Foreign students will be able to work more than 20 hours per week off campus from November 15. Ottawa is jumping this limit to give a helping hand to employers who are facing the labor shortage that is hitting the country.
“We have to deal with an economy that has a million jobs available […] and employers are struggling to find the number of workers needed in this time of economic recovery and growth. Immigration has a role to play,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said at a press conference Friday morning.
From November 15 to the end of 2023, international students will therefore be able to work the number of hours they want. This measure, which affects hundreds of thousands of students, could be extended, said the minister.
Ottawa is also setting up a pilot project to speed up the processing of study permit extension requests, with automatic renewal for a small pool of students. The program will then be extended to a larger number if the results are conclusive.
More details will follow.
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