If your college (Designated Learning Institution) has lost its Post-Graduation Work Permit eligibility, you generally cannot get a PGWP based on a program of study completed after that change takes effect, unless you started before the cutoff date for your specific arrangement. Two things matter most right now: how much of your program is left, and whether anything else on your study permit file, like off-campus work hours, is already out of compliance.
Why this happens
On January 22, 2024, IRCC confirmed that graduates of college programs delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement would no longer be eligible for a post-graduation work permit in most cases, a change effective May 15, 2024. There are two time-based exceptions, detailed on IRCC’s curriculum licensing programs page:
- Same-province partnerships: eligible if you started on or before May 15, 2024.
- Inter-provincial partnerships: eligible only if you started on or before February 1, 2023.
If your program falls outside these dates, graduating from it will not qualify you for a PGWP, even if you were admitted before news of the change broke.
What to check first
- Your intake date vs. the eligibility cutoff. Match your actual start date against the two cutoff dates above for your specific arrangement (same-province vs. inter-provincial), on IRCC’s own page, not from general news coverage.
- Whether transferring to an eligible DLI is realistic. If you have significant time left in your program, transferring to a PGWP-eligible institution before you graduate may preserve your PGWP path. This typically requires a new letter of acceptance and, in some cases, a study permit amendment.
- Your off-campus work hours. International students on a study permit are limited to 24 hours per week off campus during regular academic sessions (full-time is allowed during scheduled breaks). If you’ve gone over that limit, even briefly, even unintentionally, it is a condition violation that can affect future applications, including PGWP.
If you’ve already worked over the hour limit
Do not ignore it and hope it goes unnoticed. Depending on how it’s handled, options that may be available include:
- Voluntarily correcting your hours going forward and keeping clear records.
- Exploring restoration of status if your permit has expired or is at risk. You have 90 days after losing status to apply, and it costs a $200 restoration fee plus a $150 fee for the new permit. Miss the 90-day window and restoration is no longer available.
- Getting a paid consultation with a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or immigration lawyer before submitting any new application. A PGWP application with an unaddressed compliance issue is a real risk to get right the first time, not something to self-diagnose from a forum post.
The bottom line
“Hope” is not a strategy here. PGWP eligibility and work-permit compliance are both governed by specific rules with real deadlines. The earliest possible action, checking your DLI status against the real cutoff dates, and your own work-hour record honestly, gives you the most options. Waiting until graduation to find out your program wasn’t eligible removes almost all of them.