Canada Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP): Eligibility, Documents & RCIC Assistance

Who the PGWP is for

The PGWP exists for one group: people who came to Canada as international students, finished an eligible program, and want to stay and work. It is an open work permit, which means it is not tied to a named employer. You do not need a job offer to apply for it, and you may change employers while it is valid.

In practice, applicants fall into four situations:

• Recent graduates still in Canada on a valid study permit, applying in the weeks after receiving final marks. This is the cleanest case, and the one where timing mistakes are most avoidable.
• Graduates whose study permit has expired or is about to. Here the deadlines interact, and restoration of status may be in play. This is urgent.
• Graduates who have left Canada and want to apply from outside. This is possible within the 180-day window, but re-entry and the practicalities of starting work need planning.
• Graduates with a complicated study history — a transfer between institutions, a change of program, a leave of absence, a part-time semester, online study, or a program delivered under an arrangement between a public and a private college. These need assessment before an application is filed.

If you are still choosing a program, the PGWP rules should influence that choice. See studying in Canada for how the study permit and the PGWP connect.

Eligibility in detail

Every requirement below is assessed against the facts on your record — your study permit history, your transcripts and your institution's letters. Assume that anything you assert will be checked against those documents.

Programs that generally do not lead to a PGWP

Some programs are excluded regardless of how well you performed in them. The common exclusions include English or French as a second language programs, general interest or self-improvement courses, programs shorter than eight months, certain exchange or visiting-student arrangements, and programs funded through particular awards that require the recipient to return home. Certain private-college arrangements have also been excluded. Because this list has changed more than once in recent years, an institution's marketing material is not a safe source — the IRCC page is.

How long a permit you get

PGWP length is tied to the length of the program you completed, subject to a maximum. Generally tied to the length of the study program, up to a maximum of three years, with shorter permits for shorter programs. A PGWP can only be issued once in a lifetime.

• A program of at least eight months but less than two years generally leads to a permit of roughly the same length as the program.
• A program of two years or more generally leads to a three-year permit.
• Separate rules have applied to master's degree graduates, allowing a longer permit than the program length alone would give. Confirm the current position before relying on it.
• Your permit cannot extend beyond the validity of your passport. If your passport expires in eighteen months, your PGWP will be cut to eighteen months even if you qualified for three years — and you will have to apply to extend it afterwards, with a fee and a wait.

Documents you will need

Required documents vary with your circumstances, and IRCC's document checklist for your specific application is authoritative. The following is what a well-prepared PGWP application usually contains.

Proof that you completed an eligible program

• Official final transcript showing all sessions and your enrolment status in each
• Completion letter or degree confirmation from your institution, with its date
• Your degree, diploma or certificate, if it has been issued

Immigration and identity documents

• Passport, valid for as long as possible — see the point about permit length above
• All study permits held during your studies, including expired ones
• Any visitor records, work permits or extension approvals
• Digital photograph meeting IRCC's specifications

Language results

• Results from an approved English or French test, valid on the date you apply

Where your history needs explaining

• Documentation of any authorised leave, showing it was approved and within IRCC's rules
• Letters from the institution explaining a part-time session, a transfer or a change of program
• Evidence about how a program was delivered, where online or hybrid study is involved
• A written submission addressing anything on the record an officer would otherwise have to guess at

The application process

1. Confirm the completion date Obtain the written confirmation from your institution and note its date. Your 180-day window runs from there.
2. Check your status Establish whether your study permit is still valid, when it expires, and whether you are authorised to work in the meantime. If status has already been lost, deal with restoration first — that deadline is shorter.
3. Test your eligibility against the right dates Field of study against the list as it stood when either your study permit application or your PGWP application was submitted, whichever came first; language against the requirement for your institution and program type; enrolment across every session on your transcript.
4. Sit the language test if you have not Book early. Results take time to arrive, and the 180-day window does not pause for them.
5. Assemble and review the file Forms, transcripts, letters, language results and any submission explaining the difficult parts of your history.
6. Submit online and pay The work permit fee and the open work permit holder fee both apply. Keep the confirmation of submission — it is your evidence of the filing date.
7. Give biometrics if asked You may be exempt if you have given biometrics recently and they remain valid.
8. Respond to IRCC promptly Requests for additional documents carry deadlines that are enforced.

Processing times

Commonly a few weeks to a few months, and usually faster when applied for from inside Canada online.

IRCC publishes live processing times that change frequently and vary by country of residence and application type. Use the official processing-times tool for a current estimate for your own situation. No representative can shorten or guarantee a processing time.

Check current IRCC processing times · Verified 2026-09-19

Government fees

These are fees paid to the Government of Canada, separate from any professional fee. They change periodically.

Confirm current fees on the IRCC fee list

Why PGWP applications are refused

PGWP refusals are rarely about judgement or discretion. They are almost always about a requirement that was not met, discovered after the fact. These are the ones that come across the desk most often.

A part-time session in the middle of the program

Students reduce their course load for entirely reasonable reasons — illness, a family emergency, a course that was full, a co-op term that counted differently than they assumed. Unless the reduction falls within the recognised exceptions, it breaks the full-time requirement. The time to establish this is before applying, when an authorised-leave argument or an institutional letter may still be available.

Field of study assessed against the wrong list

The eligible field-of-study list has changed, and the version that governs is the one in force when the study permit application was submitted. Applicants check the current list, see their program missing, and conclude they are ineligible — or the reverse. Both errors are common and both are avoidable.

The 180 days ran from the wrong date

Graduates count from convocation, or from the last exam, and file late. The clock runs from the institution's written confirmation of completion. A late application cannot be cured.

Status lost before applying

A study permit expires while the student waits for final marks. Applying for a PGWP does not fix a status that has already lapsed; restoration is a separate application with its own 90-day deadline, and there is generally no work authorisation while it is pending. See restoration of status.

Language results missing, expired or below the level

Since the requirement was introduced, applications have been refused because the test was booked too late, the result expired before filing, or the applicant met the level for one institution type but not the one that applied to them.

The institution or delivery model was not eligible

Programs delivered under licensing arrangements between public and private colleges, and certain private institutions, have been excluded. Students were often told at enrolment that a PGWP would follow. That assurance is not binding on IRCC.

Too much of the program was completed online

Limits apply to how much of a program may be delivered by distance learning while still supporting a PGWP, and temporary pandemic-era flexibilities have ended. Programs completed partly from outside Canada need checking against the rules that applied at the time.

An undisclosed history

A previous refusal, a withdrawal, a transfer that was never reported, or a period of unauthorised work. Omitting any of these is far more damaging than the fact itself, and can raise misrepresentation — which carries consequences lasting years beyond this application.

How 5AB Immigration helps

Specifically, on a PGWP file:

• Eligibility assessed against the correct dates. Your study permit application date, your completion date, each session on your transcript, and the rules in force at each of those moments — not the rules as they stand today.
• Transcript review, session by session. Enrolment status in every academic session is checked against the full-time requirement before anything is filed, so a problem is found while it can still be addressed.
• Institutional evidence obtained. Where a session looks irregular, we identify precisely what letter or record from your institution would resolve it, and what that letter needs to say.
• Timing and status managed together. The 180-day PGWP window, your study permit expiry and any 90-day restoration deadline are mapped against each other, so one deadline is not met at the cost of another.
• A written submission where the file needs one. Where your history raises an obvious question, the application answers it directly rather than leaving an officer to infer the worst.
• The next step considered now. PGWP work experience is the raw material for the Canadian Experience Class. The occupation you take up during your PGWP affects whether that experience will count, so it is worth deciding deliberately.

If assessment shows you are not eligible, you will be told plainly, together with what alternatives exist. That is more useful than a filed application that fails.

Case example

Details are changed and circumstances combined to protect client confidentiality. This illustrates how a file is analysed. It is not a prediction, and no outcome is implied or guaranteed for any other application.

Frequently asked questions