As of June 1st, eligible international students no longer need an off-campus work permit to work off campus. (See http://students.ubc.ca/career/resources/working-canada for more details.) As a result, Service Canada changed the way they issue SINs to international students. This also affects international students who want to work on-campus.

• In the past: Service Canada issued SINs to students with either (1) a valid work permit, or (2) a valid study permit AND an on-campus job offer letter.
• Now: On-campus job offer letters are no longer accepted. Service Canada will issue a SIN to students with a study permit ONLY if it contains the phrases “may accept employment” or “may work.” These phrases should be theoretically written on most post-secondary study permits after June 1, but in practice we are seeing many written in the old format without these phrases.

If a student’s study permit does not say “may accept employment” or “may work,” the student must follow additional steps to get a “confirmation to work” letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. (Even though the letter is technically a confirmation to work OFF-campus, it is still required for on-campus work when the study permit does not explicitly state “may accept employment” or “may work.”) They must then present this letter with their study permit to Service Canada in person to get a SIN. Detailed instructions are here: http://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/finances/financial-advice/taxes-international/sin

The processing time for the confirmation to work letter is currently approximately 2 weeks. According to CIC, students cannot request a “confirmation to work” letter until after they arrive in Canada and are issued a study permit.

We will cover this information in our International Student Welcome orientation on August 27 (http://orientation.grad.ubc.ca/schedules/august-2014/international-student-welcome/). However, you may want to be proactive with your students with TA/RA appointments to mitigate delays as much as possible.

Hopefully the process will eventually be smoother as CBSA officers get more familiar with the new regulations post June 1 and issue study permits with the necessary wording. We will notify you if there are any updates. Until then, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Best wishes,
Lisa Brunner, M.A.
Advisor, International Student Development, University of British Columbia
International House, 1783 West Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z2
604.822.4904    lisa.brunner@ubc.ca

www.students.ubc.ca/international

Plant operations has proposed a Level 2 fume hood shutdown (cap and remove all liquids) from Friday afternoon August 15^th  3pm until Friday afternoon August 22^nd  3pm. The fume hood fan motors are in need of preventative maintenance. This shutdown will also cover the Saturday August 17^th electrical shutdown where we would have to close the sashes and cap the liquids anyways.  Please let me know by Tuesday August 12^th whether or not this will be an issue. Martin Hilmer –  mire@mail.ubc.ca

GSS Opportunities

Maybe you should become your grad departments representative on the GSS Council. At least you ought to find out if your department has a representative, ask them what they’re doing to improve your graduate experience at UBC. You should know intake of new councillors is coming up at the GSS October council. Want to shake things up? Contact info@gss.ubc.ca

So, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies works to maintain and enhance the quality of graduate scholarship at UBC primarily by encouraging a spirit of enquiry appropriate to each academic discipline, and by monitoring and improving the educational process which leads to a graduate degree. The Graduate Council is the legislative and administrative authority of the Faculty regarding graduate programs of study. There are five open graduate student positions. Want one? Contact: info@gss.ubc.ca

GSS Sponsored Events & Opportunities

Get involved in Orientation! Become an Orientation Volunteer! New Graduate Student Orientation, hosted by G+PS, International Student Development and the GSS, runs from Wednesday, August 27th to Friday, August 29th. Register here to volunteer. Questions? Email graduate.orientation@ubc.ca.

Become a graduate student mentor with Undergraduate Research Opportunities! URO runs the Research Experience Program (REX), which encourages and facilitates  undergraduate students into research. They are currently recruiting mentors (that means you!) who will assist students in developing a theoretical research project which they will present as a poster at the MURC conference. Check out their work, and sign up to mentor!