Your dream of studying in Canada remains as a dream if you are unable to obtain a visa. Student visa for Canada is often understood as Study Permit. However, there is a difference. Visa allows you to enter Canada whereas Study Permit is the document that allows you to study in Canada as well as define your rights while in Canada.
You will get a visa before you travel to Canada whereas you get your Study Permit once you reach Canada and provide the documents asked by an immigration officer. Canada student visa has several requirements, steps and the applicants are expected to follow specific standard process.
The following will give you the general picture of Canadian Student Visa pplication process.
- Apply for a Bank Loan/Review Financials
- Pay Tuition Fee
- Get an Offer Letter
- Apply to School
- Apply for Visa Online/ Pay Visa Fee
- Submit Biometrics
- Collect all the Required documents
- Receive Letter of Acceptance
- Submit Passport for Visa Stamping if Study Permit is approved
- Go for Medical Examination, if requested
- Re-apply for a Visa or Request for Tuition Fee Refund if Study Permit is refused. rejected
How to apply for Canada Student Visa
Your visa application process only starts once you are accepted by the Canadian school, paid the tuition fees and received an unconditional Letter of Acceptance (LoA). You will have two options to apply for a Canadian Student visa; either paper based or online.
IRCC recommends to apply online and so do we as online processing has less hassle, time saving as well as has short processing time. You can apply online through GC Key Account. Create online account and upload your documents that you have got ready.
Make sure you have the scanned documents of right quality and right size. Your application is considered complete only if you have uploaded complete documents and paid the visa application fees and biometrics fees.
The visa application fee is CAD$ 150 and the biometrics fee is CAD$ 85 per head. You can get your biometrics done from the nearest VFS as Nepal has only one in Chhaya Complex, Thamel, Kathmandu. You may be requested for a medical examination once your application is reviewed.
Upon successful medical examination, you will have to wait until any further request is made. We recommend students to check their GCKey account at least once a day. Once your application for visa is accepted, you will be requested for the original passport submission for visa stamping.
Submit your passport at VFS. You will get a passport with visa stamped and a Letter of Introduction. You can reapply if your visa is denied and if you think you can correct the reasons mentioned for the denial.
Canada Student Visa Requirements/Rules
IRCC has clearly stated requirements for a visa and meeting these requirements increases your visa chances. As per the officials from High Commission, following the requirements from SDS (Student Direct Stream) system is encouraged.
Though Nepal doesn’t fall under the SDS categorized country, they want to see the documents which meet the SDS standards. Following the guidelines of High Commission, we recommend students to have IELTS score of 6.5 no band less than 6 for a visa purpose regardless of what the university/college requirement is.
Similarly, paying a year of tuition fee, getting an education loan and meeting the financial requirements is highly recommended. We do not encourage students to apply to Canada if they fail to meet any of these requirements. Any criminal history or immigration history should be clearly stated while applying the visa.
Documents Required for Canada Student Visa
You need few documents while you apply for a student visa to Canada. These documents are required to verify that the information you are trying to provide is true. Please make sure that all the documents should be notarized. All the documents in Nepali should be translated into English.
Here is a general checklist of the documents required for the visa application.
- Valid Passport
- Letter of Acceptance
- Recent Photographs (shouldn’t be older than 6 months)
- All Academic Transcripts
- IELTS Scores
- Police Clearance Certificate
- No Objection Certificate
- Relationship Verification Certificate
- Citizenship Certificate including sponsors’
- Affidavit of Support
- Marriage Registration Certificate (if married)
- Tax Clearance Certificate
- Letter of Explanation
- Financial Documents
- Education Loan Facility Letter
- Disbursement Letter from Bank
- Fee Payment Receipt
- Swift Receipt
- Property Valuation
- Property Ownership Documents
- Annual Income Verification Documents
- Sources of Income Verification Documents
- CA Report
- Bank Balance Certificate and Statement of at least 4 months, if not using an educational loan
Canada Student Visa Application Form
Beside the documents, there are few forms to be submitted requested by the IRCC. These forms can be downloaded from GC Key Account itself and can be filled electronically. You should make sure that all the information provided is true and matches with the supporting documents.
IMM 1294, IMM 5257, IMM 5645, IMM 5475, and IMM 5476 are the forms generally required to be submitted while applying for a student visa. IMM 5476 is required only if you are using an agent for your processing.
Canada Student Visa Processing Time
The estimated visa processing time for Nepal was 8-9 weeks in general before the pandemic but time frame doesn’t seem to be certain at present. However, we recommend students to apply at least 2 months before the class start date.
Letter of Explanation/ SoP for Canada Student Visa
Students sometimes take Letter of Explanation (LOE) as just a general requirement for visa application but fail to understand that the LoE is one of the documents that plays vital role in visa decision. Unlike USA, you will not have face-to-face visa interview for Canada.
Therefore, you will have to express yourself through the LoE. An effective and well drafted LoE is important to convince a visa officer to grant you a visa.
An ideal LoE should talk about yourself, your intention to study your chosen program at the chosen institution, your career goals and future plans, your plans to meet the expenses while studying in Canada and your intention to return back to home country after your studies.
You may also explain other things which you feel should be explained to the visa officer. Many students copy paste the content of the LoE from different sources and lack originality and end up getting their visas denied. We recommend students to get guidance from experts instead of copying the content or drafting the LoE poorly.
Canada Student Visa Approval Rate
This is general curiosity of students about the visa approval rates from Nepal. Well, expressing it in exact number may not be accurate as the information with exact number cannot be found officially published.
If we believe in the unofficial statement of officers from High Commission, the Canada student visa approval rate from Nepal is around 20 to 25 percent. However, officers from High Commission also believe that around 90 percent of the rejection are fixable and are the result of not meeting the requirements, poor LOE, and improper documentation.
We as well as high Commission believe that meeting the requirements, proper documents and proper execution of visa processing always gives you higher probability of getting your visa approved.
We at Edwise can guide you properly in all the steps of your dream to study in Canada. Our experienced and expert foreign graduate counselors can give proper information and advise you to shape your future to the right direction. We believe in doing the right things in a right way.
You may also want to read: Study in Canada Guide
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