Work hours & earnings abroad

Hours you are allowed

• Term time — degree level and above: 20 hours per week. Appendix Student states the condition as 20 hours per week during term-time, with full-time employment permitted outside of term-time.
• Term time — below degree level: 10 hours per week, on the same wording.
• Outside term time: full-time is permitted — official vacations, and after your course has formally ended while your visa is still valid.
• The concession only applies if your sponsor is a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. Students sponsored by other institutions, and part-time students, get no work permission at all.

On-campus vs off-campus

The UK draws no distinction. A campus job and a high-street job count against the same 20 hours. Work placements that are an assessed, integral part of your course are handled separately from the weekly cap.

Authorisation needed before you work

None beyond the visa itself. Your permission is held as an eVisa — a digital record of your immigration status — and you generate a share code from it as your right-to-work evidence. Biometric residence permits have all expired and been replaced by eVisas. There is no separate work application.

Post-study route

The Graduate visa. GOV.UK currently states it lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027. PhD and other doctoral graduates get 3 years regardless of application date. It has no job offer or salary requirement and allows most work, including self-employment. The application fee is £937, plus the Immigration Health Surcharge, usually £1,035 for each year you will be in the UK.

One practical caution

The 20 hours is a per-week ceiling, not a term-long average, and it counts every employer added together. Working 25 hours one week and 15 the next is a breach of both weeks, not a balanced pair. The Home Office also prohibits self-employment, freelancing and business activity, work as a professional sportsperson or coach, work as an entertainer, and filling a permanent full-time vacancy — which rules out much of the gig-economy work Indian students assume is available. Curtailment for working over the cap is real and it will sink a later Graduate visa or Skilled Worker application.

Hours you are allowed

• On campus: up to 20 hours per week while school is in session, and full-time when school is not in session or during the annual vacation. The total across all on-campus jobs cannot exceed 20 hours during the school term.
• Off campus: not permitted at all during your first academic year. After that, off-campus work is only lawful through a formal training authorisation — CPT or OPT — or, case by case, on grounds such as severe economic hardship.

On-campus vs off-campus

This is the sharpest on-campus/off-campus split of any destination on this list. On-campus work is the only employment an F-1 student can take in year one, and even that requires your school's confirmation that the job qualifies. Everything off campus requires paperwork first.

Authorisation needed before you work

• CPT (Curricular Practical Training) — for internships and co-ops that are an integral part of your curriculum. Your DSO authorises it in SEVIS and issues a new Form I-20. No USCIS application and no EAD card. You need one full academic year of lawful full-time enrolment first, unless you are in a master's or doctoral programme that requires immediate CPT.
• OPT (Optional Practical Training) — the DSO recommends it in SEVIS, then you must file with USCIS and receive an EAD card before you start. Pre-completion OPT is limited to 20 hours or less per week while school is in session.

Post-study route

• Post-completion OPT: up to 12 months of work authorisation after your degree. You must work at least 20 hours per week, or full time.
• STEM OPT extension: a further 24 months for eligible STEM degrees, giving a 36-month total. The employer must be enrolled in E-Verify and provide its E-Verify company identification number.
• You may not exceed 90 days of unemployment on post-completion OPT; on the STEM extension the limit is 150 days in total, including any days already accrued.

One practical caution

Two traps catch Indian students repeatedly. First, one year of full-time CPT eliminates your eligibility for OPT — stated flat, with no exception for a different degree level. Full-time CPT means more than 20 hours per week; part-time CPT of 20 hours or less does not trigger it. Day-one-CPT programmes marketed as a shortcut can quietly destroy your OPT. Second, any unauthorised work — cash-in-hand shifts, freelancing on a foreign platform, helping out a relative's business — is a status violation, not a labour infringement, and it is grounds for termination of your SEVIS record.

Hours you are allowed

• Off campus, while classes are in session: up to 24 hours per week. This cap has been in force since 8 November 2024, replacing the earlier 20-hour rule and the temporary unlimited-hours policy.
• During scheduled breaks: unlimited hours — summer and winter holidays, reading week, and similar breaks on your institution's official calendar. A scheduled break of a full week includes the weekend; a standalone statutory holiday, or one that merely creates a long weekend, is not a scheduled break.
• Across all scheduled breaks combined, you may work unlimited hours off campus for a total of no more than 180 days in each calendar year.
• If back-to-back breaks run longer than 150 consecutive days, you may only work off campus during the first 150 days.

On-campus vs off-campus

You may work on campus without a work permit if you hold a study permit and are enrolled full-time at a designated learning institution (DLI). IRCC publishes no weekly hour cap for on-campus work, in contrast to the 24-hour off-campus cap — but note that this is the absence of a stated limit, not a right IRCC affirmatively grants.

Authorisation needed before you work

No separate work permit is needed, but your study permit must carry the condition that allows you to work. If it is missing, IRCC will add it free of charge. You also need a Social Insurance Number (SIN) before any employer can pay you, and you cannot start working before your study programme begins.

Post-study route

The Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), valid anywhere between 8 months and up to 3 years depending on the length of the programme you completed in Canada, with master's graduates receiving a 3-year permit regardless of programme length. If your passport expires before the full period you are eligible for, IRCC issues the permit only up to the passport expiry date; you can apply to extend it later on a new passport with a letter of explanation.

IRCC now applies a language requirement and, for non-degree programmes, a field-of-study requirement to PGWP applications. Both have changed recently and both have date-based cutovers — confirm the current wording on the IRCC eligibility page before you commit to a programme.

One practical caution

Do not rely on a college's promise that your diploma leads to a PGWP. Get the programme's PGWP eligibility confirmed in writing by the DLI before you pay a deposit, and check the current IRCC eligibility page yourself rather than an agent's summary of it. Remember too that a passport with two years left will shorten a three-year permit.

Hours you are allowed

• 48 hours per fortnight while your course of study or training is in session, under visa condition 8105. This limit has applied since 1 July 2023.
• No work restriction when your course is not in session — scheduled holiday breaks between study periods.
• Students studying a Masters Degree by Research or a Doctoral Degree can work more than 48 hours a fortnight while the course is in session.

On-campus vs off-campus

No distinction. A tutoring job inside the university and a retail job outside both count towards the same 48 hours per fortnight.

Authorisation needed before you work

None separately — condition 8105 is attached to the subclass 500 visa. But you generally cannot work before your course commences. Check your own conditions on VEVO rather than assuming; conditions vary by applicant.

Post-study route

The Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), Post-Higher Education Work stream. Standard durations by qualification are 2 years (bachelor, bachelor with honours, masters by coursework or extended masters), 3 years (masters by research) and 3 years (doctoral). Graduate Diplomas default to 2 years. You must have completed your course within six months of applying and have held a Student visa in the last six months.

Indian nationals are treated separately under the Australia–India ECTA side letter, and Home Affairs still publishes the ECTA stay periods alongside the standard ones on its own 485 page — so the doctoral figure for Indian graduates is 4 years where the standard figure is 3. Under ECTA, Indian graduates may stay 2 years after a bachelor degree including honours, 3 years after a bachelor degree with First Class Honours in STEM including ICT, 3 years after a masters (coursework, extended or research), and 4 years after a doctorate.

You must be 35 years of age or under when you apply, or under 50 if you are using a Masters (research) or Doctoral degree to meet the study requirement, or hold a Hong Kong or British National Overseas passport. English requirements have tightened in recent years, and your test result must be from the 12 months immediately before the day you apply.

One practical caution

A fortnight is a fixed period of 14 days starting on a Monday, not a rolling window — so the count resets on a known date and you can plan against it. What you cannot do is average across fortnights: 60 hours in one fortnight and 36 in the next is a breach of the first, whatever the monthly total looks like. And the 485 age limit is checked at the date of application — a student who begins a master's at 33 and finishes at 35 has very little margin. If you are near the age line, plan the 485 lodgement date before you plan the course.

Hours you are allowed

• Up to 25 hours per week during the academic year. Immigration New Zealand raised the cap from 20 to 25 hours with effect from Monday 3 November 2025.
• Full-time during scheduled breaks if your course is at least one academic year, worth at least 120 credits, and has a minimum of two semesters during at least eight months.
• No limit on hours for students enrolled in a doctoral (PhD) or Research Masters programme.

On-campus vs off-campus

No distinction is made; the hour cap applies to all employment.

Authorisation needed before you work

Work rights come from the conditions printed on your own eVisa or visa letter — check them before accepting a job. Critically, the extra five hours are not applied automatically: if your visa was granted with a 20-hour condition, you must apply for a variation of conditions, which costs NZD 325. You must also work for an employer under an employment agreement; self-employment is not allowed.

Post-study route

The Post Study Work Visa, for up to 3 years. Any degree at Level 7 or above — bachelor, postgraduate diploma, masters or doctorate — studied full-time in New Zealand for at least 30 weeks qualifies for up to 3 years, with no restriction on the job you take or where in New Zealand you take it. Non-degree qualifications at Level 7 or lower must be on the approved list, the work must relate to what you studied, and the visa length is matched to your study. Apply no later than 3 months after your student visa end date, or 6 months for doctoral graduates.

One practical caution

Two easy mistakes. One: assuming the 25-hour cap applied to you automatically — many students on visas granted before 3 November 2025 are still legally limited to 20 hours until they pay for and receive a variation. Two: missing the post-study application window. The Post Study Work Visa cannot be applied for once your student visa has expired beyond the allowed period, and there is no discretionary extension.

Hours you are allowed

• 20 hours per week during term time.
• 40 hours per week during defined holiday periods — and these are fixed calendar dates set by the State, not your college's own holidays: the months of June, July, August and September, and 15 December to 15 January.

On-campus vs off-campus

No distinction. The concession covers casual employment generally.

Authorisation needed before you work

The right comes with Stamp 2 immigration permission, which requires that your programme is on the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP). If you hold Stamp 2A, granted for courses not on the ILEP, the condition is explicit: you must not work or engage in any business, trade or profession. You will need a PPS number to be paid. English-language students may hold a maximum of three permissions of up to eight months each — two years in total — after which you must progress to a higher-education ILEP programme to remain a student. Students may only study in the State for a maximum of seven years.

Post-study route

The Third Level Graduate Programme, which grants Stamp 1G to look for graduate-level employment and to apply for a General or Critical Skills Employment Permit:

• NFQ Level 8 award: 12 months, within an overall maximum of seven years' student permission.
• NFQ Level 9 or above: 12 months, renewed for a further 12 (24 in total), within an overall eight-year limit.

You must apply within six months of being notified of your award, while holding current Stamp 2 permission and an up-to-date registration card. The registration fee is €300, and you cannot access the Programme more than twice.

One practical caution

The 40-hour holiday rate is tied to those exact calendar windows. If your college's exam period or a project block runs into June, you are still on the holiday rate; if your college gives you a two-week break in March, you are still capped at 20 hours. Employers in Dublin know this rule well and will hold you to it. Stamp 1G lets you work up to 40 hours a week without an employment permit while you look for permit-based graduate employment — but it is a search window, not a job, and it expires. Dublin rents are among the highest in Europe, so budget for the whole year, not just the first month.

These three are grouped because families often compare them, but their rules have almost nothing in common. Read them separately.

Germany

• Hours: non-EU students on a Section 16b residence permit have an account of 140 working days per year, in force since 1 March 2024 (raised from 120). Each week is counted the way that is most favourable to you: either each day worked up to four hours as half a day and anything longer as a full day, or the whole calendar week as 2.5 working days where you work up to 20 hours during the lecture period, or in any pattern outside it. Both methods draw down the same 140-day account — the 20-hour option is not a separate, unlimited entitlement.
• On-campus difference: yes. Section 16b(3) states plainly that student side jobs (studentische Nebentätigkeiten) are not counted against the working-day account at all. Confirm with your Ausländerbehörde that your particular role qualifies, but the exemption itself is in the law.
• Authorisation: none needed within the allowance. Going beyond it requires approval from the Federal Employment Agency and the immigration office.
• Post-study: a residence permit under Section 20 of the Residence Act for up to 18 months to seek employment matching your qualification. You may work during this period. Your livelihood must be secured, and it cannot be extended beyond 18 months.
• Caution: the half-day definition is what catches students out. A five-hour Saturday shift burns a whole day of your 140. Track the days from day one — the immigration office checks this at renewal, and overshooting is grounds for refusal.

France

• Hours: 964 hours per year — 60% of the legal annual working time — for holders of a student VLS-TS or student residence card, with no work authorisation needed. France counts annually, not weekly, so you can work intensively in the summer.
• On-campus difference: none in law; the annual limit covers all salaried work.
• Authorisation: you need no separate work authorisation, but your employer must notify the prefecture at least two working days before the employment takes effect, by a means that establishes a certain date of receipt. Smaller employers frequently do not know this.
• Post-study: the recherche d'emploi ou création d'entreprise card, valid 12 months and not renewable, for holders of a licence professionnelle, a Mastère Spécialisé, a CGE-labelled Master of Science, or another diploma at least equivalent to a master's. Your employer needs no work authorisation and the 964-hour cap no longer applies — but the job must meet two mandatory conditions: it must be linked to your studies, and it must pay more than €2,800.53 gross per month. Below that salary, or outside your field, the job does not count and will not carry you onto a salarié card afterwards. Plan the year around reaching that threshold, not around finding any work. If you have left France, you may apply within four years of obtaining the diploma.
• Caution: exceeding 964 hours is explicit grounds for withdrawal or non-renewal of your residence permit. Keep your payslips; the count is on you to prove.

Netherlands

• Hours: a maximum of 16 hours per week, or full-time in June, July and August only. You must choose one or the other — you cannot combine them.
• On-campus difference: none.
• Authorisation: this is the crucial one. Your employer must hold a work permit (tewerkstellingsvergunning, TWV) for you, applied for through UWV. The obligation sits with the employer, not the student.
• Post-study: the orientation year (zoekjaar) residence permit, valid one year, for graduates of a qualifying Dutch bachelor's or master's programme completed in the 3 years before you apply. During the orientation year your employer does not need a TWV, and you may also work freely as a self-employed person or freelancer.
• Caution: the TWV requirement is the real barrier, not the 16 hours. Many Dutch employers will not go through UWV for a 16-hour student, so advertised student jobs are far harder to convert into offers than the hour cap suggests. Budget as if you will earn nothing in your first semester.

The UAE is the destination where families are most often misled, so we will be blunt about what is and is not documented.

Hours you are allowed

There is no published national hour allowance attached to a UAE student residence visa. The federal student residence visa guidance does not mention work, work permits or hours at all. Any figure quoted to you as 20 hours a week in Dubai is not something we can trace to a federal source, and we will not repeat it.

On-campus vs off-campus, and authorisation

What is documented is that work requires a permit. On the mainland the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) issues the relevant permits, including a part-time work permit and a student training and employment permit; the age, consent and duration conditions attached to these change, and we could not verify them against a live MOHRE page at the time of writing, so treat any figure you are quoted as unconfirmed until MOHRE states it to you directly. Students inside a free zone such as Dubai Knowledge Park or Dubai International Academic City are governed by that free zone's authority instead. In every case you will need a no-objection letter from your university and the employer must initiate the permit.

Before accepting any job in the UAE, get the specific permit route and any hour limit confirmed in writing by your university's registrar and by the employer's PRO. This is one place where we tell students to verify rather than rely on a website — ours included.

Student visa basics

A student is sponsored either by a UAE-resident parent or by the accredited university or college. Parental sponsorship runs to age 25 for male children; female children may remain under parental sponsorship regardless of age until they marry.

Post-study route

There is no general post-study work visa of the UK or Canadian kind. The realistic paths are:

• An employer-sponsored work and residence permit — the normal route. You must move off the student visa onto an employment visa.
• The jobseeker visit visa, valid 60, 90 or 120 days, granted without a host or sponsor. You must be in MOHRE skill level one, two or three, or be a graduate of the world's best 500 universities per the Ministry of Education-approved classification who graduated within the last two years. In every case you must also hold a bachelor's degree or its equivalent and satisfy the prescribed financial guarantee.
• The Golden Visa for outstanding students — 5 years for high school achievers and 10 years for top university students, supported by certificates of excellence and recommendation letters from the school or university. Reported GPA thresholds circulate widely; none appear on the federal page, so check eligibility through the ICP rather than relying on a number you were quoted.

One practical caution

Your residence status is tied to your sponsor. If you stop studying, the university-sponsored visa falls away and you have a limited grace period to leave or switch status. Working without the correct permit is an immigration offence with consequences for the employer as well as you — and in the Gulf that record follows you across GCC countries.

Hours you are allowed

• Term time: a maximum of 16 hours per week, or work under an industrial attachment or internship run by your institution.
• Vacation: work is allowed during scheduled breaks for eligible students who hold a valid Student's Pass and are full-time matriculated or registered students at a listed institution.

On-campus vs off-campus

The distinction that matters in Singapore is not campus versus town — it is which institution you attend. MOM publishes two separate lists: a longer list of institutions whose students may work during vacation, and a shorter list whose students may also work during term. If your school is not on the relevant list, you have no work exemption at all, regardless of hours.

Authorisation needed before you work

Eligible students work under a work pass exemption — you do not need to apply for a pass. But the exemption is conditional. Exchange students in Singapore are not allowed to work. MOM is explicit that it is an offence for a foreign student to work in Singapore without a valid work pass.

Post-study route

Singapore has no automatic post-study work permit. Two things happen instead:

• ICA issues a Long-Term Visit Pass (LTVP) to graduates of Institutes of Higher Learning who are seeking employment. Application costs SGD 45, issuance SGD 60, and ICA states applications are processed within six weeks where all required documents are submitted and in order. The validity granted is stated on the pass — confirm it with ICA rather than assuming a fixed term.
• The LTVP does not itself allow you to work. MOM is clear that an LTVP holder can work only after obtaining a work pass — in practice an Employment Pass or S Pass, applied for and sponsored by the employer, each with its own qualifying salary that is reviewed periodically.

One practical caution

Check the MOM institution lists before you accept an offer from a private education institution. Many private colleges that market heavily in India are not on the term-time list, and some are on neither. A student who assumed a 16-hour right that never existed has no defence, and unlawful work in Singapore is prosecuted against the student as well as the employer.

Hours you are allowed

20 hours per week is the cap in both official sources, but the two describe when differently, and you should plan on the stricter reading:

• EMGS (Education Malaysia Global Services) states students may work part-time for a maximum of 20 hours per week only during semester breaks or holidays of more than seven days.
• The Immigration Department of Malaysia describes part-time work during the study period, limited to 20 hours per week, and requires a support letter from the institution setting out the semester schedule and holiday dates.

Because the approval letter itself specifies your semester and holiday dates, the practical outcome is the EMGS reading. Assume you may only work in breaks longer than seven days unless your approval letter says otherwise.

On-campus vs off-campus

Immigration lists permitted workplaces as restaurants, petrol stations, mini markets, hotels, and university or college areas — so campus work is permitted, but within the same 20-hour cap and the same approval process.

Authorisation needed before you work

Yes, and this is mandatory. You must obtain prior approval from the Immigration Department, applied for through your institution, submitting a job offer letter, the institution's support letter, and copies of your passport bio-data page and current pass. Approval is discretionary and subject to document verification. Only students at public universities (UA) or private higher education institutions (IPTS) qualify — language centres and training or skills centres are excluded. Immigration lists only two prohibited roles: front desk duties, in line with current foreign worker policies, and working as a student recruitment agent. Older lists circulating online add cashier, hotel entertainer and similar roles — we could not trace those to the current Immigration page, so ask your institution to confirm the role in writing before you accept it.

Post-study route

The Graduate Pass — a Social Visit Pass allowing you to stay 12 months after graduation. You must hold a bachelor's degree or higher, a passport valid at least 18 months, active health insurance for the duration of the pass, and a Malaysian citizen sponsor earning at least RM 1,500 per month. It permits part-time work in permitted sectors without employer sponsorship and carries a multiple-entry visa. EMGS states that the extension of this service to Chinese and Indian nationals is valid until 31 December 2026 and that approval will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and Indian applicants must additionally provide a letter of good conduct from their institution or embassy.

One practical caution

For Indian students this is the single most important line on the page: the Graduate Pass is not guaranteed for Indian nationals — it is case-by-case and currently time-limited to the end of 2026. Do not choose Malaysia on the assumption of a twelve-month post-study stay. And a job offer is not permission to work: without the Immigration approval letter in hand, taking the shift puts your Student Pass at risk of revocation.