Can I apply for PR while studying?

[faraz.ahmed38]

Hey there,

I would really like to know; if an international student can apply for permanent residency under the Canadian Experience Class while studying as in international student and working part time with an off-campus work permit?

If a student can only apply for PR after he or she graduates then would some one mind explaining why the cic.gc.ca Help centre has a FAQ which says:

"I am an international student in Canada. How can I apply to become a permanent resident?"

Should it not say "I am a post graduate" instead of international student.

Further under the requirements/eligibility, it does not state that you need to be a post graduate:

You need to meet these requirements to apply under the Canadian Experience Class. You must:

*plan to live outside the province of Quebec
*have at least 12 months of full-time (or an equal amount in part-time) skilled work experience in Canada in the three years before you apply,
*have gained your experience in Canada with the proper authorization
meet the required language levels needed for your job for each language ability (speaking, reading, writing, and listening).

It is possible for a student to accumulate the 2000 hours of work in three years if he or she maintains the same job part time during school and full time during summer.

Please could some one clarify this with an explanation?

I would deeply appreciate it.

Regards

F

 

[mead]

is the partime job skilled job(NOC O,A,B?) ....u need "at least 12 months of full-time (or an equal amount in part-time) skilled work experience in Canada" . so if u can work part time for 2 years 20hrs per week in a skilled job u can use it for CEC. Remember key here is skilled job

 

[scylla]

Any work experience that you gain while you are studying (using an off campus work permit) cannot be counted as experience towards the CEC immigration program.

See the CEC guide below:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5609ETOC.asp

Specifically this section:

Note: Any periods of self-employment, unauthorized work, work in an ineligible occupation, and periods of employment during which you were engaged in full-time study (e.g. work experience gained on a co-op, off-campus or on-campus work permit) will not be included when calculating the period of qualifying work experience.

 

[scylla]

I would really like to know; if an international student can apply for permanent residency under the Canadian Experience Class while studying as in international student and working part time with an off-campus work permit?

CEC has no Canadian education requirements. You can certainly apply before you finish school. However you must have one year of work experience - and as mentioned in my post above, you can't count any work experience you gain while studying.