Studying in Canada

What a year costs

Verified national averages for 2025/26:

• International undergraduate: CAD 41,746 (Ontario CAD 49,802 at the top; Newfoundland CAD 18,867 at the bottom)
• International graduate: CAD 24,028 (Ontario CAD 28,624; Newfoundland CAD 6,964)

International fees rose 4% nationally for 2026/27, from 0% in Newfoundland to 8.6% in Saskatchewan.

College is materially cheaper, roughly CAD 7,000-22,000, but see the PGWP rules below before treating that as a bargain.

Living costs. Canada publishes no official monthly figure; the government's own proof-of-funds number works out at CAD 1,954 a month, which is about right for a mid-size city and clearly insufficient for central Toronto or Vancouver.

• Toronto, Vancouver: CAD 2,000-2,800 a month
• Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton: CAD 1,500-2,100
• Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Halifax, St. John's: CAD 1,300-1,800

The study permit

Fee CAD 150, biometrics CAD 85. Service standard is 60 days from outside Canada, 120 days inside; actual times in mid-2026 ran faster for major markets, around four weeks for India, five to six for Nigeria and Pakistan. Doctoral applicants have had a two-week service since November 2025.

The Student Direct Stream closed on 8 November 2024 and has not returned. There is no financial fast-track any more.

The money. From 1 September 2026, CAD 23,448 for a single applicant, plus CAD 6,318 for each accompanying family member, on top of first-year tuition and travel. This rose from CAD 22,895, which itself replaced CAD 20,635 in 2024 and a long-frozen CAD 10,000 before that. IRCC now adjusts it annually, so expect another rise around September 2027.

Quebec is different and the gap is now large. From 1 January 2026 the requirement for a single student aged 18 or over is CAD 24,617, up from CAD 15,508, more than a tripling for under-18s. Quebec applicants must also satisfy the financial test twice: once for the provincial CAQ (fee CAD 135) and again federally.

The Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL/TAL) is required for most applicants, a letter confirming a place within the province's allocation under the cap. Exemptions include primary and secondary students, exchange students paying no tuition, and, new from 1 January 2026, master's and doctoral students at public institutions. A PAL is tied to one school and is valid only within the calendar year it was issued, so one issued in 2026 cannot carry a January 2027 start.

Working while you study

24 hours a week off campus during academic sessions, unlimited during scheduled breaks. This has been volatile: 20 hours pre-pandemic, then waived entirely, then 24 from November 2024. Permits issued earlier may still print "20 hours"; if you meet current eligibility, 24 applies regardless of what the permit says.

On campus there is no hour limit for full-time students at eligible institutions.

From 1 April 2026 you no longer need a separate co-op work permit for a required work placement, a real simplification.

After you graduate

This is where Canada changed most, and where the honest answer differs sharply from pre-2024 advice.

Degree graduates, bachelor's, master's and doctoral, are exempt from any field-of-study restriction. That is the single most important planning fact on this page.

College and other non-degree graduates are not. If your study permit application was submitted on or after 1 November 2024, your programme must be linked to an occupation in long-term shortage. IRCC froze that list for 2026 at 1,107 eligible programmes, no additions or removals for the rest of the year.

Other current rules:

• Programme must be at least 8 months (900 hours in Quebec), at a PGWP-eligible institution, which is narrower than DLI status.
• At least 50% completed in class in Canada for programmes beginning on or after 1 September 2024.
• Language requirement, CLB/NCLC 7 for degree programmes, CLB/NCLC 5 for college and non-university programmes. French counts exactly as English does.
• Duration, 8 months to under 2 years gives a permit matching the programme length; 2 years or longer gives the 3-year maximum. A master's degree gets the full 3 years even if the programme was shorter than 2 years, which makes a one-year master's unusually good value.
• The permit cannot extend beyond your passport expiry. Renew the passport first.

Public-private partnership colleges are not PGWP-eligible for anyone who started after 15 May 2024 same-province, or 1 February 2023 cross-province.

Language

No federal language test for the study permit itself since SDS closed. Institutions set admission requirements: typically IELTS 6.5 overall with no band below 6.0 for undergraduate, 6.5-7.0 for graduate, 6.0 for college diplomas.

TOEFL changed scale on 21 January 2026, iBT now reports 1-6 aligned to CEFR. Roughly: new 5 ≈ old 95+, new 4.5 ≈ old 86+, new 4 ≈ old 72+. ETS reports both scales until January 2028, so you will see both quoted for a while.

French in Quebec is a genuine route, not a footnote: Montréal, Laval, UQAM, Sherbrooke and the CEGEPs teach in French, and francophone applicants have advantages in several permanent residence streams.

When to apply

Fall (September) is the main intake and where the funding is. Winter (January) is a substantial second intake, widely available at colleges. Summer (May) is the smallest.

University applications for fall generally close December to March; Ontario undergraduate runs through OUAC with a mid-January equal-consideration deadline. Colleges often use rolling admission and popular programmes fill 6-9 months ahead.

Allow three to four months after your acceptance letter. The sequence is acceptance → PAL/TAL from the province (weeks, and capped) → CAQ if Quebec → biometrics → decision. For a September start, secure the acceptance by February or March and file by April or May.

What to watch out for

The cap is real, binding and can run out. For 2026 IRCC will accept at most 309,670 applications from PAL-required students. Provincial allocations are finite: Ontario 104,780, Quebec 93,069, British Columbia 32,596, Alberta 32,271, Nunavut 0. An acceptance letter is worthless without a PAL, and the province can run dry. With a 59% refusal rate, do not make irreversible commitments such as resignations, property sales or non-refundable flights before the permit is in hand.

DLI status is not permanent, and DLI does not mean PGWP. Post-secondary DLIs that fail to verify acceptance letters or report enrolment can be suspended from accepting international students, with the first penalties scheduled for spring 2026. If your school loses designation mid-programme you must transfer. Separately, a school can be a perfectly legitimate DLI whose programmes yield no work permit. Check both lists before paying a deposit. IRCC identified more than 10,000 potentially fraudulent acceptance letters in 2024 and 4,900 more in 2025.

Private and public-private partnership colleges are the highest-risk segment. Agents in some markets still sell these programmes on an implied path to work and permanent residence that no longer exists. Verify your exact programme, at your exact campus, on IRCC's PGWP-eligible list, not the institution's marketing.

Your eligibility is frozen at the date you applied. The dates that matter: 1 November 2024, 25 June 2025, 1 January 2026, 1 September 2026. Advice more than a year old is likely wrong.

Bringing family is much harder. Since 21 January 2025, spousal open work permits are limited to spouses of students in master's programmes of 16 months or longer, doctoral programmes, and selected professional programmes. Spouses of college students and most bachelor's students are no longer eligible.

Where these numbers come from

Rules change, sometimes at short notice. Every figure above carries the date we checked it. Check the official source before you rely on it, and for Quebec, confirm the financial figure on quebec.ca, which we could not reach.