- IRCC has not confirmed any increased validity for support letters regarding foreign workers on maintained status.
- Current regulations maintain a 12-month validity period for Port of Entry letters and 365 days for WP-EXT letters.
- Specific changes like the 2026 student co-op update do not apply broadly to all work permit documents.
(CANADA) — Canada has not confirmed any increase in the validity of work authorisation support letters for foreign workers on maintained status, even as several other work permit timelines and temporary measures remain in force.
Material tied to recent immigration policy updates points instead to a narrower set of document rules. Port of Entry letters carry a validity period of 12 months. Work permit extension letters, often called WP-EXT letters, expire 365 days from the date Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada receives the application.
Another active measure took effect on May 29, 2025. Under that interim work authorization policy, certain foreign nationals can work for new employers while their applications remain pending.
Those policies sit close to the issue of maintained status, but they do not answer the same question. None of the information reviewed for recent Canada immigration updates confirmed a longer validity period for work authorisation support letters issued to workers on maintained status.
That distinction matters in practice. A Port of Entry letter is not the same document as a work permit extension letter, and neither is described in current policy material as a revised maintained status support letter.
Workers and employers often treat these documents as part of the same administrative stream because each touches job continuity, travel, or proof of authorization. The rules attached to them differ. The available policy updates set out specific timelines for some letters, while leaving no explicit change for maintained status support letters.
In Canada immigration practice, maintained status generally arises when a foreign national has an application in process and seeks to remain in compliance while a decision is pending. The current policy material speaks directly to pending applications in some settings, especially the interim work authorization measure for new employers, but it does not set out a new validity period for maintained status letters.
That gap leaves the existing confirmed timeframes in sharper focus. Port of Entry letters remain valid for 12 months, a period that matters to foreign workers who must still complete the steps connected to entry and permit issuance. WP-EXT letters continue to run for 365 days from IRCC receipt of the application, which gives applicants a documented end date tied to the filing date rather than a later approval milestone.
The interim work authorization policy that started on May 29, 2025 addresses a different problem. It allows certain foreign nationals to begin work for new employers while applications are pending, reducing a gap that can arise when a worker changes jobs before a fresh permit decision arrives.
That policy has drawn attention because it changed what some applicants can do during processing. It did not, in the information reviewed, announce a broader increase in the validity of work authorisation support letters for maintained status.
Another policy date now sits on the calendar. Canada will remove the separate co-op work permit requirement for international students on April 1, 2026, a change that affects a different part of the temporary residence system but still signals that IRCC is adjusting work authorization rules in selected categories.
The co-op permit change does not appear to alter maintained status letters for foreign workers. It is relevant because it shows the department continues to revise document rules on a dated schedule, sometimes with narrow application to one class of applicants rather than to the broader work permit population.
That pattern is familiar in Canadian immigration administration. IRCC often changes one document stream without changing another, even where the documents seem related to employers or workers trying to prove lawful employment. A validity period published for one letter cannot be assumed to apply to another.
Employers tracking maintained status issues therefore face a more limited record than some headlines might suggest. The confirmed numbers now in circulation remain the 12-month validity for Port of Entry letters and the 365-day expiry framework for WP-EXT letters, alongside the pending-application work flexibility created on May 29, 2025.
Foreign workers relying on maintained status face the same constraint. A change to job mobility under an interim policy, or a fixed validity period for a different immigration document, does not establish that Canada has lengthened the life of work authorisation support letters tied to maintained status.
That leaves verification squarely with IRCC’s current announcements and policy updates. Any April 2026 change affecting maintained status letters would need to appear in a direct departmental update rather than be inferred from related changes to Port of Entry letters, extension letters, or student co-op permit rules.
Immigration professionals are likely to keep watching for that kind of targeted notice because maintained status questions often turn on document wording and dates, not broad policy themes. A short amendment in an IRCC operational update can change what employers accept, what workers can present, and how long that proof remains usable.
Until such a notice appears, the record remains narrower than the claim of an across-the-board increase. Canada has adjusted other parts of its work authorization system, but no explicit policy change in the material reviewed raised the validity period of work authorisation support letters for foreign workers on maintained status.
