Study permit work hours

Off campus covers jobs away from your own school. While a regular term is in session, these jobs are limited to 24 hours per week, and you're free to split the hours between several employers, provided the combined total stays at 24 or less. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada sets this 24-hour cap.

Some permits still show 20 hours a week. That printed figure is out of date, so working up to 24 is fine. You just have to keep meeting all the other off-campus work conditions.

You can't take any job before your program begins. Remote work done for an employer outside Canada doesn't use up any of your 24 hours.

If you pass 24 hours in a week, you've broken the conditions of your permit. That can take away your status in Canada and damage future permit applications, so a basic weekly tally is worth keeping when you hold several jobs.

On a break that your school has placed on its calendar, there's no cap on off-campus hours at all. These breaks include summer vacation, winter holidays, and reading week. Your school has to schedule the break, rather than it being time you simply decide to take off.

When a program has no scheduled breaks at all, the 24-hour weekly limit holds for the entire program.

Your program must run for at least 6 months and finish with a degree, diploma, or certificate. The permit also needs a printed condition that says you can work off campus. Missing that line? It can be added for free.

Even with those conditions in place, some students can't work off campus. If your studies are only English or French language classes, you'll need another kind of work permit. During an approved leave, or while you're between schools and not studying right now, off-campus work is off the table for that period.

There's one exception for part-time students. When you've studied full time the whole way and only drop to part time for your final term, off-campus work is still allowed in that last stretch.

The government temporarily removed the weekly limit during the pandemic. IRCC later reinstated the weekly 24-hour cap on off-campus work, so older online advice about unlimited hours during term is no longer valid.

These hours don't call for a separate work permit. The permission lives in the conditions printed on your study permit.

Jobs at your own school carry no hour limit, whether it's term time or a break. Eligibility requires full-time status at a designated learning institution, a valid permit (or an extension application), work conditions printed on that permit, and a Social Insurance Number. In other words, a designated learning institution is a school that has government approval to enrol international students.

Teaching and research assistants can work at a library, hospital or research facility tied to their school, provided the job connects to a research grant. All on-campus work has to end once your study permit is no longer valid.

Starting April 1, 2026, post-secondary students don't need a separate co-op work permit when the placement is a required part of their program. Already holding a co-op work permit? It stays valid until its expiry date.

The placement can make up at most 50% of your program, and your school must give you a letter confirming it's required. Secondary-level students must still get a co-op work permit.

After your program ends, you can work unlimited hours if you were allowed to work off campus during your studies and, before your study permit expired, you sent in an application for a post-graduation work permit or a different work permit. For a post-graduation work permit, the application deadline is 180 days after your school confirms you finished your program.

If you're heading straight into a new program, unlimited hours continue as long as that program begins no later than 150 calendar days after your completion confirmation.