Apply For Student Visa In Canada

There are many challenges a student visa holder faces in your college life especially if you want to work on part time job. If you are studying any program of Canada, then you must need to apply for student visa in Canada. At first, it seems very simple because a student visa is has the same format as other visas but the problem lies beneath the procedure of applying student visa.

If you are a student who is going to study in Canada, you may want to know the steps needed for you to acquire a student visa. The advantage of acquiring a student visa as compared to a visitor’s visa is that it will let you stay in the country for more than six months.

What is a Canada Student Visa?

A Canada Student Visa allows the person who has it to start their studies in Canada. The visa for students is basically the same as a Canada Visitor Visa or an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTa), but the student also needs a study permit. So the Canada student visa is a combination of either a visitor visa and a study permit or an eTA and a study permit.

The Canada study visa will only allow you to start your studies in Canada at what are called Designated Learning Institutions (DLI). The study permit allows you to stay in Canada until your program ends and in some cases work while you are enrolled in school or work after you graduate. To keep the Canada study visa, you must fulfill these conditions:

• Always be enrolled in a DLI.
• Be working to complete your study program.
• Meet the requirements of the student visa.
• Stop studying if you do not meet the requirements of the student visa.
• Leave Canada immediately once your study permit expires.

The study permit will not allow you to get Canadian issued documents or Canadian government benefits such as health benefits. It will however create an easier path for you to be able to apply for a Canadian citizenship if that is your goal.

What is a Designated Learning Institution?

As mentioned, you can only get a Canada student visa if you are enrolled in a Designated Learning Institution (DLI). DLIs are schools or universities which are approved by the provincial or territorial government to allow them to host international students.

All primary and secondary schools that are in Canada are by default DLIs; however, there are many universities or other educational institutions which are not certified DLIs. You must not apply in those, since you will not be allowed to attend them even if they accept you.

To check whether a university or educational institution is a DLI, follow this link. It will take you to the Government of Canada website which is the official institution for all Canadian visas. In the page, you must select the province or territory and it will generate a list of all institutions which are DLIs. You can check there whether the place you want to apply to is a DLI or not.