Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) reform is coming.
Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller has indicated this numerous times, including yesterday in Montreal while meeting with his provincial counterparts. (See the video below).
PGWP reform is desperately needed since the current rules are no longer viable.
The PGWP is highly coveted since research shows most international students seek Canadian permanent residence. The PGWP enables them to gain professional work experience after graduation which international students can use to strengthen their eligibility for permanent residence. A major reason why federal and provincial governments give preference to those with Canadian study and work experience is Statistics Canada research shows it helps to predict integration into the labour market.
Prior to the pandemic, the PGWP was fairly straightforward. Eligible international students could obtain a PGWP for a maximum duration of three years. The PGWP was not renewable, and an international student had three options by the time their PGWP expired: attempt to transition to permanent residence, transition to another temporary visa, or leave Canada.
The pandemic changed things completely. Due to a mix of factors, including protecting the safety of temporary residents in Canada by not expecting them to take the risk of travelling abroad amid the height of the pandemic, plus domestic labour shortages, and the desire to land over 400,000 permanent residents annually, Canada decided to offer various extensions to PGWP holders.
The extensions were due to exceptional circumstances however they kept on coming even as the pandemic was abating. The exception then became the norm. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced a total of three 18-month extensions for PGWP holders, in addition to their policy in 2020 to allow temporary residents to maintain their status. The music finally stopped last year when Miller announced IRCC would no longer offer extensions.
The extensions were necessary for various reasons. When the operating environment was more straightforward, PGWP holders knew as long as they gained one year of eligible work experience, they could throw their hats into the ring and vie for permanent residence. Every two weeks, IRCC held Express Entry draws and we all knew roughly how many invitations to apply (ITAs) would be issued and what the Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) cut-off would be. This gave PGWP holders certainty to plan accordingly and they knew exactly what was needed of them to gain permanent residence. In the last Express Entry draw before the pandemic, the CRS cut-off score was 471.
This certainty has all but evaporated since the pandemic as Express Entry has become completely unpredictable. The uncertainty comes amid the PGWP population growing significantly due to the combination of IRCC enabling international students to take their programs online during the pandemic and still be eligible for a PGWP and the international student population growing to all-time highs.
Recognizing the status quo is unsustainable, IRCC is seeking to pursue four interrelated objectives: reduce international student levels, introduce a cap on temporary residents, strengthen the link between the immigration system and Canada’s labour market needs, and seek to transition more temporary residents to permanent residents.
One of the major tools IRCC has at its disposal to achieve these objectives is PGWP reform. By making tweaks to the PGWP, IRCC can blunt demand among certain international students while at the same time incentivizing behaviour to welcome international students who are well-positioned to support Canada’s labour market and immigration needs.
PGWP reform is also important to IRCC’s goal of improving the integrity of the international student program since the department wants to crack down on the false hope being sold to international students that gaining permanent residence is a foregone conclusion after completing your Canadian education. As an aside, one way IRCC can do this is by taking down misleading language and posters on its website that encourage international students to “Study, Explore, Work, and Stay” in Canada.
IRCC has already announced that future cohorts of international students who enrol in programs with curriculum licensing agreements (i.e., public-private education partnerships) will no longer be eligible for PGWPs.
IRCC can go a step further by lengthening the PGWP durations of international students who pursue educational programs that align with Canada’s labour market needs, while shortening the PGWP durations of other students.
Currently, IRCC is prioritizing Express Entry candidates who speak French, or who have work experience in STEM professions, the skilled trades, transportation, healthcare, and agriculture. IRCC introduced this approach in 2023 and announced its targeted categories would be subject to annual review. IRCC could do something similar by stating that French-speaking international students, as well as those who pursue education in targeted disciplines will be eligible for a 3-year PGWP that can be renewed once for the same length of time (a maximum duration of 6-years). This would encourage more international students to pursue education in the likes of STEM disciplines, the skilled trades, transportation, healthcare, and agriculture, and increase the pool of immigration candidates for Canada that align with the country’s labour shortages.
At the same time, to help its efforts to blunt demand, IRCC could shorten the maximum duration of the PGWP to 18-months for educational disciplines it does not deem to be high priority. The reason 18-months would be appropriate (as opposed to just 12-months) is that as noted, an international student typically needs one year of eligible post-graduation to be able to apply for permanent residence, and it would only be fair to give them a bit of a grace period after they graduate to secure such employment. We would not want the PGWP clock to start as soon as they graduate, which would essentially mean they would not have a chance of gaining the one year of work experience if they do not secure eligible employment shortly after graduation.
A final consideration is how to delineate between university and college programs. Currently, the PGWP does not do so, and as such, a PhD graduate at one of Canada’s top universities is treated the same as a college diploma graduate. Perhaps it may be beneficial for IRCC to also offer one PGWP renewal to university graduates, irrespective of their educational discipline, on the grounds they are generally speaking, not viewed as a major contributor of Canada’s current international student integrity issues, plus Statistics Canada research showing that level of education is also a strong predictor of immigrant labour market integration.
The PGWP is beneficial to Canada in numerous ways. It keeps Canada attractive to international students, since few countries in the world offer this luxury to foreign graduates. It provides Canada with a robust pool of immigration candidates. But the current PGWP regime is no longer viable and it’s time to update the rules so that both international students and Canada can continue to reap the PGWP’s rewards.