Working while studying is legal in every major destination — inside a frame. The frame has three parts: how many hours you may work, what paperwork authorises you, and what records prove you stayed inside it. This guide collects the frames for the five major destinations in one place, then covers the habits that keep you safe in all of them.
Australia
- Hours: up to 48 hours per fortnight during term; unlimited during official break periods.
- Permission: your student visa grants work rights automatically — no separate permit.
- Paperwork: Tax File Number (TFN) before your first pay; you must give your employer your visa details so they can verify you in the government's system.
- Watch for: the fortnight rhythm — two 25-hour weeks back to back is a breach even though no single week looks bad. Count in fortnights, not weeks.
Canada
- Hours: up to 24 hours per week off campus during term; full-time during scheduled breaks.
- Permission: your study permit must include off-campus work conditions; a SIN (Social Insurance Number) that starts with 9 is for temporary residents — give it to your employer, it expires with your permit.
- Paperwork: SIN from Service Canada, in person or online, free, days not weeks.
- Watch for: scheduled breaks defined by your program — not every week without classes is an official break; your program calendar is the authority.
United Kingdom
- Hours: up to 20 hours per week during term for degree-level students; full-time during vacations.
- Permission: your Student visa's share code gives employers your right-to-work check — generate it before job hunting.
- Paperwork: National Insurance number (apply once you have a job offer or are in the UK; you can start work while the application processes).
- Watch for: the term/vacation boundary set by your institution's dates, and any work your course forbids (e.g. self-employment and entertainer/professional sport conditions on the standard route).
United States
- Hours: on-campus work up to 20 hours per week during term (full-time during breaks); off-campus work only through CPT (study-period) or OPT (post-degree) authorisation — see the internships guide.
- Permission: on-campus work needs no separate authorisation but your DSO must keep your record current; off-campus without authorisation is the most serious violation in this entire guide.
- Paperwork: SSN once you have a job offer (the DSO letter plus the offer letter is the standard pack).
- Watch for: "volunteering" that is actually unpaid work — hours in a role a business would otherwise pay for count as work.
Japan
- Hours: up to 28 hours per week with permission (料外活動許可 — the status-permission stamp or slip); up to 8 hours per day during long breaks.
- Permission: apply for the work permission at the airport on arrival or at immigration afterwards — working before it is granted is a violation even for one shift.
- Paperwork: residence card with the permission noted; my-number and tax paperwork follow from the employer.
- Watch for: the totals rule across multiple jobs — two part-time jobs at 15 hours each breach the 28-hour cap despite each being individually fine.
Verify⚠ Verify: every figure above is a policy parameter that changes — Canada's cap, Australia's fortnight framing, and Japan's permission process have all been adjusted in recent years. The immigration authority's current page for your destination is the binding version; check it the week you start job hunting.
The Habits That Protect You Everywhere
- Count your own hours, weekly, across all employers — the limit is on you, not on any single job. Keep a simple log; payroll records are what investigators read, and your log is what protects you when an employer's records are wrong.
- Never work off the books — cash hours still count toward your cap, and a dispute with an off-the-books employer has no recourse at all.
- Re-check your conditions after any visa change — a new permit, a program change, a move between study levels: each can silently change your work conditions.
- Keep the tax number current — a SIN or TFN that expires with an old permit creates payroll messes that look like identity problems later.
Where This Connects
Hour caps shape which part-time roles fit your timetable (the part-time guide), authorisation categories shape which internships you can take (the internships guide), and a clean compliance record is the asset your post-study visa application rests on (the graduate-programs guide). The compliance log you keep this year is the evidence file for every one of them.