The Canada study permit, start to finish
A study permit is not a visa, the CA$22,895 is not a fee, and the attestation letter rule changed on 1 January 2026. The whole route in order — what you need, what it costs, how long it takes, and where files actually fail.
There is a lot written about the Canada study permit and most of it is the same checklist reworded. This page is the route in order — what the permit actually is, what you need, what it costs, how long it takes and where files fail — with the detailed answer to each part one click away.
Three things worth fixing before anything else, because almost every student arrives believing at least one of them.
A study permit is not a visa. The permit is what lets you study, and it is issued at the port of entry, not before you fly. What you receive beforehand is an approval, plus a temporary resident visa or an eTA — and that is the document that lets you travel. Everyone says "student visa" for the whole bundle, which is fine until somebody tells you your permit will arrive in the post.
The CA$22,895 is not a fee. It is money you must show you have. Nobody takes it. Adding it to your tuition and calling that the cost of studying in Canada overstates the real number badly, and it is the single most common budgeting error we see.
The attestation rules changed on 1 January 2026, and they have changed more than once. A guide written last year may be confidently wrong.
What you actually need
Five things, and only the first four are documents.
1. A letter of acceptance from a designated learning institution. Not any college — a DLI. This is the foundation of the file and everything else attaches to it.
2. A provincial or territorial attestation letter (PAL or TAL), unless you are exempt. Since 1 January 2026, master's and doctoral students at public institutions do not need one. Graduate certificates and graduate diplomas are not included in that exemption — the word "graduate" in the programme name catches people out. Quebec issues a CAQ instead, and the territories issue a TAL, and which one you need follows the province of the institution, not where you live.
3. Proof of funds. Outside Quebec a single applicant shows CA$22,895 in living funds for the year, plus first-year tuition and travel, with a set amount added per accompanying family member. IRCC updates this annually — confirm the current figure before you apply.
The form of the money matters as much as the amount, and this is where files fail quietly. If the funds are in a parent's or relative's name there is a right way to present that, and a wrong way that reads as borrowed for the photograph. We set it out in proof of funds not in your own name.
4. Identity and supporting documents — passport, photographs, and depending on your country and your file, biometrics, an upfront medical exam and police certificates.
5. A file that hangs together. Not a document, but the thing that actually decides most refusals. See below.
English is separate. The college sets the English requirement, not IRCC, and it varies by programme — we set out what band each level really asks for in what IELTS band you actually need.
The money, in three kinds
Adding these together is the mistake almost everyone makes, because only one of them is actually spent on the permit.
| Amount | What it is | |
|---|---|---|
| Study permit application | CA$150 | Paid to IRCC |
| Biometrics | CA$85 | Paid to IRCC, valid ten years |
| Proof of funds | CA$22,895 + tuition + travel | Shown, not paid |
| Tuition | Varies widely by programme | Paid to the college |
The full version, including what you genuinely spend in a year versus what you merely have to demonstrate, is in the real cost of one year in Canada.
A note on the fourth number that is not in the table: if you pay somebody to help, that is not a government fee and it buys nothing from IRCC. What it should and should not buy is in what a consultant charges in India.
The sequence, and the clock
The order is fixed and it is worth knowing before you start, because two of these steps depend on the one before.
- Choose the programme and apply to the DLI. The acceptance letter is the foundation.
- Get the attestation letter, if you need one. The institution or the province issues it — you do not apply for it in a vacuum.
- Assemble funds and documents. Start the slow ones now: bank history is retrospective, and police certificates and attestation of academic documents cannot be rushed at the end.
- Submit and pay, then complete biometrics when the instruction letter arrives. You pay first; the letter follows.
- Wait. Typically 4 to 12 weeks — the widest range of the six destinations we work with.
- Travel with your approval, and receive the permit at the border.
Work backwards from your intake, not forwards from today. Twelve weeks plus document-gathering plus a tuition deadline is most of a term. The detail, and how the range moves with the season, is in study permit processing time.
Where files actually fail
Refusals rarely come from one missing document. They come from a file that does not hang together — a programme that does not follow from the applicant's history, funds that appear the week before, an explanation nobody gave.
Canada refused a large share of study permit applications through 2025, and almost all of it comes down to two regulations rather than a hundred different mistakes. Both, and what a refusal letter is really telling you, are in why Canada refuses study permits and how to read your refusal letter.
The single most controllable part is the statement of purpose, and the most common way to ruin one is to start from a template — see why SOP templates get refused.
The rules that apply once you are there
The permit is the beginning, not the end, and three rules cause more trouble after arrival than the application ever did.
- Work hours. Twenty-four hours a week is a hard ceiling during term, not an average you can balance out, and the unlimited-hours break period is capped. The 24-hour rule.
- Your enrolment is reported. Institutions report to IRCC twice a year. Attendance is part of your immigration record, not only your academic one.
- Extensions and status. Apply before expiry and maintained status protects you; a 2026 change alters what happens if you leave Canada while waiting. Extending a study permit, and if it has already gone wrong, restoration and the 90 days.
Every Canada guide, by stage
| Stage | Guide |
|---|---|
| Choosing | Graduate certificate or master's · IT and computing · Engineering titles · Red Seal trades · Co-op programmes |
| Money | Cost of a year · Cheapest city? · Proof of funds in another name · Planning the numbers |
| Applying | IELTS band needed · SOP · Processing time · When you pay tuition |
| If refused | The two regulations · Reading the letter · Leaving and reapplying |
| Already here | Visitor to study permit · Work hours · Extending · Restoration |
| After you graduate | PGWP expiring, CRS too low · Raising your CRS · TEER 4 and PR · Healthcare and PR · LMIA |
What we will not tell you
We will not tell you that your permit will be approved, or quote you a success rate. The decision belongs to IRCC and to the officer who reads your file, and any number offered to you as a probability is invented.
We also will not advise you on your own application. Under IRPA section 91, advice on a person's permit or eligibility for a fee may only be given by a Canadian lawyer, a Quebec notary or a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. What we do is education counselling: what a programme costs, what it requires, how long it runs, and what the government's own published rules say.
That is a smaller promise than the industry norm, and it is one we can keep.
See which Canadian programmes you qualify for
Last reviewed 10 August 2026. Study permit and biometrics fees of CA$150 and CA$85 and the CA$22,895 cost-of-living requirement are IRCC's published amounts and are updated by IRCC, in the case of the funds figure annually. Attestation letter requirements and exemptions changed on 1 January 2026 and have changed more than once. Processing times are typical rather than promised. Confirm every figure and requirement against canada.ca before you plan around it.