General Visa Requirement for Canada

• In 2012 Canada welcomed a record number of 100, 000 international students and is therefore one of the most popular destinations.
• The visa process can easily be done on your laptop and you can contact Canadian immigration employees at any time.
• The student visa processing time depends on your country. It ranges from 2 to 23 weeks.
• The approval rate of student visa application is 84%.

As the numbers illustrate the Canadians are willing to approve student visa. In order not to miss any important point during your application process you can use this website as a guideline. However in order to avoid any problems you should also check the website of the Canadian immigration office.

1) Is Canada the right choice?

 a)      The right university

First of all you should know at which university you want to study. If you really consider studying in Canada you can take a closer look at the universities and courses here. If you want to know whether Canadian universities are ranked amongst the World’s best, take look at this.

 

 b)      Canadian student life

Of course you need to know if Canadian student life suits you, a nice article about Canadian student life is written here. Furthermore we recommend you to find out which international students actually study in Canada. You can find a brief overview about this here.

 

 c)       Prospects

What happens afterwards? How are Canada’s economic prospects and job prospects and what’s the salary of a fresh-graduate? Don’t hesitate to take a look here.

 

 d)      Cost of living

Last but not least: the costs. Make sure you’re able to cover your daily expenses as well as your fees. Regarding the expenses we recommend you to read this article.

 

2) Relevant and important documents

 a)      Proof of acceptance

After you’ve chosen a university you want to study at you need to get a letter of acceptance. You must include the original letter with your study permit application, which you are going to send later to the Canadian Immigration office.

 

 b)      Proof of identity

I.      A valid passport or travel document for you and each accompanying family member. The document must allow you to return back to your home country. Excluded are citizens or permanent residents from the US, St. Pierre and Miquelon as well as Greenland. However, you need at least an identity card.

 

II.     Two recent passport-size photos of you and each accompanying family member. The name and date of birth of the person should be written on the back of each photo. It is very important to follow the photo-specifications, which you can find online at the Canadian Immigration website.

 

c)       Proof of financial support

The immigration system requires you to prove that you’re able to support yourself and your accompanying family member(s) whilst your stay in Canada. The costs you need to follow are Cdn$833 per month for a 12-month period in all provinces (except Quebec: Cdn$917). To prove that, you can:

I.            Show that you opened a Canadian bank account in your name if money has been transferred to Canada

II.           Proof of a student/education loan from a financial institution

III.          Show valid copies of your bank statements for the past four months

IV.           A bank draft in convertible currency

V.            Proof of payment of tuition and accommodation fees

VI.           A letter from the person or institution providing you with money

VII.          Proof of funding paid from within Canada if you have a scholarship or are in a Canadian-funded educational program.

Make sure you don’t forget your accompanying family members. For one additional family member you need to provide Cdn$333 per month over a 12 month period (Quebec: Cdn$425). Every additional family member is Cdn$255 per month (Quebec: Cdn$159-427, depending on the age).

 

d)      Letter of explanation why you want to study in Canada

 

3) Apply for study permit

• Check for the visa document, which can be found online. You have to fill out the form either on your PC or via handwriting. We recommend you to do it on your PC, so the immigration employees don’t have reading problems.
• All questions have to be answered. In the unlikely case that you cannot answer a question, simply write N/A. However, always try to answer with facts.
• The Canadian immigration office provides can help you with your application at VACs (visa application center), which you find online.
• In case your application (the PDF file) has a ‘validate button’ – you can click on it and see if you filled out all the necessary steps.
• We recommend you to apply via the online application because the processing time is much shorter.
• After you submitted your application, the immigration office might request further documents. You can gather them in advance in order to accelerate the whole process. Those documents might be: medical information or a police certificate.

 

4) Check processing times

Unfortunately the processing times change quite often. Hence, we recommend you to check the website of the Immigration Office how long your application is going to take.

 

5) Next steps

• In case you change your address, make sure you notify the office
• If your application is approved, make you sure you bring this letter to the day of entry and show it to the immigration officials
• If you got a TRV (temporary resident visa) make sure you enter Canada before your expiry date.
• In case your application has not been approved, please contact the office which issued the refusal letter.

 

6) Finally, make sure you plan your journey and stay right away.