If you are studying in Canada and you also want to work, you may eligible for work on-campus or off-campus without a work permit. However, you have to meet the some specific requirements to off-campus or on-campus.
Off-campus work:
If you are studying in Canada, you may eligible to off-campus work without a work permit. It depends on your education program as well. If your study permit allows you to work up to 20 hours per week during regular academic sessions which means you can work up to 20 hours while you are going to school, college, and university full-time.
You can also work full-time when you have full-time schedule breaks, such as winter break, and summer holidays or spring breaks.
In order to qualify for off-campus work you have to have following:
- You have a valid study permit
- You are a full-time student
- You have to enrolled at a designated learning institution at the post-secondary level or, in Quebec , a vocational program at the secondary level
- You are studying in academic, vocational or professional training program that leads degree, diploma, and certificate that is at least six months in duration.
You do not need to have a work permit to work off-campus work. However, you need to apply for social insurance number. When you apply for social insurance number at service Canada, you may need to provide the confirmation to work off-campus document issued by Citizenship and Immigration of Canada (CIC). In order to obtain confirmation document you have to meet the requirements. Additionally, you must continue to meet the conditions of your study permit to remain eligible to work off-campus.
On-campus work:
You can also work on campus while you are studying and you do not need a work permit. In order to work on-campus you have to meet the requirements and those are:
- You have a valid study permit
- You are full time student at a public post-secondary institution such as college, university or in Quebec , private post-secondary institution that operates under the same rules and regulation such as public institution and receives at least 50 percent of its financing from its overall operations from government grants, or
- Canadian private institution authorized by provincial statute to confer degree
If you are working in Canada while you are an international student and if you do not meet the eligibility requirements in order to work, you may be subject to enforcement action under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
If you have a further question about off-campus work or on-campus work, please give us call or send us an email. We will definitely provide you information about whether you can work while you are studying or not.