Study permit extension

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recommends applying at least 30 days before your permit expires. Applying before expiry lets you stay under your current permit's conditions while you wait for a decision. Your study permit becomes invalid 90 days after your school notifies you that you've completed your program, even if the printed expiry date is later.

You'll apply online through your IRCC secure account. Use that account even if you applied for your first permit through a different one. Paper applications are only for people with a special exemption.

If you're at a college or university, you'll upload a letter from your school showing you're accepted or enrolled. Use the upload space marked for the letter of acceptance, even if yours is an enrolment letter. If the school doesn't verify the letter by the deadline, IRCC returns the application and refunds your processing fee.

The current financial requirements apply to extensions too, so you'll need to show that you meet them. You may also be asked for your fingerprints and photo. If you've given them in the last 10 years, you won't need to give them again, and US citizens don't need to give them at all.

Staying at the same school at the same level of study means you don't need a new provincial or territorial attestation letter when you extend.

Since 22 January 2025, you need a new provincial or territorial attestation letter whenever you change schools or move to a different level of study. There's a single exception: moving from a post-secondary program into a graduate degree program at a public school doesn't need a new letter.

IRCC's published numbers currently put it at 56 days when you apply for an extension from inside Canada. If you're switching to another post-secondary school, the file takes 60 days as long as you note that switch in the online form.

If you apply before your permit expires and are still waiting for a decision when it expires, you can legally stay in Canada under your current permit's conditions. This is called maintained status. Where your permit covered off-campus work, that work can continue throughout this period.

There are some restrictions, however. During maintained status, provincial documents such as a driver's licence or health card can't be renewed, and you also can't get a social insurance number.

Extending costs $150. If your permit expired before you applied to extend it, restoring your student status costs $396.25 CAD in total. That figure combines the $246.25 restoration fee with a new $150 study permit.

Every family member who came with you and also lost status has to apply on their own and pay their own restoration fee.

Restoration means asking IRCC to restore your status as a student, and the application has to go in within 90 days of losing your status. Once 90 days pass with no restoration application, you must leave Canada.

You can remain in the country while the restoration decision is pending, but studying has to wait until your status is restored. To restore your student status, you need a new provincial or territorial attestation letter, even if you're staying at the same school and level of study. Anyone in Canada on a temporary resident permit is not eligible for this kind of restoration.