The federal government is going to increase the number of hours international students can work in Canada.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says the idea is to fill some of the job vacancies in the country.
“This is a meaningful change that is going to allow in excess of 500,000 students to work more should they choose,” Fraser told a news conference on Friday.
“Not every student that’s in Canada fully avails themselves of the 20 hours they can work today, but many do and we want to make sure those who want to work more have the ability to, to help address the labour shortage.”
Fraser says lifting the 20 hour a week limit will start November 15th and last all of 2023.
“Its important that we look at all the levers we have that we can pull to help contribute to addressing Canada’s labour shortage. There’s no silver bullet. We need to be continuing to work to enhance skill development for people that are already in Canada. Continue to speed up our immigration processing.
Fraser also announced that Canada is also launching a pilot project to automate the processing of study permit extensions.
He adds that over 452,000 study permit applications were approved last year, which was a record.
