In order to apply for Work Permit after graduation in Canada, you must meet few qualifying criteria. Given below are requirements you, as a student, must meet to be eligible to apply for your student Work Permit after graduation:

• To be eligible for your work permit, you must have studied as a full-time student in an accredited Canadian educational institute and have finished a study program, with a minimum of eight months of study period.
• In situation where you are registered not as a full-time but a part time student in your last semester of classes, due to reasons like few courses remaining for graduation, you are still eligible only if you have been studying as a full-time student through-out your educational year.
• You must clear your study program successfully and pass your degree or diploma or certificate exam.
• Your eligibility also depends upon your application. You have to submit your application for Work Permit in Canada within a time frame of 90 days of getting a confirmation letter, from your educational institution. Every college or university provides a letter or transcript to its foreign student stating whether or not that the student has met all the academic requirements and has finished his study program successfully.

You also need a valid student permit, as provided by your institution, to present with your applications for work permit in Canada.

Other graduation requirements

In addition to the various study program related requirements, your eligibility for Work Permit also depends on your education institute. You must have completed your graduation from any of the following institutions:

• A public post-secondary institution. It could be a trade/technical school, college or a university.
• A private post-secondary institution following same rules as any public post-secondary institution. Your private post-secondary institution must receive up to 50% of its operational finances through government sanctioned grants.
• A private Canadian institution holding authorization by provincial statute to provide degree. In this case, you must be registered in one of the study program that leads to a degree authorized by the province.

How length of study program affects duration of work permit?

You must know that in Canada, duration of a Post Graduate Work Permit is directly related to the duration of a study program. Such as, if your study program is a 4 year degree program then you are eligible for a work permit of up to 3 or 4 years. Minimum study duration required for a Work Permit in Canada is eight months program; you are not qualified for a work permit if your program of study is less than eight months. Work Permit duration guidelines clearly say that an applicant is not eligible for a longer work period than the duration of its study program.

Ineligibility points

You do not qualify for a Post-Graduate Work Permit program, when-

• the duration your study program is less than eight months
• you participate in a DFAIT (Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) funded Government of Canada Awards
• participate in DFAIT funded Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Program
• you get finances from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
• you take part in Canada-China Scholars Exchanges Program
• participate in correspondence or distance learning education program from within Canada or abroad
• have previously received a Post-Graduate work permit in Canada based on another study program