PGWP application

Your 180-day window opens the day your school confirms you've completed your program. As of June 21, 2024, you can no longer get your PGWP at a border crossing or an airport when you enter Canada.

If your study permit runs out before your final marks arrive, you have 2 options. One is to request a visitor record, which lets you remain in Canada as a visitor. The other is to leave the country and submit your application from abroad.

Good news: full-time work is allowed while your application is being decided, as long as certain conditions were met when you submitted. Your study permit must have still been in force when you sent the application. Also, during your academic sessions, your off-campus work can't have gone over 24 hours a week.

Once you've applied, you may receive a document known as WP-EXT for PGWP (IMM 0127 E). It carries a validity date 180 days out, but you're allowed to stay on the job until your application is decided, even past that date.

If you held a valid study permit at the time you applied and later travel outside Canada, you can re-enter as a visitor and keep working during the PGWP processing period.

Before getting started, have a scanner or camera ready so you can create digital copies of your paperwork. A valid credit or debit card is also needed for the online payment.

1. Read the guide for your situation. Applying from outside Canada means using guide 5487. If you're inside Canada, use guide 5580.
2. In your IRCC secure account, pick the questionnaire called "Visitor visa, study and/or work permit." The answers you give produce a personalized checklist of required documents.
3. Complete the forms. Living in Canada means entering your Canadian address, no matter which guide you're using.
4. Upload all your documents, including any that don't appear on the checklist.
5. Pay the $255 in permit fees (plus the $85 biometrics fee if you need to give biometrics), then send everything in.
6. Look out for the biometrics instruction letter. Biometrics are your fingerprints and photo. After the letter comes, you have 30 days to provide them.

Because a PGWP is an open work permit, it doesn't tie you to a single employer. That's why you pay the regular work permit fee plus the open work permit holder fee. On top of that, the biometrics fee is usually due at the time you submit.

Amounts in Canadian dollars, from IRCC's fee list.

You have to prove you completed your program. Any one of these will do:

• the degree, diploma or certificate you earned
• a formal letter issued by your school
• your official transcript

On top of that, you must show you were a full-time student. An official transcript issued by your DLI works for this, and so does a copy of that official transcript downloaded from your DLI's website. A DLI is a school approved by the government to welcome international students.

Including valid results from an upfront medical exam means your PGWP won't have a condition restricting which jobs you can take.

Certain programs also call for proof that your field of study qualifies. Since this isn't listed on the checklist, add it under the "Client information" section when you apply.

IRCC won't issue a PGWP past the passport's end date. Before applying, confirm that date; if the passport ends early, the permit comes out shorter.

If you apply on or after November 1, 2024, your application must include proof of English or French ability. Graduates of flight schools are exempt. On the day you apply, your results need to be under 2 years old.

Accepted tests:

• CELPIP-General (English)
• IELTS General Training (English)
• PTE Core (English)
• TEF Canada (French)
• TCF Canada (French)

On the checklist, language results appear as an optional document, but they're mandatory when your program calls for them.

Required scores are expressed on the CLB scale for English or the NCLC scale for French, which are Canada's official language skill scales. A bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree, or another university program, calls for level 7. Level 5 applies to other college and polytechnic programs.

Certain studies don't qualify, so checking first can save you from paying fees for nothing:

• programs under 8 months long
• English or French language courses
• anything offered by a school flagged as having no PGWP-eligible programs on IRCC's DLI list
• programs begun on or after May 15, 2024 at a private college delivering a public college's curriculum

Flight school graduates qualify through a different route. You must hold a Canadian commercial pilot licence, or instead have an instructor rating together with a job offer as a flight instructor at a Canadian flight training centre.