St. Clair college Windsor / Post Graduate work permits denied

[jm905]

Hello All

I am hoping to get some suggestions for path forward from this forum. A group of my friends were impacted by this issued in news of St. Clair college windsor. Students came to complete a 2 year international business course as that is how offer letters went to them but due to college completion letters showing program split into 2 separate programs immigration denied work permits. Immigration sees the course as a 3 semester course and a separate 1 semester course. All students applied PGWP after 4th semester ended as that what college said was completion date (2 years / 4 semesters program). Immigration denied PGWP stating course was not a 2 year program (so no 3 year permit) and said it was applied after 90 days passed from completion of 3 semester program (so NO 1 year PGWP either)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/st-clair-college-international-students-work-permit-irc-1.4767623

I have met some lawyers / agents with students and everyone tells different story. Question is ..are there any exceptions to this 90 day rule so they can get atleast get 1 year permit...most agents say no? and is there any recourse from college ..due to the screw up they did.....they seem to have given up on help and suggested take another 1 year course...and they will waive some of the fees.

:-( many of these students lost their status.

 

[scylla]

Hello All

I am hoping to get some suggestions for path forward from this forum. A group of my friends were impacted by this issued in news of St. Clair college windsor. Students came to complete a 2 year international business course as that is how offer letters went to them but due to college completion letters showing program split into 2 separate programs immigration denied work permits. Immigration sees the course as a 3 semester course and a separate 1 semester course. All students applied PGWP after 4th semester ended as that what college said was completion date (2 years / 4 semesters program). Immigration denied PGWP stating course was not a 2 year program (so no 3 year permit) and said it was applied after 90 days passed from completion of 3 semester program (so NO 1 year PGWP either)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/st-clair-college-international-students-work-permit-irc-1.4767623

I have met some lawyers / agents with students and everyone tells different story. Question is ..are there any exceptions to this 90 day rule so they can get atleast get 1 year permit...most agents say no? and is there any recourse from college ..due to the screw up they did.....they seem to have given up on help and suggested take another 1 year course...and they will waive some of the fees.

:-( many of these students lost their status.

There are no official exceptions to the 90 days rule for applying for a PGWP once you complete your studies. Once in a while we have seen an IRCC officer cut someone on this forum a break of a few days. However most of the time, they are by the book and the 90 day rule is applied consistently. They certainly won't cut someone a break who is months over the 90 days. That we have never seen here to the best of my knowledge.

Sorry you are caught up in this. I don't see this as a flaw in the IRCC process. The problem here is St. Clair college. They are the ones listing the single program as two separate programs in the completion letter - and IRCC is therefore treating it as two separate programs. St. Clair college is the one who dropped the ball here and messed up big time. And it sounds like they know this is their fault. If you want to pursue this with IRCC, you would need to appeal the PGWP refusal and engage the services of a very good immigration lawyer. Hard to say what the chances of success are (and it won't be cheap). IRCC may simply point to the course completion letter and state that per the letter, the PGWP was correctly refused (which it was). As for recourse from the college, you can try speaking to them. They can give you free classes - however they can't force IRCC to issue a PGWP.

Students who lost their status and want to try to fix this situation from within Canada should apply to restore their status while they are still within the 90 day status expiry / restoration window. This is very important. There's no fixing your status from within Canada once you are past the 90 day restoration window.

 

[scylla]

BTW: That article doesn't paint a clear picture of what really happened. Makes it seem like IRCC was the one who messed up when it was actually St. Clair who issued the bad course completion letter. Anyway - that's journalism for you. I can appreciate why St. Clair doesn't want to admit responsibility in the media.

 

[jm905]

Thank You for information. Yes it is college who messed up and it seem IRCC has taken a hard line on this. Just heard today, some you kid who got work permit in December and been working for 6 months got rejection.

I hope college atleast have the decency to refund some of their fees.