OTTAWA - International students who've graduated from Canadian post-secondary schools will be able to stay in Canada longer now that the federal government has offered a temporary program to help them qualify for permanent residency.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Friday that beginning this summer, graduates with work permits that expire in 2022 will qualify for an extension of up to 18 months.
🧑‍🎓 We will extend post-graduation work permits for recent international graduates, and those whose permits have or will expire this year will be eligible for an additional open work permit of 18 months.
— Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) April 22, 2022
The minister said details about the expedited process have not been finalized and are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Fraser is also reopening express entry draws in July for people looking to become permanent residents.
We've also processed over 100,000 work permit applications in the first quarter of 2022 to help address our labour shortage, doubling the number processed over the same time period in 2021, and made over 156,000 final decisions on PR applications already this year.
— Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) April 22, 2022
During the pandemic, the government paused applications for programs such as the Canadian experience class and federal skilled worker and federal skilled trades classes to work through a backlog.
The government says the "vast majority" of new applications to these classes will be processed within the six-month service standard.
