Study Permit Requirements and Proof of Funds

The Student Direct Stream closed on 8 November 2024. Every study permit application is now assessed the same way, on its merits, and the requirements have moved significantly since 2023. The money figure has more than doubled. Attestation letters did not exist three years ago. The rules on changing schools were rewritten entirely. This page sets out what actually applies today.

Nothing replaced it. IRCC closed SDS and Nigeria Student Express at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on 8 November 2024, and applicants from the fourteen countries that used it now file a regular study permit application.

In practice this is less dramatic than it first sounded. SDS was a processing route, not an easier test. What it did was reward applicants who arrived with their financial evidence already in order. That principle has not changed. A well documented application still moves faster and refuses less often, it simply no longer carries a separate label.

For applications made on or after 1 September 2025, an applicant outside Quebec must show the following for living costs over twelve months, in addition to first year tuition and travel.

Showing the money is only half of it. Officers look at where it came from, how long it has been there, and whether it is genuinely available to you rather than borrowed for a screenshot. A sudden large deposit with no explanation does more harm than a smaller balance with a clear history.

Since January 2024 most study permit applicants must include a Provincial or Territorial Attestation Letter issued by the province where they intend to study. For 2026 IRCC expects to issue 408,000 study permits against an allocation of 309,670 attestation letter spaces, with Ontario at 104,780 and Quebec at 93,069.

Exemptions matter as much as the requirement. Applicants to degree granting master’s and doctoral programs at public institutions are now exempt, which is a change from 2024. So are exchange students under formal agreements, accompanying family members of approved permit holders, and in most cases those extending at the same institution and the same level of study. Prerequisite courses, however, still need one.

This is the rule that catches people out most expensively, because the old process was so easy that the change feels implausible.

Until November 2024, a student could change designated learning institutions by updating IRCC through their online account and simply starting at the new school. That is abolished. Since 8 November 2024 you must apply for and receive a new study permit naming the new institution before you begin studying there, and since 22 January 2025 the application requires a new valid attestation letter. IRCC works to a sixty day service standard once you answer yes to the change of institution question.

Starting at a new school while the application is pending puts you out of compliance with your permit conditions. The only exception is where your previous institution closed, discontinued the program, was suspended or lost its designation.

Off-campus work is capped at twenty-four hours a week during academic sessions, up from twenty since 8 November 2024, with unlimited hours during scheduled breaks. You must be enrolled full time at a designated learning institution in a program of at least six months leading to a credential, hold a valid study permit with the off-campus work condition, and have a Social Insurance Number.

A practical note: permits printed before the change may still read that you may work twenty hours a week. That text does not limit you if you meet the current conditions.

The post-graduation work permit is where most study plans either pay off or fall apart, and the rules now reach backwards into the choice of program.

• Language
  CLB 7 in all four abilities for university programs, CLB 5 for college and other non-university programs, with flight school graduates exempt
• Field of study
  applies where the initial study permit application was made on or after 1 November 2024, and only to programs not leading to a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree
• The eligible field list was frozen for all of 2026 at 1,107 programs, so nothing will be added mid-year to rescue a choice made now
• Non-credit programs do not qualify for a post-graduation work permit at all, flight school aside
• Apply within 180 days of written confirmation that you completed your program

We would rather tell a prospective client that the program they have been sold does not lead anywhere than take the file and let them find out three years later.

• Obtaining a Study Permit
• Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL)
• Picking the School and Program