Students attending a full time course and in possession of a GNIB card are entitled to take up casual employment provided that the course of study is u003ca href=u0022https://www.internationalstudents.ie/u0022u003eincluded on the government's list of visa eligible coursesu003c/au003e. Casual employment is defined as up to 20 hours part-time work per week, except for two standardised periods when it is permissible to work full-time (i.e. up to 40 hours per week). The periods are 15th December to 15th January and 1st May to 31st August only, corresponding to the traditional summer and winter college holidays. These dates are fixed for all non-EEA students, regardless of the actual college teaching calendar for their course. Colleges are no longer able to issue holiday letters documenting a student as available to work full-time outside of these dates.u003cbr/u003eThe right to work lapses automatically on expiry of a student's immigration permission, except for an extension of up to 12 months which may be available to third level graduates.u003cbr/u003e