Due to global pandemic, Canada has relaxed it’s PGWP (Post-graduate work permit) requirements as the college or university courses are conducted online. The international students spending their time doing online courses can be counted towards Post-graduate work permit. Canada has included online courses as part of the PGWP eligibility criteria once the student gets his/her study permit approval. Also, as long as the program starts in 2020, international students start their online courses before getting their study permit counts. The criteria are that they need to apply for the study permit before September 15 and they should complete at least half of their program in Canada.
IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) will not reduce the time of study completed from the length of the PGWP for the students who study outside Canada until December 31, 2020. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the students are eligible for PGWP only if they attend the classes in-person. However, the eligibility criteria have changed as attending classes in-person is no longer workable with many Designated Learning Institutions (DLIs) as they switched in-person classes to online classes.
Applying for a study permit
As the Canada port of entry is not issuing visas during this pandemic anymore, most of the international students have to apply for their study permits online. Canada is accepting incomplete student applications for study permits and the international students can start studying without being fully equipped with a study permit. The full study permit will be issued for the students who want a post-graduate work permit when they submit all the documents and the application is approved.
Source – CIC News
