Today, Minister Marc Miller held a media availability addressing new rules governing off-campus working hours for international students in Canada. The Minister had a media scrum at 1 p.m. EDT (Toronto time) in the Foyer of the House of Commons of Canada. Minister Miller announces increasing off-campus working hours for international students during class from 20 to 24 hours beginning in September 2024.
The work hours limit will be reduced to 20 hours per week until September when the government can amend it for 24 hours. There are no restrictions on the number of hours overseas students can work during the summer and winter breaks. The temporary full-time work policy will not be extended after April 30, 2024.
Here is the Minister’s response on why 24 hours per week instead of 30 hours will be effective in the fall of 2024.
Working Hours For International Students in Canada
This media availability by Minister Miller is coming at the time when the temporary policy for full-time working hours is set to expire on April 30.
So, it is clear that the event aims to clarify the government’s stance on whether the temporary policy allowing some international students to work off-campus for more than 20 hours per week will be extended or not.
This temporary policy was introduced because of the COVID pandemic to ensure that businesses in Canada can fill in the labour shortage and international students can earn more to make ends meet.
A limited cohort of international students could work full-time until April 30. As we posted on April 18, it is unlikely that this policy regarding full-time working hours will be extended further after April 30.
However, IRCC mentioned that it is considering options such as increasing students’ off-campus employment hours to 30 hours per week. So on a positive note, we can expect that the immigration minister will announce the development of a 30-hour per week work policy.
Generally, international students in Canada can work 20 hours per week while class is in session. It has been long anticipated that Canada may increase these working hours for international students in Canada to 30 hours per week.
