The PGWP turns a Canadian credential into open work authorisation, and open work authorisation into permanent residence. Since November 2024 it also turns on three tests that did not exist before: your field of study, your language scores and the date you applied for your study permit. We check all three before you file.
Introduced on 1 November 2024. It applies only if you applied for your study permit on or after that date and your credential is not a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree. Degrees are exempt whatever the subject.
If it applies, your programme’s six-digit CIP code must appear on IRCC’s eligible list. There are 1,107 codes on it, spread across healthcare and social services, STEM, education, trades, agriculture and agri-food, and transport.
The useful part: IRCC has frozen the list for all of 2026, so nothing will be added or removed under you this year. Your code needs to be on the list when you applied for the study permit or when you apply for the PGWP, so an earlier study permit application can protect you.
Also from 1 November 2024, and it applies to nearly everyone. You need results in all four abilities, taken in person, and less than two years old on the day you submit.
CLB 7 if you hold a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, or any other university programme. CLB 5 if you graduated from a college, polytechnic or other non-university programme. Flight school graduates are exempt.
Accepted tests are CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training and PTE Core in English, and TEF Canada or TCF Canada in French. There is no partial credit. One ability below the band fails the whole application.
The programme must have run at least 8 months, or 900 hours in Quebec, at a DLI whose programme is PGWP-eligible. Designated is not the same as PGWP-eligible, and public-private partnership programmes have been excluded since 2023 and 2024.
You must have been full-time in every semester, with part-time allowed in the final semester only. Authorised leave of up to 150 days does not break the pattern.
Then the clock: 180 days from written confirmation that you finished, with your study permit valid at some point inside that window. The deadline does not move.
The 180 days run from written confirmation that you have met every requirement of your programme, not from convocation. Ask your registrar for it the moment your final marks are posted, and keep the dated copy.
Book before your results are even released. Test seats, not eligibility, are what usually pushes graduates past the deadline. Results must be under two years old when you submit, so an old test taken for your study permit may no longer count.
Find your programme’s CIP code on your transcript or from your registrar and check it against IRCC’s list. Because of a portal limitation, this proof is uploaded under Client Information rather than a dedicated slot. Applications have been refused for putting it in the wrong place.
Flagpoling for a PGWP has been prohibited since 21 June 2024, and the border services ban on flagpoling for work and study permits followed on 23 December 2024. Turning up at a port of entry will not get this permit issued.
See the section below. Whether you can work while the application processes is a different question from whether you are eligible for the permit, and the answer is not always the same.
In Canadian dollars, per IRCC’s published fee schedule, verified September 2026. The PGWP is an open work permit, so the $100 holder fee applies and is included in the $255. Most graduates gave biometrics within the last ten years and will not pay again. Our professional fee is quoted separately in a written retainer before any work begins.
IRCC does not publish a PGWP-specific processing time. The applicable figure is the inland work permit line, 113 days as at 2 September 2026, updated weekly. Treat it as a planning estimate, not a promise.
Two different tests get confused constantly, and the confusion costs people their jobs. Eligibility for the permit only requires that your study permit was valid at some point during the 180 days after you finished. The right to work while you wait requires a valid study permit on the day you press submit. You can pass the first and fail the second.
This is the most common version of the trap. Your programme ends in April, your study permit expires in May, your official completion letter arrives in June. Apply after the permit lapses and you are out of status.
IRCC’s stated options are to apply for a visitor record before the study permit expires, which keeps you in status while you wait for your letter, or to leave Canada and apply from outside. If the permit has already lapsed you must apply for restoration as a student, with extra fees and a 90-day limit, before you can file the PGWP at all.
There is also a proposal under consultation that would guarantee work authorisation to graduates waiting on a PGWP decision. It is not law, it has no implementation date, and nobody should plan around it.
The PGWP is not the destination. Its whole value is that it buys you the one thing every economic immigration route asks for and none of them will waive: skilled Canadian work experience. Twelve months of it, in the right occupation, opens the Canadian Experience Class. Plan the job before you plan the permit.
The natural route for a PGWP holder. You need one year of full-time skilled work in Canada, in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3, gained while you were authorised to work. There is no education requirement.
Language sits at CLB 7 for TEER 0 and 1 roles, CLB 5 for TEER 2 and 3. Note that CRS points for an LMIA-backed job offer were removed in March 2025 and have not returned, so a job offer no longer buys you the jump it once did.
Express Entry →IRCC now runs targeted rounds alongside the general ones, and they routinely land at far lower scores. The ten current categories are French-language proficiency, healthcare and social services, STEM, trades, education, transport, physicians, senior managers, researchers and skilled military recruits.
Four of those were added for 2026. If your work sits in one, your realistic score target changes completely, and French is the single biggest lever available to most graduates.
Check the categories →A provincial nomination adds 600 CRS points, which in practice guarantees an invitation. Provinces run their own graduate and skilled worker streams and they change often.
Ontario is the cautionary example: its Masters Graduate, PhD Graduate and International Student streams all closed in 2026, replaced by the single Ontario Workforce Priority stream. Never build a plan on a stream without checking it is still open.
Provincial programs →If your PGWP is running out before you have your year of experience, a bridging open work permit can hold the gap once a permanent residence application is in. That only works if the PR application is filed in time, which is the argument for planning this in year one of the permit rather than month thirty-four. Figures verified against IRCC and provincial sources in September 2026.
No. A bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree is exempt from the field of study list whatever the subject, and so is a PGWP-eligible flight school programme.
The catch people miss: the exemption is credential-based, not institution-based. A non-degree certificate or diploma from a university is not exempt. It carries both the field of study test and the higher CLB 7 language band, which is the worst of both worlds. Read your credential name carefully.
Check the date first. Your CIP code needs to be on the list either when you applied for your study permit or when you apply for the PGWP. If your study permit application predates a change, that earlier date can protect you.
If you applied for your study permit before 1 November 2024, the requirement does not apply to you at all, regardless of what you studied.
IRCC has frozen the list for all of 2026, so waiting for your field to be added is not a strategy this year.
It follows your programme. Under 8 months and you do not qualify. Between 8 months and 2 years, the permit generally matches the length of the programme. Two years or more and you can receive the maximum 3 years.
The exception worth knowing: since 15 February 2024, a master’s degree of at least 8 months attracts a full 3-year permit even though the programme was shorter than 2 years. This applies to degrees only, not certificates or diplomas.
Your passport overrides all of it. If your passport expires sooner, the permit is cut to that date, and you would then apply on paper to extend once you have a new one.
No. IRCC is unambiguous that the PGWP is a one-time opportunity. Completing a second programme does not reset it.
The single exception is administrative rather than substantive: if your permit was shortened because your passport was expiring, you can apply to extend it to the length you were originally entitled to.
If you have used your PGWP and need to keep working, the conversation moves to a bridging open work permit, an employer-specific permit, or a spousal open work permit. Those are real options, they are just different ones.
If your study permit was applied for on or after 1 September 2024, you must have completed at least half the programme in class in Canada. Beyond that, time you spent studying from outside Canada is deducted from the length of your permit, and online study from outside Canada after 31 August 2024 never counts at all.
Distance learning is one of the quieter reasons a permit comes back much shorter than expected. If a meaningful part of your programme was remote, work out the deduction before you make plans around three years.
No. Flagpoling for a PGWP was prohibited on 21 June 2024, and the Canada Border Services Agency extended a broader flagpoling ban to work and study permits on 23 December 2024.
Applications must be made online from inside Canada. Presenting yourself at a port of entry will not get this permit issued and may create problems of its own.
Act before it expires, not after. While the permit is still valid you can apply for a visitor record, which keeps you in status while you wait for your completion letter, and then file the PGWP. Alternatively you can leave Canada and apply from outside.
If the permit has already lapsed you must first apply for restoration as a student, within 90 days and with additional fees, before you can file the PGWP at all. This is a genuinely time-sensitive situation and it is worth a phone call the week you notice it, not the month after.
Four abilities, all of them, taken in person, from an approved test: CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training or PTE Core in English, or TEF Canada or TCF Canada in French. Results must be less than two years old on the day you submit.
The band is CLB or NCLC 7 for degree holders and any other university programme, and CLB or NCLC 5 for college, polytechnic and other non-university programmes. There is no averaging and no partial credit outside the specific disability accommodation process.
A practical warning: the application portal has not had a dedicated field for these results, so proof gets uploaded under Client Information. Applications have been refused because the document went in the wrong place.
Not by itself, no. The permit gives you the right to work. What earns permanent residence is what you do with it: twelve months of skilled Canadian work experience in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 opens the Canadian Experience Class.
Which is why the job matters more than the permit. A well-paid role in TEER 4 or 5 builds no immigration capital at all, however long you stay in it. Graduates who plan the occupation in their first months, rather than their final year, consistently land in a better position.
Not always, and we will say so. A straightforward file with a degree, clean full-time study, good test scores and time on the clock is one many graduates file themselves.
Where it is worth paying for advice: a non-degree credential where the CIP code is arguable, a period of part-time study or authorised leave, significant online study, an expired or expiring study permit, a previous refusal, or any question about working while you wait. Those are the files where an hour of advice is cheaper than the consequence.
Mary Ogenyi-Igoche is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, RCIC R731653. Every engagement starts with a written retainer and a fixed fee.
Sometimes, and much less often than before. Until 21 January 2025 a spousal open work permit followed almost automatically from a work permit. It no longer does.
Two tests now apply. First, you must be employed in a TEER 0 or 1 occupation, or in one of a specific enumerated list of TEER 2 and 3 occupations covering many skilled trades, health, technical, natural resource, education, sport and military roles. TEER 2 and 3 work in sales, service, business, finance, administration and manufacturing is excluded, and TEER 4 and 5 does not qualify at all.
Second, your permit must have at least 16 months remaining when IRCC receives your partner’s application. Since a PGWP can be issued for as little as eight months, this alone rules out a great many graduates.
Two more traps. Because a PGWP is an open permit, it says nothing about your occupation, so IRCC looks at the job you actually hold and requires an employer letter with the NOC code. And your PGWP must be issued, not merely applied for. Working under the interim rule while you wait does not count, and a spousal application filed before your permit is issued will be refused.
If none of this works, the routes worth examining are your partner’s own employer-specific permit, International Experience Canada, their own qualifying study permit, or moving the permanent residence application forward, where the rule relaxes to six months and any occupation. Verified against IRCC operational instructions in September 2026.
Where the permit came from, and where it can take you.
Information sessions, citizenship celebrations, community events and the everyday work of settling in. Hover to pause, click any photo to open it full size.
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Serving clients in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and across Canada · Based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
info@ubuntuwic.ca
Content on this page is general information and not legal advice. Attestation letter requirements, financial thresholds, work limits and post-graduation work permit criteria change frequently.
