Canada tightens Eligibility for Postgraduate Work Permits

TL;DR

Canada has announced significant changes to its Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) program, effective from November 1, 2024, tightening eligibility rules for international students. The new regulations particularly affect college and non-degree students, who must now enroll in specific fields like agriculture, healthcare, STEM, skilled trades, or transportation and meet lower language requirements (CLB 5 or NCLC 5). University graduates remain eligible for PGWPs but must meet higher language standards (CLB 7 or NCLC 7).

These changes are part of the government’s broader effort to reduce the number of international students. The policy shift is intended to manage housing and infrastructure challenges but has sparked concerns among Canadian universities and critics, who warn of potential economic and educational impacts. This news provides critical insights for international students and education stakeholders navigating the evolving landscape of Canada’s immigration policies.

Canada has revised the eligibility rules governing postgraduate work permits. The new rules will be applicable from November 1, 2024.

 The official explanation for adopting stricter rules for issuing postgraduate work permits is that the government wants to “ensure that international students and temporary residents contribute positively to Canada’s economy and society “while maintaining a sustainable immigration level.

 The government has declared that in 2025 it wants to issue 437,000 study permits to international students, down from 485,000 this year and more than 500,000 in 2023.

 The government measures are driven by many considerations … not all of them high minded.

 In assessing Canada’s latest measure, it is useful to know that just last month Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau survived a no confidence motion that would have ended nine years of his Liberal Party rule.

 Trudeau’s political vulnerability soared last month when the smaller New Democratic Party tore up a 2022 deal to keep him in power until an election scheduled for end-October 2025.The no confidence motion failed but the opposition Conservatives remain in attack mode, battering the prime minister and his party on rising prices, housing crisis, and immigration management.

For the government, the easiest way to be seen as “doing something” is to change immigration policy and regulations, particularly when it comes to study permits and postgraduate work permits. Compulsions of political survival compel the Liberals to steal some of the Conservative Party’s thunder about population, immigration and housing.

 The first such move came way back in January of this year when the IRCC announced that it would reduce international undergraduate study permits by 35 per cent. The automatic issue of open work permits to the spouses of undergraduates was also discontinued. Canada introduced this student cap as a temporary resolution until 2025, but the policy has now been extended to 2026.

On September 18, the IRCC pledged to further reduce the overall intake of international students from 485,000 in 2024 to 437,000 in 2025. This would amount to a 10 per cent reduction of international students from 2024.

 Now comes tightening up of eligibility for the Post-Graduation Work Permits.  Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada Marc Miller has estimated the number of issued postgraduate work permits to decrease by 175,000 due to this policy measure.

 In addition, in March this year the government also discontinued automatic issuance of work permits to spouses of international graduate students.  Several new rules now govern this permit. The Immigration Minister has claimed that over the next three years, the new restrictions will shave off another 100, 000 people who are legally working in the country.

 Canada is trying to narrow the immigration gate after a long spell of easy access. Between 2018 and 2013, more than 1.5 million study permits for post-secondary were granted and international students flowed into the country … and the workforce. Now, the government aims to reduce the number of temporary residents from 6.5 percent of the total population to approximately 5 percent over the next three years.

 Needless to say, the stricter measures have been greeted with alarm by many of the country’s institutions.  In Canada, as elsewhere, international students are the cash cows that keep the higher education system running and contribute significantly to local economies.  Driving down the number of people on PGWPs will inevitably exacerbate labour shortages in certain sectors, particularly healthcare.

One vocal critic, Universities Canada president Gabriel Miller, has compared the new policies to an earthquake. Universities Canada is a national organisation representing 97 public universities across the country.   While agreeing that Canada must ensure that it has sufficient housing, infrastructure and the services to support international students, he points out that by effecting a drastic reduction in international student numbers, the government has plunged colleges and universities all across the country into a budgetary tailspin. He says the data so far indicates that international student enrolment will be even lower than anticipated — with the chaos from the new policies likely pushing talented students who would contribute much to Canada to turn elsewhere instead and threatening the existence of many institutions.

 Economists are also among the sceptics, pointing out that what may be good politics now may not prove to be good policy later.  Concluding a long article assessing the government’s response to immigration issues, the Business Council of Alberta warns: “Canada risks losing its longstanding public support for immigration. Immigration brings too many benefits to all Canadians for us to risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”