Study permit and PGWP in Canada

Most applicants do. The letter, called a PAL or a TAL depending on the province or territory, is how the cap on study permits is administered: each province gets an allocation and issues letters against it. Without one, or without proof of an exemption, the application is not accepted for processing.

The exemptions are specific. Preschool, primary school including kindergarten, and secondary school up to grade 12. A federally designated military college. Certain vocational programmes in Quebec. Schools in the Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot, where the letter of acceptance identifies the applicant as an applicant under it. And, starting 1 January 2026, a degree-granting programme at the master's or doctoral level at a public designated learning institution.

There are further exemptions for people already in Canada: an extension at the same school and the same level of study, a removal order that cannot be enforced, a temporary resident permit valid for at least six months, protected person status, and a pending permanent residence application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, under a public policy, or as a spouse or partner in the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class. An exemption has to be proved with the application rather than asserted.

Two rules about the letter itself catch people out. It expires on 31 December of its cap year, and a letter from an earlier cap year is dead. And a decision consumes it: once a study permit application has been approved or refused, that letter cannot be used again. It can be reused only where the application was withdrawn before a decision, or was never accepted for processing and the fee came back.

Section 220 says an officer shall not issue a study permit unless the applicant has enough money to do three separate things: pay the tuition for the programme, maintain themselves and any accompanying family members for the proposed period of study, and pay to transport everybody to and from Canada. Three limbs, not one number.

The published figure covers the second limb only. For an application made on or after 1 September 2026, outside Quebec, living costs for the first year are $23,448 for one person, $29,192 for two, $35,888 for three, $43,572 for four, $49,419 for five, $55,736 for six and $62,054 for seven, with $6,318 for each additional family member. Tuition and travel sit on top of that. An applicant who shows exactly the living cost figure and nothing more has answered one limb of three.

What counts as proof matters as much as the amount. A guaranteed investment certificate from a Canadian financial institution, a Canadian account in the applicant's own name with money transferred into it, or six months of bank statements with the source of the money documented in them. Six months of statements showing a large deposit the week before filing, with no explanation of where it came from, is weaker than a smaller balance with a history behind it.

Two things, and they are conditions rather than expectations. Section 220.1 requires the holder to enrol at the designated learning institution named in the permit and remain enrolled there until the studies are complete, and to actively pursue the course or programme of study. An officer may ask for evidence of compliance where there is reason to believe there is none, and also as part of random compliance checks. Designated institutions report on enrolment.

Because the permit names the school, moving school is not an administrative matter. Since 8 November 2024 a change of school requires a new study permit, applied for as an extension of the current one, and enrolling somewhere the permit does not name breaches the section 220.1 condition above. Studies at the new school wait for the new permit, with one exception: where the institution you were at closed, discontinued your programme, was suspended or lost its designated status, and you have not left Canada since the new acceptance letter, the department allows study at the new school while the extension is pending.

Off campus work is capped at 24 hours a week during a study session, and is unlimited during scheduled breaks. A permit that still carries the older 20 hour condition does not hold its holder to 20. Going over the limit breaches a condition of the permit, which can cost the holder their student status and, with it, the post-graduation work permit that depended on it.

A placement that forms part of the programme sits outside that cap and has its own rules. Since 1 April 2026 a post-secondary student no longer needs a separate co-op work permit for one, and there is no weekly hour limit on placement work, though the placement cannot exceed half the programme. What is required instead is a letter from the designated learning institution confirming the placement is a requirement of the programme, and a study permit carrying work conditions. A secondary school student still needs a co-op work permit, and anybody already holding one can keep using it for its full validity.

The general requirements come first, whatever the credential. The programme has to have been at a designated learning institution eligible for the PGWP and at least eight months long, or 900 hours in Quebec. The graduate has to have held full-time status in every semester, with part-time allowed in the final one. The application has to be made within 180 days of confirmation that the programme is complete, and the study permit has to have been valid at some point in those 180 days.

Then the credential decides the language level and whether the field of study matters, which is set out in the table above. The part that trips people is that the two requirements run off different dates. Whether a language test is needed depends on when the PGWP application is made. Whether the field of study has to be an eligible one depends on when the study permit application was made, which for somebody graduating now was two or three years ago.

Some programmes lead nowhere regardless. English or French as a second language. General interest and self-improvement courses. Non-credit programmes, with flight schools the exception. Anything where more than half the programme was completed by distance learning. A programme at a non-Canadian institution operating in Canada. And programmes delivered by a private college on behalf of a public one under a curriculum licensing agreement, which are not eligible if they began after 15 May 2024 within the same province, or after 1 February 2023 across provinces.

How long the permit runs is set by the level and the length of the programme, and it is capped by the passport. A master's degree programme of at least eight months has been worth a three year permit since 15 February 2024 even where the programme itself was shorter than two years, which does not extend to a certificate or a diploma. Every other programme gets roughly its own length below two years, and three years at two years and above. Two programmes can be added together where each is eligible and each ran at least eight months, and the higher of the two language requirements then applies to the combination.

Two limits are worth knowing before enrolling rather than after. The permit is issued only for as long as the passport is valid, so a passport expiring in a year turns a three year entitlement into a one year permit, and recovering the rest means a paper application once a new passport is in hand. And there is one post-graduation work permit per person: somebody who has already held one after an earlier programme cannot get a second.

One practical trap sits at the end of the programme. If the study permit will expire before the final marks arrive, the graduate can apply for a visitor record to stay lawfully, or leave and apply from outside. Letting the permit lapse while waiting means restoring student status first, at a further fee, before the PGWP application can be made at all.

A study permit refusal comes with a letter that names the grounds and very little else. The officer's own notes on the file say more, and they are what a second application has to be built against. Reapplying without them repeats whatever the first application got wrong, and a run of refusals on the same file becomes a fact the next officer weighs.

There is no appeal from a study permit refusal to a tribunal. The only challenge is judicial review in the Federal Court, on a 60 day clock from the day the decision was communicated where the applicant is outside Canada, and it reviews how the decision was made rather than retaking it.

Where the status has expired inside Canada, restoration is available for 90 days from the loss of status and costs $396.25 for a student. Working or studying after the status has gone is a separate breach, and it does not stop with the permit: it reaches the next application and the post-graduation work permit behind it.