Canada-Students: Who Needs an Attestation Letter

With the Canadian government’s new rules for international students, there is much confusion about who needs and how to get the attestation letter from a Canadian province or territory when an international student applies for a study permit. Let’s take a look at the confusion.

As it stands, the government states that most, not all, students applying for a study permit (after having already received a letter of acceptance or LOA from a designated learning institute or DLI) will need to provide an attestation letter from the province or territory where the educational institution is based.

The government has made exceptions to this rule:

• A student enrolling in kindergarten to grade 12 in a primary or secondary school (guardianship rules apply here).
• A post-secondary international student already in Canada and is applying for an extension of their study permit.
• A student with an LOA for a Masters, PhD or “other post-graduate program”.

It is the “other post-graduate program” part that has raised questions. How does one define a post-graduate program? Does it include all programs offered on post-graduate level?

This would mean, for example, a student doing a post-graduate diploma in a college would be exempted from the attestation letter rule.

However, some opine that traditionally the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) considers only programs offered by universities, and not colleges, as post-graduate programs.

The IRCC itself has yet to clarify its position on this.

But Colleges Ontario, the organization representing the province’s accredited colleges, has issued a statement calling public college post-graduate programs awarded the same recognition that similar university programs receive.

How to Get a Letter of Attestation?

Not certain yet. According to the government, the provinces and territories must come up with their own systems (education in Canada is not a federal issue) by no later than March 31, 2024.

However, it is possible the government had informed their provincial/territorial counterparts before they made the decision to require an attestation letter, and the latter have already started working on this.