Immigration Frequently Asked Questions

An unconditional Letter of Acceptance/Offer of Admission is not one of the mandatory requirements for Student Direct Stream (SDS) and therefore students can submit their study permit application under SDS using their conditional offer. Detailed information about SDS requirements can be found here.

The LOA verification process does not apply to study permit applications submitted and processed at the POE. If the CBSA officer at the POE has any concerns regarding your Offer of Admission/Letter of Acceptance, they may contact the University of Alberta directly to verify your acceptance.

Even if you are eligible to apply for a study permit at the Port of Entry, we advise students to apply for study permits online and enter Canada after their online application gets approved to avoid any issues or delays with receiving a study permit at the Port of Entry. You must provide all required documents to the CBSA officer to receive a study permit.

If you would like to submit a new application to IRCC, you must address the concerns raised by the IRCC Processing Officer. When submitting your new application, you must include an explanation letter addressing the refusal reasons mentioned on the IRCC refusal letter.

Please carefully review the information on our Study Permit web page and prepare your application accordingly.

If you would like to seek assistance from an International Student Specialist with your application, Submit an inquiry via the ISVS Contact Form

When submitting the inquiry, you must include the following:

• Your University of Alberta email address
• Indicate what your inquiry is about in the “Subject” section; in this case, “Study Permit Refusal”)
• Enter a detailed description of your issue in the “Message” section including the country of residence and your program of study
• Upload ALL the documents you submitted to IRCC as part of your study permit application including the refusal letter and the offer of admission. We recommend you do not send your documents as a zip file; rather attach the documents you used separately to your form.

Once you submit the above information, an International Student Specialist will review and respond.

Please note: Specialists will need about 15 business days to complete the review and prepare relevant feedback. As a result, if there is a possibility you may not receive a decision on your second application before your program start date, you are advised to defer your start date to a later time if that is an option.

Graduate students: Advised to discuss this with the supervisor/department to understand the deferral process.

Undergraduate students: Advised to contact the Student Service Centre to understand the options available.

If you are physically outside Canada, and your program allows you to register online during your first term of study, you do not require a valid study permit or study permit approval to start your program remotely.

Notes:

• If you are physically inside Canada as a Visitor, you are not authorized to start studying until you possess a valid Study Permit, even if the courses you are enrolled in are offered online.
• If you are physically inside Canada as a worker and your work permit meets the eligibility requirements listed under the temporary public policy announced in June 2023, you may be eligible to study without a study permit. You are advised to connect with an advisor to determine whether a study permit will be needed.

If you have the option to start your program online before a decision has been made on your study permit application, please note:

• Starting your program before receiving final approval will not guarantee that your study permit application will get full approval.
• For detailed information on the temporary measure that allows students to count time spent studying online from outside Canada towards the length of their Post Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), please visit the IRCC website here 
• Should your study permit application get refused, you will have the option to re-apply for the study permit after addressing the grounds for refusal. There are no guarantees that you will be approved the second time.
• For students who started their program online, a study permit is required to complete the in-person components of their program. If you are not able to obtain a study permit, you will need to withdraw from your program.
• Students enrolled in courses will follow University of Alberta tuition payment policies and deadlines, regardless of the outcome of the study permit application. 

Students who do not have a final decision on their study permit application in time for their program start date should seek alternate options. Please be aware of registration and tuition payment deadlines as you consider your options.

Graduate Students: contact your department/program coordinator to understand the process and deadline to request a deferral of the start of your program.

Undergraduate Students: Contact your faculty advisor for available options regarding deferring your start date.

If deferral is not an option, you will need to submit a new admission application to your program of choice for the next available intake. Deadlines to submit admission applications can be found here.

We also advise students whose study permit application has exceeded the posted processing time, to submit an IRCC web form to inquire about the status of their application.

If you have any questions about a refund for tuition fee payments, please contact the Student Service Centre. 

Contact the University of Alberta Residence Services at housing@ualberta.ca if you need to cancel your housing offer or update your application for your new planned arrival.

The University of Alberta is unable to contact IRCC on behalf of individual students to expedite the processing of their application; however, we continue to actively advocate on behalf of all students who are affected by these delays to IRCC.

Graduate Students: if you deferred to a later start date and your study permit application is still under process, you are advised to upload a copy of your updated admission letter to IRCC via an IRCC web form to update your Study Permit application. If your deferral is processed after your study permit application has been approved, you do not need to inform IRCC; however, you will be expected to have your updated offer of admission at the time of entry to Canada.

Undergraduate students who receive admission to start in the Fall semester and defer their start until the Winter term: if you receive a request from IRCC to provide an updated Offer of Admission (Letter of Acceptance), ensure you are registered in your upcoming Winter term classes and request a Verification of Enrollment through BearTracks. You can then provide this with a brief explanation that the University doesn’t issue new acceptance letters since your offer of admission gives you the option to start in either Fall or Winter terms.

A two-year cap was put in place on the number of new study permits that will be issued by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). To implement the cap, most study permit applications submitted to IRCC will require a Provincial Attestation Letter(PAL) from a province or territory. Since the PAL was implemented in January 2024, additional changes to the PAL requirement were announced in September 2024. This cap does not apply to students applying to extend their study permits for the same program and are currently studying in a university-level program in Canada.

As part of the Study Permit application, applicants are required to submit a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) to IRCC. Designated learning institutions (DLIs) in Canada (i.e. Post-secondary institutions) are required to verify the LOA of all post-secondary study permit applications. This process is called the LOA verification process.

Students are not required to complete any additional steps to initiate the LOA verification process. Once you have successfully submitted your Study Permit application to IRCC using the Letter of Acceptance/Offer of Admission issued by the University of Alberta, the Registrar’s Office at the University of Alberta will receive a notification to verify the letter of acceptance you submitted to IRCC as part of your application. The LOA Verification process and the PAL process are different. Read more about the PAL process here.

• The Provincial government is responsible for administering the PAL process. If you are not exempt from the PAL requirement, this process must be completed before you submit your Study Permit application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and you must submit your PAL to IRCC along with your Letter of Acceptance when applying for Study Permit. For University of Alberta students, the PAL process is administered by the Province of Alberta; details are here.
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is responsible for administering the LOA Verification process. Students are not required to take additional steps to initiate this process.

Ideally, you want to plan to enter at least 2-3 weeks before the start of classes to allow you to get settled. When to enter Canada will depend on flight and accommodation availability.

There is no set time frame for you to arrive in Canada before you begin your studies. However, you should just arrive to give yourself a reasonable amount of time to prepare before you start your program. 

You are not allowed to work on or off campus until you begin your studies in Canada. Students will still need to provide evidence to demonstrate that they have the means to support themselves as a temporary resident in Canada.

To better prepare for your entry to Canada, we recommend you read our Travel to Canada information and IRCC’s “Study permit: Prepare for arrival.”

As long as you have been issued the Letter of Introduction that confirms your study permit has been approved, you can present this document to the Canada Border Services Officer at the first airport you land, anywhere in Canada, and your study permit will be issued to you at that location.

If you are a temporary resident in Canada and wish to extend your legal stay beyond the expiry date of your current status, you are advised to apply for the extension online prior to the expiry date of your status (i.e., before the expiry date listed on your current study permit).

You can apply to restore your status. We ask that you connect with an International Student Specialist as soon as possible to discuss your options

When you complete the application form, make sure you do all of the following:

• Select Restore my status under section 3 at the top of page one of the applicable form.
• Include a note explaining the reason you need to extend your stay and the reason your status expired.
• You must also pay the restoration fee in addition to the study permit processing fee.

If your temporary resident status is restored, you'll receive the appropriate permit by mail, which will outline the conditions of your stay in Canada. Your temporary resident status in Canada will be extended until a specified date.

Note: students in Canada with expired student status must stop studying until their student status is restored.

The Co-op work permit requirement is still in place, and international students must obtain a Co-op work permit prior to engaging in any work-integrated learning (WIL) component during their study program. Some students may be eligible to use their Study Permit work authorization to engage in a WIL component that is a mandatory component of their study program.

To determine if you meet the requirements to use your Study Permit work authorization for co-op/internship/placement work that is part of your study program, please contact an International Student Specialist.

The following test types are accepted by IRCC:

English

• CELPIP-General test
• IELTS General Training
• PTE Core option

French

• TEF Canada
• TCF Canada

Detailed information can be found on the IRCC website. At the time of your application submission, the language test result must be less than 2 years old, to be accepted by IRCC.

Undergraduate Students

If you are eligible to work during your final semester, you can continue to work 20 hours/week off campus until your Program Completion Letter gets issued. Once your program letter is issued, you must stop working.

Your completion letter will not be automatically issued. You should request your completion letter once all your final grades get posted to your Beartracks account.

Graduate Students

If you are eligible to work during your final semester, you can continue to work 20 hours/week off campus until you receive an email from the Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS) that confirms the completion of your graduate program.

Your completion letter will not be automatically issued. You will need to request it through the Student Service Catalogue.

Once you submit your PGWP application to IRCC, you can immediately start working full-time while the application is under process - as long as you meet the following requirements:

1. Your study permit is valid at the time you submit your PGWP application.
2. You apply within 90 days of the issued date of the completion letter.
3. Your study permit authorizes you to work off-campus (your study permit must have a condition listed on it that authorizes you to work off-campus).
4. You did not work more than the allowable hours of work (20 hours per week off campus during regular academic terms) except for the time during which the temporary policy was in effect.

If you submit your PGWP application on the same day your Program Completion Letter becomes available, you may continue to work without any gaps in your employment.

If you are unable to submit your PGWP application on the same day your Completion Letter becomes available, you must not engage in any employment activity until you submit your PGWP application and if you meet all the eligibility requirements listed above, you may start full-time work after you submit your PGWP application to IRCC.

Foreign nationals are ineligible for the PGWP program if they participated in the International Scholarships for non-Canadians program funded by Global Affairs Canada, other than Study in Canada Scholarship recipients in the following programs: 

• the Canada-China Scholars' Exchange Program
• the Organization of American States Academic Scholarship Program

You may be eligible to study without a study permit while you work under a recent IRCC public policy. 

To be eligible, you must be authorized to work in Canada with either of the following:

• a valid work permit that was issued on or before June 7, 2023, or
• a letter authorizing you to work while we process your work permit extension application issued on or before June 7, 2023.

If you applied for a work permit after June 7, 2023, you’re not eligible for these measures.

If you are eligible under this public policy, you can study without a study permit until the earliest of the 2 following dates:

• the expiry date on your work permit
• June 27, 2026 (the date this public policy expires)

If the program of study will end after the date which applies to you (your WP expiration date or June 27, 2026); you are advised to apply for the study permit well in advance of the applicable date. In the meantime, you would be eligible to start your program without the study permit.