Operational Bulletin 546 – August 28, 2013
Extensions to Letters of Acceptance for Study Permit Applications
Issue
Officers would not issue study permits unless the applicant provides written documentation from the educational institution concerned. The documentation must state that the educational institution has accepted the applicant’s application for studying there. Subsection 219 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) clearly outline this requirement.
At present, certain missions abroad have experienced various current labour actions. In light of these actions, officers might come across study permit applications that could have experienced a considerable amount of delay. These applications might have letters of acceptance with lapsed arrival dates. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has been working with the education sector to remedy this situation. It has been determining whether institutions are willing to accept or consider late arrivals for international students.
Therefore, officers would need to note that many institutions have agreed to extend the arrival date for the fall 2013 academic year. These institutions include:
- Universities
- Public colleges
- Private career colleges
- Language schools and,
- Primary or secondary school boards (from Kindergarten to 12th Grade)
Therefore, officers would need to consult the table and attachments given in this document. This would enable them to determine whether a particular educational institution has extended a letter of acceptance or not. If an educational institution has extended a letter of acceptance under this initiative, then officers would need to ensure that they do not refuse applications based on an invalid letter of acceptance.
The Operational Management and Coordination Branch NHQ will be responsible for updating this list regularly.
Officers might have questions concerning the information published in this Operational Bulletin (OB). They would need to direct their questions to: 2013-Students-Etudiants@cic.gc.ca.
Documents and Tools
- Extension of letters of acceptance – EN (Version 1)
- Dalhousie University – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
- Institut national de recherché scientifique (INRS) – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
- Queen’s University – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
- Ryerson University – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
- Universite Laval – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
- University of Toronto – Last Possible Start Date September 2013
Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)
