Vanite

Good news, eh? NOW the CEC begins to make some sense for international students.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/departm...2008-04-21.asp

-- Vanite

Judy in Calgary

It looks like it. Thanks for sharing.
x

ozge_uvic

Great News!! Too bad its too late for me though as I earned my degree from Canada 2 years ago and returned back home... But still finally they realized the importance of keeping canadian educated international students. We were the ones who suffered from the limited opportunities at the time. Makes me litlle angry

Frozenrose

I just heard today too! My grad visa expires as of June this year,but I jumped on to the CIC phoneline this morning at 8am to confirm that the addition of two extra years [in my case, three in total for others] would still be applicable to me as I already have my grad visa and hurrah it is!

Now I am just trying to work out whether it would be beneficial or not to send a letter to Buffalo stating that my job has been upgraded to a permanent full time position or not... Either which way, its freaking great news!

Want2Move

The article says this: "...work permits for international students who graduate from eligible programs at certain Canadian post-secondary institutions..."

How do I know which ones are the eligible programs?

What if I go and attend the University of British Columbia or University of Alberta or University of Toronto and get my master's degree in less than a year (two semesters of full-time study)? Am I eligible for 3 years open work permit to work anywhere in Canada?

Andrew Miller

Post-grad work permit can only be issued for the duration not exceeding duration of study in Canada. Thus to be eligible for 3-years WP you must graduate after at least 3-years long education program.

billrl

This is from the Post Graduate Work Permit Program Backgrounder:

"The changes to the program include extending the duration of the work permit to three years across the country for those whose program of study is at least two years"

That doesn't sound right to me. It seems like if you study for 2 years, you get a 3 year work permit (which is more than the time you've studied for). But if you're in say a 20 month program, your work permit is only for 20 months, which is substantially less than the 3 year permit you would have had if you'd studied 4 months more for a total of 24 months.

???!!!???

Andrew Miller

Let's wait for the amendment to Immigration Manual - as of now the latest version of FW Manual dated 2008-04-21 in section 5.38 on page 60 still states that post-grad work permit's duration cannot exceed the duration of studies.

The same is stated in the Backgrounder you just mentioned:

Note that if the student’s program of study is less than two years but at least eight months, the student would be eligible for a post-graduate work permit. However, the validity period of the work permit must not be longer than the period of study of the graduate at the particular post-secondary institution in Canada.

Thus I don't expect any changes in respect to the validity of post-grad work permits dependent on the duration of study, although I may be wrong. Let's wait for the update to FW manual, shall we?

ill_only_miss_eastenders

If someone is doing an excellerated course at collage (diploma) that usually takes 2 years to complete, but will actually take 6 months (no breaks, more hours a week) Would they be able to say it was 2 years of education, or do you have to actually be on the course for 2 years to be able to claim it?

Thanx

Andrew Miller

You have to actually have two years of full time classes.

ill_only_miss_eastenders

Thanks for that Andrew. That really throws up alot of questions for me. I have been accepted in the Personal support Worker Diploma course, which is from Sept 15th 2008 to February 27th 2009. The collage has told me the information that I stated in my previous post ( that its a two year course put into six months, Full days, 5 days a week plus 2 hours everyday at home)
The collage that runs the course works very closley with a Personal support Agency and I have a letter of Guaranteed employment from them. (As long as I pass of course)
Alot of the students that have passed the course, with the offered employment have had no trouble in being able to stay and work. I'm just now wondering how as i havn't seen Personal support workers on the list of shortages for Ontario and if this course dosn't enable you to get a graduation visa then I have no idea how they have done it.

Thanks for any help

Confused

Andrew Miller

First of all - are you sure that graduating from this school is eligible for PGWP?

PDWP provisions apply to students who have studied full-time at a Canadian university, community college, CEGEP, or publicly funded trade/technical school. They also apply to full-time studies at private institutions authorized by provincial statute to confer degrees; but only if the student is enrolled in one of the programs of study leading to a degree as authorized by the province and not in all programs of study offered by the private institution.

To be eligible for 3-years PGWP student must complete a program of duration of full 2 academic years.

ill_only_miss_eastenders

This is the information that they have given me back ...
The PSW course you get the college diploma certified through MTCU plus you do get a provincial Diploma from the National Association of Career Colleges when you write the Provincial exam at the end of the 6 month program.

Again Thanks

ill_only_miss_eastenders

Sorry pasted the wrong part

We are a certified Private Career College with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities in Ontario.

Andrew Miller

It is not the answer you are looking for. Fact of being "certified" (to do what?) is not sufficient - private college must be authorized to confer degrees. And you must be enrolled into program resulting in degree on the completion - a diploma or certificate won't cut it.

Read here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...tins/ob058.asp

It is stated that PGWP provisions apply to students who have studied full-time at a Canadian university, community college, CEGEP, or publicly funded trade/technical school. They also apply to full-time studies at private institutions authorized by provincial statute to confer degrees; but only if the student is enrolled in one of the programs of study leading to a degree as authorized by the province and not in all programs of study offered by the private institution.