Confusion around postgraduate work permit language resulting in rejections

OTTAWA — Lukas Troni graduated from the University of British Columbia in April 2025. He was putting his geography and environment degree to good use in a job at a Canadian environmental organization when a surprise rejection letter from the federal government forced him to stop working.

After graduation, Troni applied for a postgraduate work permit, or PGWP, which allows international students who completed their studies at an approved Canadian school to work for a period of time in Canada.

He was able to work while awaiting a decision on the permit. He expected it would be an easy yes.

But on April 14, Troni got a letter telling him he was being denied a permit because he did not include in his permit application the results of a French or English language test — something which has been a requirement for most applicants since November 2024.

“It’s like a truck hits you all of a sudden and you’re left to scramble to see what you can do to continue living your life the way you had been before,” he said.

Troni was born in Santiago, Chile. He said his parents made a point of speaking English at home and he is fluent in the language.

Troni said that when he submitted his application in August, the directions for all the necessary documents were clear, except for the language test.

“Application transcripts, certificate letter of completion, like, all of those are things that are very specifically outlined that you need to submit them in the application portal. And then when you get to the end of it, it has a box that says ‘client information,'” Troni said.

He said the box said nothing about being the place to include the English test and the application guide he had likely predated the language requirement.

Troni is not the only one confronting this issue. A Reddit community focused on postgraduate work permits is full of dozens of discussion threads started by people who received rejections for the same reason.

Will Tao, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said he became aware of the confusion about the language test for the PGWP late last year. He said the layout of the website after the language test became a requirement made information about it hard to find.

“Folks who do it themselves have to answer this come-to-Canada survey that automates this checklist and tells you, ‘That’s what you need.’ There’s no message there, there’s no pop-up, there’s nothing in that process that they’re doing that flags, ‘Hey, the language test is there,” Tao said.

He said that, “depending on which term you Googled for the PGWP,” an applicant might find information about the test requirement on one web page, “in one small box that wasn’t even in special font or colours or really stood out.”

“And it was one of those expandable ones too, so you had to expand to get to it,” he added. “That’s where they had that information. So it was really hidden.”

He said changes were made to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada web pages late last year after some reporting on the issue.

The federal government said it is looking at making more changes. A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s office said a dedicated field to submit language test results is being developed for the work permit site as part of broader IT changes at IRCC.

The spokesperson added that the department received more than 302,000 PGWP applications between Nov. 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025. Of those, 945 were rejected for reasons related to language. Almost 80 per cent of those rejections came in the last six months of 2025.

The spokesperson said in an emailed response that IRCC has not seen an overall increase in refusal rates since the language requirement was introduced, but the department understands some people were confused about how to submit the necessary paperwork.

Diab’s office said she was not available for an interview due to her travel schedule.

Troni, who aced the language test once he knew about it, has asked for a reconsideration, with help from Tao, and is currently waiting for a decision. He said he hopes it will be approved so he can continue the life he’s built in Vancouver with his partner and carry on working with the environmental sustainability realm.

But he said his confidence in Canada’s immigration system has been shaken.

“As a person that has done the applications fully myself — never with an immigration lawyer because I never thought it would be necessary, because I assumed the system would be fair and that it would have my best interest in mind — I think it’s really sad to understand that in a lot of ways it doesn’t,” Troni said.

Efforts to resubmit applications with the language test attached haven’t always been successful.

A U.S. citizen and recent Carleton graduate living in Ottawa — who The Canadian Press agreed not to name due to potential effects on finding work in the U.S. — was rejected the first time for not taking the test.

He submitted a request for reconsideration and scored a perfect 10 on the language test, but was rejected because he didn’t take the test until after his first application was refused.

“Thousands of students have been screwed because of this. My situation is a little unique. A lot of those students had the test. They knew that they needed one. But they didn’t have a place to upload it. To this day, there’s no place to upload it,” the Carleton graduate said.

“I filled out the form and it told me wrong. And even back then, when I applied in July, there was even less information. There was only this one small notice but it wasn’t on the main PGWP page.”

The Carleton graduate said that “at the bare minimum,” the client information field, where language test results are meant to be attached, should say “client information/language test” for clarity.

He raised the issue with the office of Ottawa Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi and received a letter on April 15 saying nothing more could be done.

“The concern regarding potentially misleading information in the application portal was also discussed. While they acknowledged that there was no dedicated upload slot for the language test, they reiterated that the requirement itself has been clearly posted on the PGWP page since November 2024,” the letter said.

Tao said he has been told by people within IRCC that efforts to resolve communications issues have been complicated by a staff shortage and an increase in the use of digital tools in decision making.

IRCC announced in January 2025 that about 3,300 positions would be cut over three years to return the department to pre-pandemic staffing levels.

“I think in that type of environment you almost have to let the problems fester and say, ‘You know what, it’s not a fire that we can put out and it’s just too much work to do … We’ll create some channels, like reconsiderations, and we’re making things better now. But if you were caught in it, too bad, too sad.’ And I think that’s the vibe I get from a lot of this stuff too,” Tao said.

The Carleton graduate is getting ready to move back in with his parents in Boston and leave his home of the last eight years.

He said he agrees with what the government is doing to get the international student system under control, but now he’s left feeling like “collateral damage” because of what he described as unclear communication on the need for a language test.

“Their plan is to have skilled immigrants here now, or whatever, contributing to this economy. Here is one and, like, goodbye? Like, what, are you kicking me out for a message that they’ve admitted fault to, an error that they have admitted fault to?” he said.

“I’ve contributed here. I have connections here. I shouldn’t have to alter the course of my life. I am moving but at this point I don’t get it. I don’t understand why.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press