Read this before you submit your Canadian Study Permit Application
Studying in Canada is a great option to further your education and bolster your career prospects back home, or to gain Canadian work experience and apply for PR in Canada.
But, there are several mistakes when applying for a Canadian study permit which can not only derail your entire plan, but can also cost you thousands of dollars and years of your life.
Study Permit Mistake #1: Applying for a study permit to attend a school which is not a Designated Learning Institution (DLI)
In order for IRCC to issue a study permit for an international student to attend school in Canada, that school must be on the list of Designated Learning Institutions, which means it has been approved by the government to host international students.
All primary and secondary (elementary and high) schools are on the list of Designated Learning Institutions.
All public colleges and universities, as well as some private ones, are also on the list of DLIs.
If a school is not on the list of DLIs, then it has not been approved to host international students and the government will be unable to issue a study permit for you to attend this school.
It’s easy to tell if your school is on the list – just use the government of Canada’s tool to type in the name of the school you want to attend and see if it’s there!
Study Permit Mistake #2: Attending a school which does not allow for a Post Graduate Work Permit
You already know that the school you have been accepted to must be on the list of Designated Learning Institutions in order for you to be issued a study permit to attend.
However, if you want to take advantage of the Post Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) in order to gain valuable work experience in Canada after you graduate and possibly use it to apply for PR, then your school and program of study must also be eligible for the PGWP.
Imagine putting in the effort and paying the international student fees for years to obtain a degree that does not allow you to get a post graduate work permit!
This used to be more of a danger because the list was not as easily accessible before. However, now you can see whether a school makes a student eligible for a PGWP on the same DLI list mentioned above.
Study Permit Mistake #3: Using a fake or fraudulent “agent” or “consultant” to apply for your study permit
It should be easy to tell whether a professional-seeming person is a fake immigration consultant. However, they put so much effort into looking legitimate that sometimes it can be hard to tell.
A few easy ways to tell if an immigration representative is legitimate include:
- Ask them for their license number. A real Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or lawyer will have an ICCRC number or a Law Society number. These numbers can be checked immediately on the ICCRC or Law Society websites.
If someone does not want to give you their registration number, this should be a huge red flag! Real representatives worked very hard for their license, so they are more than happy to share their registration number with you. You can even search for consultants by name if you forgot to ask them for their registration number:
https://iccrc-crcic.ca/find-a-professional/
- Check Google reviews for their business. Reviews speak volumes about the way a consultant or lawyer does business. If a business has large numbers of poor reviews, or especially if they do not have any at all, you may want to reconsider hiring them.
- Ask to see the contract (retainer agreement) before you pay anything. If the representative is legitimate, they will have no problem sending you the contract which you will be signing. A Canadian immigration contract MUST contain several mandatory elements, such as the full name and contact information of who will be representing you, complete disclosure of all fees you are expected to pay and when they are due, and exactly what is included in the service being provided.
If they are reluctant to do so, they clearly have something to hide.
- Contingency billing: real immigration consultants are forbidden from accepting payment on a contingency basis. This means that all clients pay for the work completed – not the final outcome of the application.
If a consultant is willing to break the Code of Professional Ethics and risk losing their license to practice, what else are they doing wrong on your file? If someone is willing to do this, they most likely have no license at all, which means that they did not go to school or train for how to assist you with your case.
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Make sure that you hire the right person to assist you, and most importantly, never send money to anyone claiming to be a consultant or lawyer until you have confirmed that they are actually licensed.
If you have questions about a Canadian study permit, contact us.
