A study permit application is only as fast as its slowest document. Students are often abroad, working from a phone, and unsure which pages matter. A clear checklist prevents most of the back-and-forth. This one is a starting point: requirements differ by applicant and change over time, so confirm current IRCC requirements for each case. The official pages are linked at the end.
The checklist
Identity
- Passport: the bio page, and any pages with stamps or visas. Record the expiry date.
- Digital photo that meets IRCC’s visa application photograph specifications.
Studies
- Letter of acceptance from the designated learning institution (DLI).
- Provincial attestation letter (PAL) or territorial attestation letter (TAL), where it applies.
- Study plan: why this program, and plans after graduating. Two pages at most.
Funds
- Proof of financial support: recent bank statements in the applicant’s name, or one of the other forms IRCC accepts.
- Tuition payment receipt, if tuition has been paid.
Sealio Canada includes this checklist in its starter library. Open the study permit template.
What IRCC means by proof of financial support
This is the item that causes the most rework, so it is worth explaining to the student in the request itself. IRCC’s guidance is that an applicant must show enough money, without working in Canada, to cover tuition, living expenses for themselves and any accompanying family members, and transportation to and from Canada. Applicants must show resources for the first year of study and, for longer programs, say how they will pay for the rest.
IRCC lists several kinds of document that can prove this, and they can be combined:
- Proof of a Canadian bank account in the applicant’s name, if money has been transferred to Canada.
- A guaranteed investment certificate (GIC) from a Canadian financial institution.
- Bank statements covering the recent period IRCC specifies.
- Proof of a student or education loan from a bank.
- Proof of a scholarship.
Because the required amounts and the statement period are updated by IRCC, do not hard-code them in a checklist you reuse for years. Write the instruction as “bank statements for the period IRCC currently requires, showing your name and balance” and tell each student the current figure in your message.
Three instructions that prevent rework
- Say which pages. “Passport” gets you the bio page. “The bio page, and any pages with stamps or visas” gets you what you need.
- Say how recent. An old bank statement will be uploaded if you do not say which months you need.
- Say what format. A photo of a letter is fine for some documents and not for others. If you need a PDF, accept only PDFs for that item.
Scans that officers and you can read
An unreadable upload costs a round trip across time zones. Three lines in your instructions prevent most of them: lay the document flat and photograph it straight on, include all four corners, and send every page even if a page looks blank. For multi-page statements, ask for the PDF downloaded from the bank instead of photographs of a screen.
Capture expiry dates as documents arrive
Passports and language test results expire, and the date matters again at extension or renewal. Asking for the expiry date at upload costs the student five seconds and saves you opening every file later. A passport that expires before the end of the program is worth knowing about on day one, not at submission.
Return unclear scans the same day
The longer an unusable scan sits unreviewed, the further the student has moved on. Review as files arrive, and return a bad one with a specific reason so the replacement is right. “Page 2 of the March statement is missing” gets fixed in one step. “Statement incomplete” gets a question back.
When more than one person contributes
A parent often supplies the financial documents while the student supplies everything else. Put both on the same request, each with their own link, so the file completes in one place and nobody forwards bank statements through a third inbox.
A sensible order of work
- Send the request as soon as the letter of acceptance exists; the rest can be gathered in parallel.
- Review identity documents first. A passport problem changes the whole timeline.
- Check financial documents against the current IRCC requirement before anything else is finalised.
- Leave the study plan for last. It is the one item that benefits from your feedback.
Collecting for a worker instead? Open the work permit template.
Each application can be tracked as a case with its own stages. See how immigration firms use Sealio.