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Does a Transfer Credit / course exemption affect your PGWP eligibility?

Canada • Work Permit • study 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Documents Needed

  • Transfer Credit Request form

    Submitted to the school to request exemption from a specific subject based on prior qualifications (e.g., a Chartered Accountant designation).

Step-by-Step

If you're considering claiming a subject exemption through a Transfer Credit Request — for example, a Chartered Accountant using their existing credential to skip a course in a postgraduate diploma — the concern is usually whether this affects Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) eligibility later.

What group members advised:
  1. A subject exemption on its own does not affect PGWP eligibility. The one condition that matters is your enrollment status: PGWP eligibility depends on staying enrolled as a full-time student. If claiming the exemption doesn't drop your course load below full-time status, PGWP eligibility is unaffected.

  2. Talk to your program coordinator directly before filing the exemption request. They can confirm exactly how the exemption will be applied to your course load and credit hours for your specific program, since this can vary by school and program structure.


The core rule to remember: it's your full-time vs. part-time status that PGWP cares about, not how many individual courses you're exempted from.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Do: Confirm with your program coordinator that the exemption keeps you enrolled full-time before submitting the Transfer Credit Request.
  • Don't: Don't assume any credit exemption is automatically safe for PGWP — check the resulting course load, not just the exemption itself.

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