Canada lifts 20-hour weekly work limit for international students

International students in Canada will now be able to work more than 20 hours per week!  
Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced this significant change during a news briefing in Ottawa on Friday, focusing on the growing labor shortage. 

"Today, I'm announcing that we're adding another important measure to help fight against Canada's widespread labor shortages, while also continuing to support International students beginning on November 15th until the end of 2023. We're lifting the limit of 20 hours per week that eligible students are allowed to work off campus while studying…”  

Canada is currently grappling with a historic labor shortage. According to Canadian government statistics, there are approximately one million job vacancies in all sectors in Canada. 
Noticeably, at present, the unemployment rate of the country is below historical standards. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in September, from 5.4% in August, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada. 

Highlighting the importance of international students, the immigration minister said, “With the economy growing at a faster rate than employers can hire new workers, Canada needs to look at every option so that we have the skills and workforce needed to fuel our growth. Immigration will be crucial to addressing our labour shortage. By allowing international students to work more while they study, we can help ease pressing needs in many sectors across the country, while providing more opportunities for international students to gain valuable Canadian work experience and continue contributing to our short-term recovery and long-term prosperity. The move will allow more than 500,000 international students studying in Canada to easily find jobs in their field of study and be better financially supported. Since the largest number of international students studying in Canada are of Indian origin, they will be the biggest beneficiary of this decision of the Government of Canada.  

Prior to this, international students were only allowed to work up to 20 hours per week. 
IRCC tweeted on this big development

International Students: we are temporarily lifting the 20-hour-per-week cap on the number of hours that students in Canada are allowed to work off-campus while class is in session: https://t.co/GW6giiJTaR
(thread⬇️) pic.twitter.com/XmE2YPZAIk

— IRCC (@CitImmCanada) October 7, 2022

The minister also announced that this month IRCC would be launching a pilot project to automate the process of study permit extensions. The applications going through the process will likely get approval since all the applicants have previously been approved to study in Canada. If the pilot program is successful, it will be extended to increase the efficiency of the study permit issuance process. The minister also pointed out during the announcement that Canada has processed more than 452,000 study permit applications between January and August this year. This number is 23% higher in 2021 compared to the 367,000 processed in the same period. Students can take advantage of the available work opportunities in Canada only if they choose their course and college in the right way, for which it is recommended that they consult with Pyramid's Canada Study Visa experts. Call +91 92563-92563 to book an appointment.