Some work permit holders in Canada may continue to study in the country without needing a study permit.
On December 6, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) updated their operational instructions and guidelines to clarify that work permit holders who applied for their work permit before June 7, 2023, may continue to pursue their studies without needing to apply for a work permit.
This is a continuation of the temporary policy instituted in 2023, which is set to last until June 27, 2026.
Discover your options to study in Canada
To be eligible for a study permit exemption as a work permit holder under this policy, you must:
Newcomers who applied for their work permits after June 7, 2023, are not eligible under this policy.
*Work authorizations are letters that are given to some newcomers by IRCC, while their application is in process. These letters allow newcomers to work in Canada, while the immigration department makes a decision on their application.
Individuals may continue to work if they applied for an extension before the expiry of their previous work permit, under maintained status.
Additionally, if you hold both a valid study permit, and a valid co-op work permit that meets the conditions above, you may be eligible to enroll in additional study programs under this policy if:
If you’re eligible for the study permit exemption under this temporary public policy, you can study in Canada without a study permit until:
As a work permit holder or work permit extension applicant, you can show one of the following documents to your Designated Learning Institution (DLI) of choice, to prove that you have a study permit exemption:
Continuing your education in Canada as a newcomer can yield multiple economic and immigration benefits.
Research from Statistics Canada supports this idea. A study entitled “International students as a source of labour supply” suggests that newcomers with “pre-landing (before attaining permanent residence) Canadian study experience” tend to perform much better in Canada’s labour market than newcomers without this study experience.
In the initial one to two years after receiving permanent residence (PR) newcomers who were graduates of Canadian education institutions earned 27% more than their counterparts who studied abroad.
These advantages carry over in the long term. According to the study, 10 to 11 years after landing, newcomers with at least one year of pre-landing work experience still earned between 9-12% more than those without such experience, even when accounting for pre-landing work experience.
Continuing your education in Canada can also be an effective way to increase your eligibility for PR.
Express Entry-related immigration programs use the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to score candidates based on their human capital factors (one of which is education). As individuals attain higher levels of education, they are awarded more points and subsequently have a higher likelihood of being invited to apply for PR.
You can earn a maximum of 150 CRS points if you do not have a spouse or partner accompanying you to Canada, and a maximum of 140 points with a spouse or partner.
| Level of Education | Points awarded with a spouse or common-law partner (Maximum 140 points) |
Points awarded without a spouse or common-law partner (Maximum 150 points) |
|---|---|---|
| Less than secondary school (high school) | 0 | 0 |
| Secondary diploma (high school graduation) | 28 | 30 |
| One-year degree, diploma or certificate from a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute | 84 | 90 |
| Two-year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute | 91 | 98 |
| Bachelor’s degree OR a three or more year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute | 112 | 120 |
| Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees. One must be for a program of three or more years | 119 | 128 |
| Master’s degree, OR professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession (For “professional degree,” the degree program must have been in: medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry, law, chiropractic medicine, or pharmacy.) | 126 | 135 |
| Doctoral level university degree (Ph.D.) | 140 | 150 |
In addition, the CRS also awards:
Further to increasing your CRS score, continuing your studies in Canada can also make you eligible for provincial immigration pathways designed specifically for international graduates from those areas.
Many of these pathways also reward work experience and arranged employment in the province.
Some examples of these programs include:
