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New Initiatives: Off-campus Work and Post-graduation Employment
Off-campus work
The off-campus work program allows foreign students at public post-secondary institutions to work off-campus while completing their studies.

Off-campus work is an option for students studying at institutions in provinces that have signed agreements with CIC. These provinces are as follows:

Manitoba
New Brunswick
Quebec. The census metropolitan areas of Montréal and Québec are currently excluded. The agreement will soon be amended to include them.
As new agreements are reached, more provinces and territories will be added to the list. Watch the CIC Web site for updates.

Students who come to Canada under the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan or under the Government of Canada Awards Program funded by Foreign Affairs Canada or by the Canadian International Development Agency are not eligible for off-campus work.

Post-graduation employment
As of May 16, 2005, the post-graduation work program will allow certain students to work for up to two years after their graduation. Previously, students were only allowed to work for one year.

Foreign students are eligible for a post-graduation work permit only for employment in their field of study. They must still have a valid study permit and apply for the work permit within 90 days of receiving written confirmation (transcript, letter, etc.) from their institution indicating that they have met the requirements of their program.

Once students have one of these documents, they can apply for a work permit. Post-graduation work permits are only available to graduates of a program at a Canadian university, a community college, a CEGEP, a publicly funded trade or technical school or a Canadian private institution authorized by provincial statute to confer degrees.

To be eligible for a two-year work permit (rather than just a one-year permit), foreign students must have

successfully completed a program of at least two years of full-time studies;


received written confirmation (transcript, letter, etc.) from the educational institution indicating that they have met the requirements of the program of study;


studied at and graduated from an institution located outside of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) or the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD);

Note: Foreign students who complete their studies at a campus located inside the CMM, the GTA or the GVRD, but at an institution whose headquarters for that campus is located outside those areas, are not eligible for off-campus work under this program.


found employment outside of the CMM, GTA or GVRD.

Note: Foreign students who graduate from an institution located inside one of those areas are not eligible for a second year of work, even if the employment is located outside of those areas.
Foreign students who currently hold a one-year post-graduation work permit and who meet the eligibility criteria for a two-year permit can apply for a one-year extension of their work permit.

Important information about work permits for students
Do not work without being authorized to do so. If you do, you will be in contravention of the law and may be asked to leave Canada. Students who qualify for the new initiatives still require a work permit, but they will be able to apply for one without having to obtain a labour market opinion from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Students must not begin to work until they have received their work permit.