be right here to check,” it careworn.

There was criticism previously that research permits are generally misused as a pathway to work in Canada and these new measures makes an attempt to deal with that. On the identical time, organisations, together with these from the Indo-Canadian neighborhood, have argued that lowering work hours poses issues for such college students attempting to deal with cost-of-living challenges in Canada.

India is the supply nation for the most important cohort of worldwide college students in Canada, accounting for 278,860 of the overall 684,385 research permits issued in 2023.