Am I eligible for a post-graduation work permit (PGWP)?

Last updated: 22 December 2025

A post-graduation work permit (PGWP) is an open work permit (OWP) issued to international student graduates.

As an Open Work Permit (OWP), the PGWP authorizes holders to work for most employers in most industries in Canada, unlike closed or employer-specific work permits.

To find out whether you are or will be eligible for a PGWP, complete the web form below:

Have you graduated, or will you graduate, from a publicly funded postsecondary Canadian designated learning institution (DLI)? View the government list of DLIs
Is your program at least 8 months in length? (or 900 hours if in Quebec)
Is your program an English as a second language or French as a second language program?
Have you already been issued a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) for graduating from a different program?
On what date did you, or do you plan to submit, your initial study permit application? Do not include extensions. If you changed programs, use the date of the most recently enrolled program.
Is your program a university program?
What level of language proficiency do you have, or what level of language proficiency do you expect to score? See the Language Test Equivalency Charts for more details.
You must take an official immigration language test even if you are a native English speaker.
Did you continuously hold, or do you expect to continuously hold, full-time student status throughout the entire course of your studies? It’s OK to answer “Yes” if you were or expect to be part-time only for your last term of study, and/or if your only break(s) consisted entirely of authorized leaves of absence.
Did you conduct your studies in person at your Canadian post-secondary institution? You are allowed to count distance learning completed within Canada between March 2020 and August 31, 2024.


Admission requirements

In addition to meeting the PGWP-specific eligibility criteria, you must also meet Canada’s general admissibility requirements for all foreign nationals:

  • Show that you have enough funds to support yourself.
  • Show that you intend to leave Canada at the end of your authorized stay.
  • Not be inadmissible on account of reasons of health, immigration violations, criminal activity, or posing a threat to national security.
  • Not have one or more family members who are inadmissible.

Meeting the above requirements does not guarantee that your PGWP application will be approved. Approval of any individual application is always at the discretion of the immigration officer reviewing the file.