Refused, and your status is running out: what to do in the first two weeks
The refusal letter arrives and the clock you are actually on depends on one thing most students cannot answer: were you on maintained status, or did your own permit still have time left? The answer changes every option below.
First, the question that decides everything
The letter has arrived. Before you read another page, answer this:
When the decision was made, were you on maintained status — or did your own permit still have time left on it?
Most students cannot answer, and it is the only question that matters right now.
If you applied before your old permit expired, you were on maintained status. Maintained status ends on the day the decision is made. You are out of status today, and the 90-day restoration clock started with the decision, not with your realisation.
If your own permit still has time left, you are still in status until that date. You are in a materially better position and you have room to act deliberately.
The difference between those two is not a technicality. It changes what is available, what it costs, and how long you have. The three states are set out in out of status in Canada.
The clocks, and what each runs from
Several deadlines start at once and they run from different dates.
| Clock | Length | Runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Judicial review, decision made in Canada | 15 days | The decision |
| Judicial review, decision made outside Canada | 60 days | The decision |
| Restoration, if you are out of status | 90 days | The day you lost status |
| Your own permit, if it has time left | Until its expiry | Printed on the permit |
Fifteen days is the one people lose. It runs from the decision, not from when you finish researching, and by the time most students understand their options it has gone.
What is actually in your hands
Five things. Not all are open to everyone, and the first two are free.
1. Stop working and stop studying
If you are out of status, this is the item you can act on in the next five minutes, and it is the one that affects your file most.
Nothing is authorised while a restoration application is pending. IRCC's instructions are explicit that you must stop immediately on losing authorisation. Continuing is the most damaging thing you can do to your own case, and it is damage you inflict rather than receive.
2. Find out why you were actually refused
The refusal letter is a checklist of grounds, not an explanation. The reasoning sits in the officer's notes, which you can request.
Start that early. Without the notes you are guessing at what to fix, and a reapplication that guesses wrong gets the same answer for the same reason. The two regulations behind almost every refusal are set out in why Canada refuses study permits.
3. Reapply — only if something has changed
Permitted at any time unless your letter says otherwise. Worth doing only if you can address the actual concern.
Resubmitting the same application produces the same decision. This is the most common expensive mistake made in the fortnight after a refusal, usually because the notes had not come back yet and the applicant could not wait.
4. Judicial review — 15 days, and it is not a rehearing
Seeking leave at the Federal Court asks whether the decision was reasonable and the process fair. It does not re-decide your case; a successful outcome usually means a fresh decision by a different officer.
Fifteen days from an in-Canada decision. If this is something you are considering, it is a conversation with a lawyer this week, not next.
5. Restore as a visitor, and stay legally while you think
Since 1 May 2026, updated instructions allow students and workers who lose status to apply to restore their status as visitors, without leaving Canada — still inside the same 90 days.
Be precise about what it does:
- It does not extend the 90 days.
- It does not let you work or study while you wait.
- It is not automatic; restoration remains discretionary.
- You must remain in Canada until a decision is made.
Visitor status solves nothing on its own. But it is legal status while you work out what does, and until this year that generally required a flight.
What not to do
Do not leave with something pending. Leaving voids a pending restoration application entirely, and you cannot return to resume it. "Go home and sort it out" is exactly wrong in this case — see when leaving Canada is the better move, which also covers the cases where going is right, and why doing it on your own terms rather than on an order is a difference that lasts.
Do not keep attending classes to avoid awkward conversations with your institution. Institutions report on enrolment to IRCC twice a year.
Do not reapply the same week on the theory that speed helps. It does not.
Do not wait for certainty before getting advice. The clocks run during research.
The order, if you take one thing away
- Establish your status today, and the exact date it ends or ended.
- Stop working and studying if you are out of status.
- Request the officer's notes, whatever else you decide.
- Get licensed advice this week — inside 15 days if judicial review is even a possibility.
- Then choose between reapplying, judicial review, restoring as a visitor, or leaving on your own terms.
Steps one to three cost nothing and can be done today. Step four is the one people postpone, and it is the one with a deadline attached.
Where we stop, and we mean it
We are a study-abroad platform. We can tell you which programmes exist, what they cost, and which are open to somebody with the status you actually hold.
We cannot tell you whether to seek judicial review, whether restoration will be granted, or what your file should do. Those are questions for a licensed immigration professional — a lawyer or an RCIC — and the honest answer to almost everything above is that you need one, quickly, and that the fortnight after a refusal is the wrong time to be economising on that.
What we will not do is sell you a course as an answer to a status problem. If your status is the problem, a programme is not the fix, and anybody offering one as a fix is selling rather than advising.
If you are already in Canada, start from where you are.
This article explains the rules in general terms and reflects instructions published at the time of writing, 16 August 2026. It is not legal advice about your own file, and the deadlines above are short — take advice from a licensed professional now rather than after more reading.