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What is a Regular Scheduled Break?

chobo2

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Dec 13, 2015
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Hi

I am in a relationship with a foreign national and I am trying to understand all these rules of when she can can't work. She signed up for a diploma program at a local university that is full time and 2 years.

Now to our surprise we found out for whatever reason this 2 year program is 5 semesters in a row with no real break after each semester. I never heard of a full time diploma program having no summer break before.

Now the school has pretty much said if she can't handle doing 5 semesters in a row she can basically go at her own speed, so my idea was to extend it to a 3 year program so she can have a summer break(we booked already a trip for me to meet her family during summer).

She is a girl who does not like to sit around and waste time so she would like to work during the remainder of the summer when we get back.

Now is this allowed? She would be doing a full time semesters worth a credits before the summer semester and come fall again she would be taking full timer semester again.
 

J5M

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May 15, 2014
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Hi,


chobo2 said:
Hi

I am in a relationship with a foreign national and I am trying to understand all these rules of when she can can't work. She signed up for a diploma program at a local university that is full time and 2 years.

Now to our surprise we found out for whatever reason this 2 year program is 5 semesters in a row with no real break after each semester. I never heard of a full time diploma program having no summer break before.

Now the school has pretty much said if she can't handle doing 5 semesters in a row she can basically go at her own speed, so my idea was to extend it to a 3 year program so she can have a summer break(we booked already a trip for me to meet her family during summer).

She is a girl who does not like to sit around and waste time so she would like to work during the remainder of the summer when we get back.

Now is this allowed? She would be doing a full time semesters worth a credits before the summer semester and come fall again she would be taking full timer semester again.

1. As per rules, students are not allowed to work full time more than 5 months per year on OCWP and that 5 months include scheduled break only (summer + reading + winter breaks). In your case, you are actually dropping a term to create that break which can't be viewed as scheduled break.
 

yyzstudent

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Nov 6, 2015
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J5M said:
Hi,



1. As per rules, students are not allowed to work full time more than 5 months per year on OCWP and that 5 months include scheduled break only (summer + reading + winter breaks). In your case, you are actually dropping a term to create that break which can't be viewed as scheduled break.
There is nothing in the rules that say it is five months cap.

The rules say you can work 20 hrs per week during semesters and full time during scheduled breaks.

Scheduled breaks are:
Reading week
The break between fall and winter semester. (Christmas)
The summer break.
 

ndrs11

Star Member
Jan 24, 2014
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yyzstudent said:
There is nothing in the rules that say it is five months cap.

The rules say you can work 20 hrs per week during semesters and full time during scheduled breaks.

Scheduled breaks are:
Reading week
The break between fall and winter semester. (Christmas)
The summer break.
Hi,
yes there is:

" Essentially, taking into account reading breaks and the winter holiday, students may only work off campus on a full-time basis for no longer than five months during each calendar year (e.g., working full-time for four months consecutively during a scheduled break plus full-time during reading breaks that generally do not exceed one week at a time)."
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/students/work-off-campus.asp

nevertheless, how J5M mentioned, scheduled breaks are defined by the university or college, if the program that your girlfriend is enrolled in does not have any scheduled break, then she cannot work full time.

and I quote
"Some intensive programs may not have scheduled breaks. Students participating in such programs may work a maximum of 20 hours per week during the entire program of study."

Basically dropping a term to create a break is not considered a scheduled break and could create issues later on since she did not comply with the conditions on her study permit.
 

chobo2

Member
Dec 13, 2015
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This is what I am struggling with, I can see your point but if school is saying she can split it up to make it 3 years is it really dropping a semester or just doing another path.

Every semester she would be doing would be fulltime, there would be no more than 4 months between semesters in a time that has always be considered to be summer break.

I had never heard of a program that never had summer break that is a fulltime program.
 

re3dv

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Any student on visa in canada can not at any time of their enrollment just drop a semester. That is the reason that their r rules of maintaing ur full time student status which includes maintaing it even in summer semester. For candian students their is no compulsion to take any course in summer semester (they can if they want to) but international students do not have this liberty. They have to get enrolled even in summer semester and if they do not then this drop will cause a breach in their ful time student stipulation of study permit. And this wil cause major trouble while applying for PGWP later.
 
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re3dv

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And u shd cnfrm frm ur uni wat they actually mean by "going at her own speed". i do not think it means tht she is allowed to drop a semester. She can choose to register in less number of core courses and register in some easy course to fulfil the requirement of credits to maintain ful time student status. U shd ask te person who mentioned ths to u how dropping a semester wil effect my study permit status n PGWP application.
 

goodman3936

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Oct 28, 2018
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Hello, Im an international student that will take the Master of accounting program this coming Spring 2019. The classes are only from May to August. Can i work full time from sept to april since this is a "Scheduled break"?
 

p patel 111

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Aug 5, 2017
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I am enrolled in three year advanced diploma course with three coop term. Sem 1 - 2 - break - 3 - work - 4 - work - 5 - work - 6. Now I am looking for first work term job. So if i drop the coop from I can still graduate. But I cannot attend school during all those work term as my batch was the first for the program. So can i work fulltime during that duration of work term ??. Is it called regular schedule break ??
 

canuck_in_uk

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Hello, Im an international student that will take the Master of accounting program this coming Spring 2019. The classes are only from May to August. Can i work full time from sept to april since this is a "Scheduled break"?
No. What kind of Master's program only has one semester a year??

Regular scheduled breaks cannot exceed 150 days.