A post-graduation work permit, usually called a PGWP, lets people who graduated from an eligible Canadian school work in Canada for a set time (IRCC: about the PGWP). This guide takes the options in the order you would act on them, each linked to the official page that decides it.

Who this is for

You hold a PGWP, it ends in some months, and you would like to stay, perhaps as a permanent resident, someone who "can live, work or study anywhere in Canada" (IRCC: understand permanent resident status). IRCC is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal department that decides these applications.

If you are still studying, or not sure you qualified for a PGWP at all, start with our guide to going from a study permit to permanent residence. This guide picks up where that one stops.

Can a PGWP be extended or renewed?

Usually not. "You aren't eligible for a PGWP if you already received a PGWP" (IRCC: PGWP, who can apply), and studying again does not change that: "You can't get a PGWP if you already had one after completing an earlier program of study" (IRCC: about the PGWP).

The one exception is your passport. A PGWP "will only be issued for the period your passport is valid", and "If your passport expires before the full duration of your eligibility, you can apply to extend your PGWP" (IRCC: about the PGWP). If your permit ends on the day your passport expires, read that page first.

Can you apply for permanent residence before it ends?

The federal route built for people with skilled work experience in Canada is the Canadian Experience Class, or CEC. Its conditions include (IRCC: Canadian Experience Class):

• "at least 1 year of work or 1,560 hours total (30 hours per week) in the 3 years before you apply";
• in jobs at TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3. TEER is how Canada sorts jobs by the training, education, experience and responsibilities they need (IRCC: find your NOC), and our guide to NOC and TEER shows how to find yours;
• paid work, done in Canada while you were allowed to work there;
• English or French test results at the level your job's TEER category requires (IRCC: language test results);
• and "You must plan to live outside the province of Quebec".

One line on that page matters for graduates: you can't count work experience if "you were studying full-time while you worked (co-op work terms also don't count)".

If you plan to stay in Quebec, the CEC is not your route: "Quebec has a special agreement on immigration with the Government of Canada", so you apply to Quebec first (IRCC: Quebec-selected skilled workers). Our guide to a CRS score that is too low has a line on Quebec's own selection, and our Quebec page explains its programs.

How a CEC application works

You apply through Express Entry, "an online system that we use to manage immigration applications from skilled workers" (IRCC: Express Entry). You create a profile, and it gets a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score: points for factors such as age, education, language ability and Canadian work experience (IRCC: CRS criteria). "We'll invite the candidates with the most points in rounds", and only an invitation lets you send the permanent residence application itself.

There is no pass mark. For each round, IRCC decides how many candidates to invite and invites the highest-ranked candidates eligible for it, and the lowest score invited is that round's cutoff (IRCC: rounds of invitations). So the cutoff is not a fixed number. Our Canadian Experience Class rounds page lists past cutoffs, and our free CRS calculator works out your own score. If yours sits below recent cutoffs, the low CRS score guide covers routes that do not depend on it.

Compare the date you will reach the year of skilled work with your PGWP's end date. A profile waiting in the pool does not let you keep working.

Can you keep working while you wait?

That is what the bridging open work permit, or BOWP, is for. An open work permit is one that needs no job offer (IRCC: work in Canada temporarily), and this one covers the wait for a decision on a permanent residence application, but only under the programs IRCC lists, Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program (provinces choosing people for permanent residence, covered below) among them (IRCC: bridging open work permit). The Atlantic Immigration Program, a route to permanent residence in Canada's four Atlantic provinces (IRCC: Atlantic Immigration Program), is not on that list, so applying through it does not lead to this permit.

For an Express Entry application, IRCC's conditions include that you:

• "live in Canada (and intend to live outside Quebec) at the time you apply for your BOWP";
• hold a valid work permit, or kept your status as a worker after it expired (maintained status, below), or can still restore your status;
• are the main applicant;
• "have submitted a complete application for permanent residence and passed the completeness check";
• and "have your acknowledgement of receipt letter", the letter IRCC sends to your account after it gets your permanent residence application.

So the order is invitation, application, acknowledgement letter, then the BOWP. "Submitting a profile to the pool is not the same as applying for permanent residence." If your PGWP may run out first, read the next two sections.

What if your permit expires before a decision?

Apply before it expires. "If you apply to renew or change the conditions of your work permit before it expires, you can legally stay in Canada until a decision is made on your application" (IRCC: if your work permit expires). This is called maintained status. If what you applied for is to extend or change your work permit, you can keep working under its conditions until the decision, "as long as you stay in Canada", so read that page before you travel. If what you applied for is a study permit, or to stay on as a visitor, you cannot work once your work permit expires.

Already expired? You may be able to restore your status, meaning get your legal status back, together with a work permit you are eligible for. IRCC "must receive your application to restore your status no more than 90 days after your status expired", and "Normally, you aren't allowed to work until your status has been restored and your new work permit issued" (IRCC: restore your status and get a work permit). After 90 days without applying, the same page says you need to leave Canada and apply from outside if you want to work there again. It names one exception: a worker applying for an open work permit who has a letter of support from a participating province or territory, confirming it has placed them in its Provincial Nominee Program pool or queue.

Which other permits can keep you in Canada?

Each of these is temporary, not permanent residence. But skilled, paid work done on either work permit below can count toward the CEC year under the conditions above, since IRCC counts work done "while authorized to work under temporary resident status" (IRCC: Canadian Experience Class).

• An employer-specific work permit. It needs a job offer (IRCC: work in Canada temporarily), and "Most employers need an LMIA before they can hire a temporary foreign worker" (IRCC: who needs an LMIA). An LMIA, or Labour Market Impact Assessment, checks the effect of the hire on Canada's job market; our LMIA guide explains it.
• An open work permit through your partner. If your spouse or partner works in Canada, you may get an open work permit as their family member, but only if their job is at TEER 0 or 1 or is one of the TEER 2 or 3 jobs IRCC lists, and their own permit is valid for at least 16 months after IRCC receives your application (IRCC: open work permits for family members of foreign workers). Our guide to bringing your partner and children to Canada covers the rest.
• Going back to study. A study permit lets you stay as a student, but never leads to a second PGWP (IRCC: about the PGWP). If your work permit expires while the study permit is decided, you cannot work in the meantime (IRCC: if your work permit expires).

Do provinces count your work or study there?

Some do. Through the Provincial Nominee Program, provinces and territories nominate people for permanent residence, and "Each province and territory has its own requirements" (IRCC: Provincial Nominee Program). Each program is split into streams, routes with their own rules. Some are for people already working in the province, such as Alberta's Opportunity Stream, for workers "already working full-time in Alberta" with an Alberta job offer; others are for people who studied there, such as Nova Scotia's Graduate stream. Streams open, pause and close, so read the province's own page before you plan around one. Our provinces and territories pages set out each province's streams. Our provincial streams comparison puts them side by side: which take graduates, which need no job offer, and which need time in the province.

What our report checks

Our report checks the Canadian Experience Class, the provincial streams listed on our province pages, and the bridging open work permit's other conditions: living in Canada, planning to live outside Quebec unless Quebec has selected you, and holding a valid work permit. It does not ask whether you have already applied for permanent residence, so it always shows that application and its acknowledgement letter as a step still ahead of you. If you have already applied, count that step as done.

It also applies the one-permit rule: if the visa and permit history you give lists a post-graduation work permit, current or expired, the report marks a second one as unlikely.

Whether a permit or permanent residence is granted is for IRCC and the provinces to decide, and nobody can promise an outcome.

Next step

Take the free questionnaire. The questionnaire is free, the eligibility summary at the end of it is free, and unlocking the full report, with the requirements and checklist for each route, is your choice.