CIP Codes and PGWP Eligibility: How the Field-of-Study List Works (2026 Guide)

If you are enrolled in a Canadian college diploma, graduate certificate, or other non-degree program, one six-digit number can determine whether you will qualify for a Post-Graduation Work Permit. It is called the CIP code, and it sits quietly on your transcript and your Designated Learning Institution’s internal records – often unnoticed until the moment you actually need it.

Quick answer: For most non-degree graduates, IRCC checks your program’s official CIP code against its published list of eligible fields of study. If your code is not on that list at either the time you applied for your study permit or the time you apply for your PGWP, you will not qualify for a PGWP, regardless of your program’s title or how it was marketed to you. Graduates of a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program are exempt from this screening entirely – the exemption is based on the type of credential you earned, not on whether you attended a “university” as opposed to a college.

This guide explains how the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) system works, exactly how IRCC applies it to PGWP applications in 2026, who is and is not exempt, and what to do if your program falls outside an eligible category. For a broader introduction to the permit itself, see our complete PGWP guide for 2026, and for the full application walkthrough, see our step-by-step guide to applying for a PGWP.

What Is a CIP Code in Canadian Immigration?

A CIP code is a six-digit number, based on Statistics Canada’s Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP Canada 2021) taxonomy, that identifies the specific academic discipline of a course of study. IRCC uses this code to decide whether your program meets its field-of-study requirement for a Post-Graduation Work Permit.

Statistics Canada built the CIP system to standardize how academic programs are categorized nationally, so that enrollment, graduation, and labour market data could be compared consistently across institutions. Every program at a Designated Learning Institution – from a two-year business diploma to an eighteen-month culinary certificate to a doctoral program – is assigned a CIP code describing its primary subject matter.

The code is structured hierarchically:

• First two digits – a broad series (for example, 51 = health professions and related programs)
• Middle two digits – a narrower field within that series
• Final two digits – the specific instructional program

IRCC adopted this existing Statistics Canada taxonomy rather than building a new system, which is efficient for government administration but has created real confusion for students. A college calendar might market a program as “Global Supply Chain and Logistics Management,” while the CIP code officially on file for it sits in a completely different part of the classification than a student might expect. Because field-of-study eligibility is tied strictly to the CIP code – not the program’s marketing title – two students in similarly named programs at different colleges can end up with completely different PGWP outcomes.

Important correction to a common misconception: IRCC does not group its six eligible sectors along tidy, predictable two-digit CIP series lines. For example, the official “transport” category includes codes as varied as 44.0403 and a range of 47- and 49-series codes, and – perhaps surprisingly – also includes 52.0203 (Supply Chain Management). The official “education” category includes 05.0210 (Disability studies) and 05.0211 (Deaf studies) alongside the expected 13-series education codes. In other words, you cannot reliably guess whether your program is eligible just by knowing its first two digits or which broad sector it “sounds like” it belongs to. The only reliable way to check eligibility is to look up your program’s exact six-digit code on IRCC’s live, searchable field-of-study tool – see the step-by-step section below.

This distinction is not a small technicality buried in the fine print. It is one of the more consequential decisions international students face when choosing a Canadian program, since a wrong assumption at enrollment can surface two or three years later, at exactly the moment when it is hardest and most expensive to fix.

How IRCC Uses CIP Codes to Determine PGWP Eligibility

IRCC introduced field-of-study screening in 2024 to connect post-graduation work authorization more closely with occupations facing long-term labour shortages in Canada. Rather than granting every non-degree graduate automatic access to an open work permit regardless of what they studied, IRCC now checks whether your program’s CIP code appears on a published list of eligible fields.

If your CIP code is on the eligible list – checked at the time you submitted your study permit application, or at the time you submit your PGWP application (whichever works in your favour) – you can meet the field-of-study requirement. If your program’s CIP code does not appear on the list at either of those two points, you will not meet this requirement, no matter how relevant the coursework felt or how the program was described when you enrolled.

Who actually has to meet this requirement?

This is the point most existing blog content gets wrong, so it’s worth stating precisely. The field-of-study requirement applies to PGWP applicants who did not graduate from a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program – and who applied for their study permit on or after November 1, 2024 (subject to the exemptions below). It does not turn on whether you attended “a university” versus “a college.” The dividing line IRCC actually draws is degree-granting program (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral) versus everything else – which means:

• A graduate of a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program, whether earned at a public university or at a private institution legally authorized to confer degrees, is exempt from field-of-study screening.
• A graduate of a non-degree program delivered by a university – for example, a university-issued graduate certificate, post-graduate diploma, or other credential that is not itself a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree – is not exempt, and must still meet the field-of-study requirement, the same as a college diploma or certificate graduate.
• A graduate of a college diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate, or post-graduate certificate must also meet the field-of-study requirement, unless another exemption applies (see below).

Credential type	Field-of-study screening required?
University bachelor’s degree	No – exempt
University master’s degree	No – exempt
University doctoral (PhD) degree	No – exempt
University-affiliated program that does not result in a degree (e.g., a university certificate or post-graduate diploma)	Yes – screening required
College or polytechnic diploma, advanced diploma	Yes – screening required
Graduate certificate, post-graduate certificate (non-degree)	Yes – screening required

Who is exempt, regardless of credential type:

• Anyone who submitted their PGWP application before November 1, 2024
• Anyone who submitted their study permit application before November 1, 2024 (this includes people who later apply for a study permit extension on or after that date to finish the same program)
• Graduates of a PGWP-eligible flight school
• Graduates of a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program from a PGWP-eligible DLI (including a student who obtained a bachelor’s degree through a pathway program between two different types of institutions, such as college-to-university)

The Six Eligible Field-of-Study Categories

IRCC currently organizes its eligible fields of study into six broad categories, chosen for their connection to long-term labour shortages in Canada:

• Agriculture and agri-food
• Education
• Healthcare and social services
• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
• Trade
• Transport

Within each category, IRCC maintains a specific, searchable list of eligible six-digit CIP codes – currently more than 1,000 individual codes across the six categories combined. As explained above, do not assume eligibility based on a program’s broad subject area or its first two CIP digits; check the exact code.

Why the eligible list changes, and the current 2026 freeze

Because labour market data shifts over time, IRCC periodically reviews and updates the eligible field-of-study list – but not on a fixed schedule, and updates can add codes, remove codes, or both.

Recent history, for context:

• On June 25, 2025, IRCC updated the list to reflect 2025 Express Entry category-based priorities: 119 new fields of study were added (concentrated in healthcare and social services, education, and trades), and 178 fields of study were removed, bringing the total to 920 eligible codes at that time.
• On July 4, 2025, IRCC added back the fields of study that had been removed on June 25 – meaning those 178 codes remained eligible for the rest of 2025 while IRCC worked on a fuller review.
• On January 15, 2026, IRCC announced that the eligible field-of-study list would be frozen for the remainder of 2026 – meaning no additions and no removals are planned for the year, giving students and institutions a stable target while IRCC evaluates the effect of the 2024–2025 reforms. Multiple sources place the current total at roughly 1,107 eligible fields of study following the reinstatements described above.

What this means for you: if your program’s CIP code is currently on the eligible list, it is expected to remain eligible through the rest of 2026 (absent an unannounced IRCC policy reversal). If it is not currently eligible, it will not become newly eligible during 2026 under the freeze. This does not change any other PGWP requirement – program length, institutional eligibility, language testing, and every other condition covered elsewhere in this guide still apply in full. Because a freeze is, by definition, a temporary state of the list rather than a permanent rule, always verify your program’s current status directly on IRCC’s live tool close to the date you apply, rather than relying on this article’s snapshot.

Source: IRCC, Update on field of study requirement for post-graduation work permits, canada.ca notice, originally issued June 25, 2025, most recently updated January 15, 2026; corroborated by CIC News and multiple licensed-consultant reporting on the January 15, 2026 freeze announcement.

Timing matters: your code can be checked at two different dates

A detail many students miss is that field-of-study eligibility can be assessed at more than one checkpoint. Under IRCC’s current rules, your program only needs to have been on the eligible list on one of two specific dates – the date you submitted your study permit application, or the date you submit your PGWP application – not continuously in between. This means:

• If your program’s code was eligible when you applied for your study permit, you remain eligible even if the code is later removed from the list before you graduate.
• If your program’s code was not eligible when you applied for your study permit, but becomes eligible later, you can still qualify if the code is eligible on the date you submit your PGWP application.5

This is a real, meaningful protection – but it depends on the specific date, not on the code having been eligible “at some point” in a loose sense. Confirming which of the two dates applies to your situation, ideally with the help of an immigration consultant in Canada, is worth doing rather than guessing.

Source: IRCC, Post-graduation work permit (PGWP) [R205(c) – C43] Program Delivery Instructions, “Field-of-study requirement” section: “the eligible field-of-study list may be subject to change… their PGWP eligibility is determined based on the list of eligible fields of study when they applied for their study permit or when they applied for their PGWP.”

How IRCC Actually Determines Whether Your Program Meets an Eligible CIP Code

It’s worth correcting a second common misconception here: IRCC’s process is not a purely automatic, no-questions-asked database lookup with no room for the applicant to demonstrate their case. In practice:

• Officers check the CIP code recorded for your program against the current (or applicable historical) eligible list.
• Ideally, your Designated Learning Institution’s own official documentation – such as your letter of completion – states your program’s CIP code directly, which makes this a straightforward match.
• If your official documentation does not show the CIP code, IRCC’s own guidance encourages you to include the eligible CIP code yourself, along with a written explanation of how your program meets the description of that code. This means the process, while code-driven, is not purely mechanical database-matching with zero opportunity to provide supporting evidence – it is still fundamentally about your program’s field of study meeting the code’s actual description, and IRCC does look at whether the evidence establishes that.
• What officers typically do not do is review your course syllabus in detail or interview you about what you personally learned; the assessment is centered on the documented CIP classification and its match to the eligible list, supported by whatever evidence you provide.

This is why getting the code right, and having it clearly documented, matters more than how the program felt or how it was described when you enrolled.

A note on timing of classification: don’t assume “completion” controls

Some existing guidance states or implies that IRCC applies “the classification on record at completion, not enrollment.” This is not an accurate summary of the current rule and should not be relied on. As explained above, the operative dates are your study permit application date and your PGWP application date – not your program’s completion date as such. If your college reclassifies a program’s CIP code partway through your studies, what matters is whether the code was eligible on one of those two specific application dates, and you should get written confirmation from your registrar of exactly what code applied and when, rather than assuming any single “completion date” rule controls the outcome.

Common CIP Code Discrepancies and How to Fix Them

The most frequent cause of PGWP field-of-study problems for otherwise qualified graduates is a mismatch between a program’s marketing name and its actual CIP classification, or a mid-program reclassification. Common examples include:

• A program marketed under a name that sounds aligned with an in-demand sector, but registered under a CIP code that is not on the eligible list.
• A program that was eligible when a student enrolled but was reclassified during a curriculum review, sometimes without clear communication to students.
• Credit-transfer or “laddering” arrangements between a private career college and a public partner institution, where the CIP code that ultimately applies may not be obvious from the outside.
• Programs delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement – a separate issue from CIP-code eligibility, covered in the next section, that can make a program ineligible for a PGWP regardless of its field of study.

What to do if you suspect a discrepancy: Request a signed letter from your DLI’s registrar office stating the exact six-digit CIP code tied to your program and its effective dates, for both your study permit application date and (if different) your intended PGWP application date. This letter becomes important evidence for your application and, if needed, for a reconsideration request. If your case is complicated by a reclassification, a program transfer, or a curriculum-licensing issue, our complex PGWP support team can review the full history and recommend next steps.

Public-Private Curriculum Licensing: A Separate Eligibility Issue

Independent of CIP code classification, IRCC excluded most graduates of programs delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement from PGWP eligibility, based on when the student began the program:

• Cross-jurisdictional curriculum licensing (a private college in one province delivering a program on behalf of a public college in another province or territory): students who began such a program on or before January 31, 2023 may still be eligible; those beginning on or after February 1, 2023 are not eligible.
• Same-province curriculum licensing (a private college delivering a program on behalf of a public college in the same province): eligibility generally turns on whether the program began before May 15, 2024. This change was first announced January 22, 2024 with an original effective date of September 1, 2024, then moved forward to May 15, 2024 by a further announcement on March 22, 2024. Note: IRCC’s own published materials are not perfectly consistent on whether a program beginning precisely on May 15, 2024 itself falls on the eligible or ineligible side of this line. If your program began on or very close to that date, get written registrar confirmation and a professional review rather than relying on any single source (including this one) for that specific edge case.

This exclusion applies regardless of the program’s CIP code – a curriculum-licensed program that would otherwise carry an eligible CIP code is still excluded if it doesn’t meet one of the exceptions above.

Source: IRCC, Post-graduation work permit (PGWP) [R205(c) – C43] Program Delivery Instructions, “Curriculum licensing agreements” section; IRCC news notice, Update on public-private college partnership programs for international students, March 22, 2024.

Step-by-Step: How to Find and Verify Your Program’s CIP Code

Because titles are not reliable indicators of eligibility, verify your exact six-digit code independently, well before your final semester.

1. Check your acceptance letter or official transcript. Many institutions print the CIP code directly or reference it in the transcript legend.
2. Search your DLI’s public PGWP alignment list. Most colleges now publish this on their international student services website.
3. Cross-reference against IRCC’s official, searchable field-of-study tool. This is the only authoritative source – colleges occasionally publish outdated internal lists that have not been reconciled with IRCC’s latest updates. IRCC organizes the searchable tool by the six categories described above (agriculture and agri-food, education, healthcare and social services, STEM, trade, transport), and you can search by CIP code or by keyword.
4. Contact your international student advisor if you cannot locate the code, and request written confirmation, since codes can be reassigned between cohorts even under the same program name.

Tip: Verify your code more than once – when you accept your offer, again mid-program when curriculum changes are usually finalized, and once more the semester before you apply. Keep a dated screenshot of the eligible list each time you check, since a documented history helps if your timing ever becomes an issue.

A pre-enrollment checklist if you haven’t started yet

If you are still choosing between programs rather than already enrolled, treat CIP code eligibility as a primary selection criterion, alongside tuition, location, and reputation.

• Ask the admissions office directly for the program’s six-digit CIP code before you accept an offer, not after.
• Cross-check that code yourself against IRCC’s current eligible list rather than trusting a verbal assurance.
• Ask whether the program is delivered entirely by the public institution or through a licensing arrangement with a private partner, since curriculum-licensed programs beginning after the relevant cutoff dates above lost PGWP eligibility independent of the CIP code itself.
• If two similarly priced programs are otherwise comparable, treat CIP eligibility as a meaningful tie-breaker, not an afterthought.

It is far easier to choose an eligible program from the outset than to discover a classification problem after two years of study and tuition payments. Our advisors at Mygration walk prospective students through this comparison before they commit to an offer of admission. You can also use our PGWP eligibility assessment tool to get a preliminary read on where your program stands.

What Happens If Your Program’s CIP Code Is Not Eligible?

Discovering an ineligible CIP code is discouraging, but it does not automatically end your immigration plans. Realistic paths typically include:

1. Switch to an eligible program before completing your current one, if you have enough time and study permit validity remaining. This is the cleanest fix when caught early, though it usually means added tuition and a longer timeline.
2. Pursue a qualifying university degree instead, since bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree graduates are exempt from field-of-study screening entirely. Some students finish a diploma and follow it with a related degree program.
3. Shift toward an LMIA-supported work permit, which does not depend on CIP codes at all but requires a Canadian employer willing to sponsor your position.

None of these decisions should be made without reviewing your specific study permit conditions and remaining program length. Waiting until your final semester to discover a CIP problem sharply narrows your options.

How Mygration approaches a CIP code problem

When a student comes to us after discovering an eligibility gap, we start with the same verification process outlined earlier in this guide – confirming the exact code as it applied on both the study permit application date and (prospectively) the PGWP application date, and whether the institution made any changes during enrollment. From there, we map out realistic options against the calendar: how much study permit validity remains, how far into the program the student is, and what the student’s longer-term Canadian immigration goals actually are. This is also where we frequently loop in a broader conversation about Express Entry and permanent residency, since a CIP code setback sometimes turns out to be a useful prompt to build a more resilient long-term strategy.

Looking beyond the PGWP: Express Entry and permanent residency

For many students, the PGWP is not the end goal – it is a stepping stone toward permanent residency through Express Entry. If your CIP code turns out to be ineligible, it is worth stepping back and evaluating your broader immigration strategy rather than treating the PGWP as the only path forward. Our Express Entry eligibility checker tool can help you understand whether other programs, including provincial nominee streams or the Canadian Experience Class, might still be within reach.

Applying the Timing and Classification Rules to Your Own File

Two of the rules covered earlier in this guide interact in ways that are easy to overlook, so it’s worth restating them together as a practical checklist for your own situation:

• If your program’s CIP code changes after you enrol (through a curriculum review or reclassification), what protects you is whether the code was eligible on your study permit application date or your PGWP application date – not whether it’s eligible “now,” and not whether it was eligible “at completion.” Get written registrar confirmation of the code that applied on each of those specific dates, not just the code currently on file.
• If your program is delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement, checking your CIP code alone is not enough. The curriculum-licensing exclusion described earlier in this guide is a separate and independent eligibility barrier, tied to your program’s start date relative to the relevant cutoff dates – not to your CIP code’s eligibility status. A program with an eligible CIP code can still be excluded from the PGWP entirely if it falls on the wrong side of the curriculum-licensing cutoff.

Because these two issues are assessed independently, confirming CIP-code eligibility should never be treated as the end of your eligibility review if your program involves any curriculum-licensing arrangement – both checks need to clear before you can be confident in your field-of-study standing.

Why This Requirement Exists: The Policy Rationale

Before field-of-study screening was introduced, PGWP eligibility for non-degree graduates depended primarily on program length and full-time enrollment, without a direct link to what a graduate had actually studied. IRCC’s stated rationale for the 2024 reform was to connect the college-to-PGWP pipeline more closely to occupations facing long-term labour shortages – the same shortage occupations that inform Express Entry category-based selection rounds. Because labour market conditions change, the eligible list is reviewed periodically rather than fixed permanently, which is also why IRCC introduced the two-date protection (study permit application date or PGWP application date) described above: it gives students who chose an eligible program in good faith some protection against a later list change that they had no way to anticipate.

It’s worth being clear about what is, and is not, an official IRCC statement here. IRCC has publicly and directly linked the field-of-study list to labour-shortage data and to Express Entry category-based priorities in its own news notices. Broader commentary about why specific sectors were chosen over others, or predictions about which codes might be added or removed in a future update, reflects professional interpretation of publicly available trends – not a stated IRCC policy document – and should be treated accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions About CIP Codes and PGWP

What is a CIP code, and how does IRCC use it for PGWP eligibility? 

A CIP code is the six-digit Statistics Canada classification (CIP Canada 2021) assigned to your specific program. For applicants who are not exempt (see below), IRCC checks whether that code appears on its eligible field-of-study list, checked at either your study permit application date or your PGWP application date.

Are university bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates exempt from CIP code restrictions? 

Yes. Graduates of a recognized bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree program from a PGWP-eligible DLI are fully exempt from field-of-study screening. This exemption is based on the credential type, not on attending “a university” as an institution – a non-degree program delivered by a university is not automatically exempt.

Which post-secondary programs require an eligible CIP code to get a PGWP? 

Any program that is not itself a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree – including college diplomas, advanced diplomas, graduate certificates, post-graduate certificates, and non-degree university programs – generally requires an eligible CIP code, unless another exemption (pre-November-1-2024 application, or flight school graduate) applies.

What are the priority field-of-study categories eligible for PGWP? 

Six categories: agriculture and agri-food; education; healthcare and social services; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); trade; and transport. Eligibility within each category is determined code-by-code, not by the category name alone.

How do I find the exact six-digit CIP code for my Canadian program? 

Check your acceptance letter and transcript, review your DLI’s published PGWP alignment materials, and confirm the code against IRCC’s official, searchable field-of-study tool – the only authoritative source.

Is the PGWP eligible field-of-study list changing in 2026? 

IRCC announced on January 15, 2026 that the list would be frozen for the remainder of the year – no additions or removals are planned during 2026. This followed a June 25, 2025 update (119 codes added, 178 removed) and a July 4, 2025 reinstatement of the removed codes. Always verify your program’s current status directly on IRCC’s live list before applying, since a freeze is a temporary policy state, not a permanent guarantee.

What happens if my program’s title sounds eligible, but its CIP code is not? 

The official CIP code controls the outcome, regardless of marketing language. Get written registrar confirmation and explore alternative pathways if your code is not currently eligible.

Does a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement affect PGWP eligibility? 

Yes, and this is separate from CIP-code eligibility. Same-province curriculum-licensed programs generally lost PGWP eligibility for enrollments beginning around May 15, 2024 (see the detailed dates and the noted source-conflict above), and cross-jurisdictional curriculum-licensed programs generally lost eligibility for enrollments beginning on or after February 1, 2023 – independent of whether the CIP code itself is eligible.

What should I do if my college changes my program’s CIP code while I am studying? 

Request written confirmation of the change and its effective dates from your registrar, then consult with an RCIC promptly, since what matters is the code that applied on your study permit application date or your PGWP application date.

Can I transfer to a new program if my current CIP code is not eligible? 

Often yes, if you act early enough and your study permit remains valid for the revised timeline, though it typically extends your overall program length.

Quick Reference: What Changed and When

Date	What happened
November 1, 2024	Field-of-study requirement takes effect for non-degree PGWP applicants who submitted their study permit application on or after this date
January 22, 2024	IRCC first announces the future exclusion of public-private curriculum-licensing programs
March 22, 2024	IRCC moves the curriculum-licensing exclusion date forward, to May 15, 2024 (from the originally announced September 1, 2024)
May 15, 2024	Effective date for the same-province curriculum-licensing exclusion (see the noted source discrepancy on this specific boundary date)
June 25, 2025	IRCC updates the eligible field-of-study list: 119 codes added, 178 removed (920 total)
July 4, 2025	IRCC reinstates the 178 removed codes
January 15, 2026	IRCC freezes the eligible field-of-study list for the remainder of 2026

Keep this table as a quick sanity check, but always confirm the live status of your own program’s code directly with IRCC before relying on any date in this guide, since immigration policy can change without extensive advance notice.

Ensure Your PGWP Eligibility with Mygration

CIP code eligibility is one of the most technical, least understood PGWP requirements, and the consequences of getting it wrong are severe, since there is no simple appeal once you have already graduated from an ineligible program. If you are selecting a program, already enrolled, or approaching graduation, our RCIC team can review your acceptance letter, transcript, and DLI documentation to confirm your status before you invest further tuition.

Our consultants work with students across the country, with dedicated teams supporting clients in Vancouver, Toronto, Surrey, and dozens of other cities through our full list of practice areas.

Book an immigration consultation today, or start with a free initial assessment. For more PGWP-specific reading, see our guides on why PGWP applications get refused, PGWP language requirements, working while waiting for your PGWP, and how to apply for a PGWP.