How Many Hours Can I Work Off Campus as a Student?

During a regular term you can work up to 24 hours a week off campus. You can split those hours across more than one job. If your permit was printed when the limit was 20 hours, IRCC says you can still work 24, as long as you still meet the conditions.

During a break your school has scheduled, such as the summer, the winter holiday or a reading week, there is no limit. You can also study part time or full time during that break without losing the right to work unlimited hours. If your program has no scheduled breaks, the limit stays at 24 all year.

You need all of these at once. You are a full-time student at a designated learning institution. Your program has started. It is a post-secondary academic, vocational or professional program, or a secondary-level vocational program in Quebec. It runs at least six months and leads to a degree, diploma or certificate. Your study permit is valid, or you applied to extend it before it expired. The permit has a condition printed on it that allows off-campus work. And you have a social insurance number.

You cannot start working before the program starts. You also cannot work while on an authorized leave, or while switching schools and not studying. The right comes back when the studies do.

Students whose permit says they are not authorized to work off campus. Students taking only English or French as a second language. Students in general interest courses only, or in prerequisite courses only. And anyone whose situation has changed so that the list above no longer fits. In those cases working needs a work permit.

One exception for the end of a program. If you were full time all the way through and only need a part-time load in your last semester, you keep the right to work off campus.

Any time you spend earning wages or collecting a commission. Self-employed students count the same way: time spent earning, selling or providing a service. You are responsible for tracking the hours and for proving you stayed inside the limit and kept studying. Remote work for an employer outside Canada does not count toward the 24 hours, as long as you still meet your permit conditions.

IRCC's words: working more than 24 hours a week is a violation of your study permit conditions. You can lose your student status, be refused a future study or work permit, and be asked to leave the country. Our note on the 2026 compliance rules covers the other conditions IRCC checks, such as leaves and school transfers.

If you qualify but the condition was left off your permit, you can ask IRCC to add it. There is no fee for that, and you need it before Service Canada will issue a SIN. Some permits say you may not work because of the program you were in at the time, such as a language course. If you have since moved into a full-time program that qualifies, you apply from inside Canada to change the conditions. That means form IMM 5709 and a letter explaining why. That change carries a fee. Our study permit extension service covers both.

Once your program is complete you can work unlimited hours in two situations. You applied for a work permit or post-graduation work permit before your study permit expired and are waiting for the decision, and you were allowed to work off campus during your studies. Or you have written confirmation you completed the program, an acceptance letter to a new full-time program at a DLI that starts within 150 days, a valid study permit or an extension filed before expiry, and you were allowed to work off campus during your previous studies. If the new permit is refused, the work stops and you must leave.

The condition line printed on the permit, the school's definition of full time, and pay records against the calendar. In our experience, most trouble comes from a student who took a second job in term and did not add the two up.