Visa process
Running a Canada study permit case
Canada added a step most counsellors' old checklists do not have. Without a provincial attestation letter the application is returned unprocessed, and the LOA alone is no longer enough.
Checked against the official source on 2026-09-01
The document everything waits on
PAL - provincial attestation letter
- Issued by
- The province, usually through the institution
- How long it takes
- 10 to 21 working days after the LOA
Provinces hold a limited number of attestations. They run out. A case built around a late intake can fail on availability alone, with nothing wrong in the file.
Two letters, not one
The letter of acceptance comes from the institution and says the student has a place. The provincial attestation letter comes from the province and says that place counts against its allocation. Both go in the application; one without the other is returned.
Most institutions request the PAL on the student's behalf after the deposit, but not all, and the ones that do not rarely say so clearly. Confirming which it is - on the first case with a new institution - saves the second case three weeks.
The GIC and what it proves
A guaranteed investment certificate is the usual way to show living costs. The bank holds the amount and releases it to the student in instalments after arrival, which is why officers treat it as stronger evidence than a statement.
It is not compulsory, but a case without one has to prove living costs another way and generally has a harder time. The amount required is set nationally and has risen more than once - checking it per intake rather than per year is the safer habit.
Timing, and the honest conversation
Decisions commonly take eight weeks and can take considerably longer. Families expecting a Canadian decision to match a UK one are going to be disappointed by six weeks, and hearing that in the first meeting is better than hearing it in August.
The upfront medical is optional but worth doing for cases that will need it anyway, because being asked for one mid-processing adds weeks.
What trips these cases up
Drawn from refusal reasons rather than from official guidance. Shortest first.
- An application submitted with the LOA but no PAL, which is returned rather than refused.
- A provincial allocation exhausted before the attestation is requested.
- GIC purchased at an amount set in a previous year.
- A study plan that does not explain why this programme in Canada rather than at home.
- Biometrics booked late, adding two weeks to a queue that is already long.
- Telling a family to expect a decision in a month.
The milestones, in order
The track Visatory ships for this country. Each agency can edit its own copy; this is the starting point.
- 01Letter of acceptance receivedinstitution · 14 working days
- 02Provincial attestation letter receivedinstitution · 21 working days
- 03First-year tuition deposit paidstudent · 7 working days
- 04GIC purchasedoptionalstudent · 10 working days
- 05Upfront medical exam completedoptionalstudent · 14 working days
- 06Study permit application submittedagency · 5 working days
- 07Biometrics givenstudent · 14 working days
- 08Decision receivedgovernment · 60 working days
- 09Port of entry letter receivedgovernment
Questions counsellors ask
- Is the PAL needed for every applicant?
- For most study permit applicants, with exemptions for some categories. Treat it as required and check the exemption rather than the reverse - the cost of assuming wrongly is a returned application.
- Is a GIC compulsory?
- No, but it is the path of least resistance. A case proving living costs another way is not weaker in principle and is usually slower in practice.
- How long until a decision?
- Around eight weeks is normal and longer is common. Plan the intake backwards from that number, not from the best case.
Running these cases in a spreadsheet?
Visatory tracks every milestone above per student, warns when one goes stale, and keeps the documents and the dates in the same place as the commission. Built for agencies rather than adapted from a sales tool.