Post-Study Work Visas Compared, From the UK Graduate Route to Canada's PGWP

For many international students, the most important feature of a study destination is not the university or even the cost. It is what happens after graduation. The right to stay and work for a period after completing a degree lets graduates recover some of the cost of studying abroad, gain experience in a foreign labour market and, in some countries, take a first step toward longer-term residence.

Every major English-speaking study destination offers some version of this right, but the versions differ more than most comparisons suggest. They vary in length, in who qualifies, in whether work must be related to the field of study, and in what extra conditions apply. Some require a fresh English test at the point of graduation, a requirement that surprises many students who assumed their admissions test was the last one they would need. The rules also change frequently, and several changed in 2024–2026.

This article compares post-study work arrangements in six destinations: the UK, Australia, Canada, the US, Ireland and New Zealand. The focus is on the conditions as they stood in October 2026 and on the details that most often decide whether a graduate actually qualifies.

What a post-study work right is, and what it is not

A post-study work right is permission to stay in a country and work for a limited period after completing a course of study there. In most destinations it does not require a job offer at the time of application, and it allows graduates to work for most employers in most roles.

Post-study work rights are temporary. They are generally not permanent residence and do not lead to it automatically. Their relationship to longer-term migration differs: in some systems, work experience gained during the post-study period counts toward later skilled-migration applications; in others, graduates must move to a separate employer-sponsored visa to remain.

They are also separate from the student visa itself and from university admission. The conditions are set by immigration authorities, not universities, and can change for students who are already enrolled. In several of the changes described below, the date of the post-study application, not the date the student started the course, determined which rules applied.

The six systems at a glance

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<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Destination</th>
      <th>Programme</th>
      <th>Typical length for bachelor's and master's graduates</th>
      <th>Doctoral graduates</th>
      <th>English requirement at post-study stage</th>
      <th>Notable conditions</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>United Kingdom</td>
      <td>Graduate Route</td>
      <td>2 years; 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027</td>
      <td>3 years</td>
      <td>None beyond the requirement already met for the Student visa</td>
      <td>Must apply from inside the UK while holding Student permission; no job offer needed</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Australia</td>
      <td>Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), Post-Higher Education Work stream</td>
      <td>Up to 2 years</td>
      <td>Up to 3 years (including research master's)</td>
      <td>IELTS 6.5 overall with no band below 5.5, or equivalent, taken within one year before applying</td>
      <td>Generally under 35; at least two academic years of study in Australia</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Canada</td>
      <td>Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP)</td>
      <td>Depends on programme length; up to 3 years; master's graduates eligible for 3 years</td>
      <td>Up to 3 years</td>
      <td>CLB 7 for university programmes; CLB 5 for college programmes</td>
      <td>Field-of-study requirement for non-degree programmes; apply within 180 days</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>United States</td>
      <td>Optional Practical Training (OPT)</td>
      <td>12 months</td>
      <td>12 months</td>
      <td>None</td>
      <td>Work must relate to field of study; STEM graduates may extend by 24 months</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Ireland</td>
      <td>Third Level Graduate Programme (Stamp 1G)</td>
      <td>12 months (level 8 degrees); 12 months renewable once for 12 months (level 9 and above)</td>
      <td>12 months, renewable once</td>
      <td>None at this stage</td>
      <td>Overall limits on total time as a student and graduate</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>New Zealand</td>
      <td>Post-Study Work Visa</td>
      <td>Up to 3 years, depending on qualification level and study length</td>
      <td>Up to 3 years</td>
      <td>None stated for the visa</td>
      <td>Only one Post-Study Work Visa per person; some qualifications restrict work to related occupations</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Conditions as at October 2026. Each country's rules include exceptions and transitional arrangements not shown here.

United Kingdom: a shorter route from 2027

The UK's Graduate Route allows people who have completed an eligible degree at a UK higher education provider to stay and work, or look for work, at any skill level and without a sponsor. It currently gives two years to bachelor's and master's graduates and three years to doctoral graduates.

The UK government has announced that, for bachelor's and master's graduates, permission will be cut to 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027. Doctoral graduates will keep three years. Because the change applies by date of application, students who complete their courses and apply before the end of 2026 can still receive two years. Those finishing in 2027 or later will receive 18 months, regardless of when they started their course.

The Graduate Route has no separate English-language requirement. Applicants are treated as having demonstrated English when they obtained their Student visa. The main practical conditions are procedural. Graduates must apply from inside the UK while their Student permission is still valid, and their university must have reported to the Home Office that they completed the course.

Australia: an English test at graduation and an age limit

Australia's Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) has two streams. The Post-Higher Education Work stream covers graduates of bachelor's degrees and above. The Post-Vocational Education Work stream covers graduates of certain vocational qualifications, with stays of up to 18 months.

In the higher-education stream, bachelor's and coursework master's graduates can generally stay for up to two years, and research master's and doctoral graduates for up to three. Applicants must generally be under 35 at the time of application, with higher age limits for research graduates and for Hong Kong and British National (Overseas) passport holders. They must have completed at least two academic years of study in Australia, in courses registered for international students.

Australia's distinctive feature is a separate English requirement at the point of application. Applicants must show IELTS 6.5 overall with no band below 5.5, or an equivalent score on another accepted test, and the result must be no more than a year old when they apply. Earlier rules accepted a lower IELTS score and older test results. For many graduates this means taking a new English test toward the end of their studies, even if they were admitted years earlier on a different test. Graduates who completed their degree in English are not automatically exempt, apart from holders of passports from a short list of specified countries.

Canada: language tests and field-of-study rules

Canada's Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) allows graduates of eligible programmes at designated learning institutions to work for any employer. The length of the permit depends on the programme. Programmes of eight months to under two years generally lead to a permit matching the programme's length. Programmes of two years or more generally lead to a three-year permit. Since 2024, graduates of master's programmes have been eligible for a three-year permit even if the programme lasted less than two years.

Since 1 November 2024, PGWP applicants have also had to meet a language requirement. Graduates of bachelor's, master's, doctoral and other university programmes must show Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 7 in English, or the equivalent level in French, in all four skills. Graduates of college and other non-university programmes must show CLB 5. Graduates of eligible flight schools are exempt.

The tests accepted are those approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for economic immigration, not the tests universities accept for admission. For English these are CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training and PTE Core. IELTS Academic, the version most students take for university admission, is not accepted for this purpose. Results must be less than two years old. A student who arrived in Canada on IELTS Academic will therefore usually need to take a different test before applying for a PGWP.

Canada also introduced a field-of-study requirement. It applies to graduates of non-degree programmes, such as college diplomas and certificates, who applied for their study permits on or after 1 November 2024. Their programme must be in a field linked to occupations in long-term shortage, from a list published by the government. Graduates of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programmes are exempt from this requirement.

Graduates must apply within 180 days of confirmation that they have completed their programme, and their study permit must have been valid at some point during that period.

United States: OPT, a different model

The US does not have a post-study work visa in the same sense. International students on F-1 visas can apply for Optional Practical Training (OPT), a period of temporary employment authorisation that must be directly related to their field of study. OPT generally provides 12 months of work authorisation per degree level. Graduates in designated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields may apply for a 24-month extension, for a maximum of three years, provided their employer participates in the federal E-Verify programme and meets training plan requirements.

OPT has no separate English requirement, but its connection to the field of study is stricter than in most other systems. In other destinations, graduates can take almost any job.

The US system is also changing. In July 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule, effective from 15 September 2026, that replaces the open-ended "duration of status" admission for F-1 students with fixed admission periods tied to the end date of the student's programme. Students whose admission period does not cover their planned OPT period will generally need to apply to extend their stay as well as for OPT employment authorisation, and wait for both approvals before starting work. Transitional protections apply to students already in the US when the rule took effect. The rule does not abolish OPT or STEM OPT. Further changes to OPT have been the subject of separate reviews and proposals, and applicants should check the current position before relying on it.

Ireland: renewable permission for postgraduates

Ireland's Third Level Graduate Programme, known as Stamp 1G, allows non-EU graduates of Irish higher education institutions to remain and look for or take up employment.

Graduates with a level 8 award, broadly an honours bachelor's degree, can receive 12 months. Graduates with level 9 awards or above, such as master's degrees and doctorates, receive 12 months initially. They can renew for a further 12 months by showing that they have taken appropriate steps to find graduate-level work. The programme operates within overall limits on the total time a person can spend in Ireland as a student and graduate, and can be used no more than twice. Applicants must apply within six months of being notified of their award results.

Ireland does not impose a new English test at this stage. Its main constraints are time limits and the requirement to transition into an employment permit to stay longer.

New Zealand: one post-study visa per person

New Zealand's Post-Study Work Visa allows graduates of eligible qualifications to work for up to three years, depending on the level of their qualification and how long they studied in New Zealand. Graduates of bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctorates can generally work for any employer. Graduates of some non-degree qualifications at the same level can only work in jobs related to their qualification, if it is on an eligible list.

A distinctive condition is that each person can hold only one Post-Study Work Visa. A graduate who uses it after a bachelor's degree cannot obtain another after a later master's. From 16 November 2026, eligibility is being extended to graduates of level 7 graduate diplomas who already hold a bachelor's degree, for up to one year.

New Zealand also generally requires at least 30 weeks of full-time study in the qualification on which the visa is based. It requires applications within a set period after the student visa expires: three months in most cases and six months for doctoral graduates.

The English test many graduates do not expect

Post-study work rights are often discussed in terms of length, but English requirements may matter more in practice, because they can turn an assumed right into a new test with a deadline.

Three systems handle English very differently. The UK, Ireland, New Zealand and the US impose no separate English test for post-study work. Australia requires a recent test at a specified level, with results no more than a year old. Canada requires a recent test at a specified CLB level, on a list of tests that excludes the academic version of IELTS.

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Destination</th>
      <th>Test needed at post-study stage?</th>
      <th>Level</th>
      <th>Accepted test types</th>
      <th>Maximum age of results</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>United Kingdom</td>
      <td>No</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Australia</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>IELTS 6.5 overall, no band below 5.5, or equivalent</td>
      <td>IELTS and other specified tests, taken in a test centre</td>
      <td>One year</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Canada</td>
      <td>Yes</td>
      <td>CLB 7 (university) or CLB 5 (college) in all four skills</td>
      <td>CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training, PTE Core, or approved French tests</td>
      <td>Two years</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>United States</td>
      <td>No</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Ireland</td>
      <td>No</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>New Zealand</td>
      <td>No requirement stated for the visa</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
      <td>Not applicable</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Several practical consequences follow. An admissions test is unlikely to still be valid by graduation, because most results are valid for two years and most degrees take longer. A student who completed a degree taught in English may still need to take a test. And a student who meets a university's admission requirement may still not meet an immigration authority's requirement, either because the level differs or because the authority accepts different test versions.

Students who plan to use these routes can plan their testing accordingly: check which tests and versions are accepted for the post-study route as well as for admission, and leave enough time before graduation to take a test and, if needed, retake it.

What the rules have in common

Despite their differences, most of these systems share several features.

They are tied to completion of a recognised qualification in the country. Graduates of online programmes delivered from abroad, or of qualifications awarded by foreign institutions, generally do not qualify.

Timing matters. Most require applications within a fixed period after course completion or before the student visa expires, ranging from a few months to six months.

The rules can change for current students. The UK, Australia and Canada all changed their post-study rules in 2024–2026 in ways that affected students already enrolled.

They are not routes to permanent residence on their own. Graduates who want to stay longer typically need to move to an employer-sponsored or skills-based visa, under separate requirements that often include higher English levels, salary thresholds or occupational lists.

Questions to ask before choosing a destination

For prospective students weighing destinations partly on post-study work rights, a few questions are more informative than the headline length.

What will the rules be when I graduate, not when I start? Post-study rights are usually determined by the rules in force at the time of application.

Do I meet any age limit? Australia's under-35 limit for most applicants is unusual among the major destinations.

Will I need a new English test, and which one? Australia and Canada require one, with specific versions and validity periods.

Does my programme qualify? Canada's field-of-study requirement, New Zealand's qualification lists and Ireland's level distinctions all affect eligibility.

Can I work in any job, or only in my field? US OPT is restricted to the field of study. Most other routes are not, apart from some non-degree qualifications.

Is this my only chance? New Zealand allows one Post-Study Work Visa per person. Ireland limits use of its programme.

Each destination publishes detailed rules and exceptions, and they change frequently. The specific conditions that apply on the date a graduate applies are the ones that count.