Canadian Study permit for Indian Students, the online way

Upon numerous questions on how to apply for a study permit to study in Canada.  I wanna write about the process of obtaining a study permit to study in Canada. As far as my knowledge is concerned, I am familiar only with visa procedures for students applying from India. So if you're from a country other than India and looking for a visa procedure to obtain a study permit. This is not the place you should be visiting. So coming to the point, applying study permit in India is of two types. Online and Offline. As the name suggests, Online way is more kind of non-paperwork, creating an account and applying. Whereas Offline way involves more paperwork, long queues, some extra effort but most of the time I hear that the Offline applications are processed soon but it is not so true. It all depends on the volume of the applications received.

Let's begin with the Online method of applying to Canadian study permit. First of all, create an account in the immigration & citizenship website of canada. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/e-services/mycic.asp


Please read the webpage, you might be seeing two ways to sign in. 1) Using a sign-in partner.2) Using GC key.The first one involves, a person trying to apply for immigration who is already having an account in those partner financial institutions (banks in simple). I really don't much about it because if you're entering canada for the first time. The latter way of sign up is very much preferable. Coming the GC key way of signing up to the website, after clicking the sign in with GC key tab. you will be redirected to a usual sign in and register webpage. As you're trying to sign up, choose register and then you will be redirected to another webpage consisting of as usual terms and conditions which you should accept if you want to get a visa.

     

Please remember the password carefully, it won’t be a simple “forgot the password” kind of scenario. As it is an important govt. service that is protected from all sorts of malpractices. It is going to be a lengthy process to change the password if you forgot it.So coming to the process, as usual, sign in to the website. You will be shown Mycic (the web portal/ platform that handles all the immigration application online) terms & conditions. This happens every time you log in to the website.And then, it asks for identity validation. Like I said before, please don’t give unreasonable or complicated questions while registering. This will make things difficult for you, I strongly suggest you to pick questions that you answer easily like even if you’re sleeping









Completing that you will be taken to your profile page. (sort of..)

You can also see the various  applications you can apply for,  

As of now, if you don’t have such personal code you can just chose the “Determine your eligibility and apply online for a visitor visa, study and or work permit” tab. Like I said in the above paragraph you will be asked so and so questions.







Make sure you review those yes/no answers. Because , based on those answers you will be asked for relevant docs.
Then you will be shown the step by step process of uploading documents, which format and how much size they can be and so on.
Read them thoroughly as most of the applicants would mistake the format of the docs quite often.

As you can see, it is a four stage process in. At the end you will be asked to choose some questions for identity validation for example what is your favourite sport or tv show kind of. But, don’t take them easily and don’t even assume that they’re just like the ones you entered before while signing up to some other websites. Those questions and their answers are very important as you will be asked for the answers every single time you log in to the website. Try to make them as simple and easy for you so that you should be able to answer them without much thought. If you try to guess the answers or try to enter the similar ones and if there’re attempts with false answers, you can expect a lockout. Which means that the above said lengthy process of re signup would take place.  


Update the information timely, make sure the email id is proper.


If you’re going to apply for any type of visa, you will be asked some series of questions and based on those responses the website will suggest you what visa you should apply for and what’re all the docs that’re needed for your application. Soon after completing the Q&As, you will be a given a personal reference code which would be valid for a period of 3 months. In that mean time, you should be applying using that personal code.

I need not write about those step by step procedures as it is all mentioned in the website.












Then  after continuing,
You can see the checklist for the necessary documents that are necessary for your application.
Go through one by one,
There is nothing much to write about the study permit application form fill-ups..But do it carefully and cautiously.
Most of you might be having a common questions on the financial support proof.
Let me explain as much as I can,

• Your bank statement for the last 6 months, most of you would be having online/netbanking where you can download the e-statement for the last 6 months. (Don’t do it before and upload as you might take atleast a month to upload all the relevant docs.. I would say, upload this proof of finance document at the very last of your application so as to give as recent information as possible)
•  As usual IT returns for your parents, and you. The form 61 is enough for 2 years like I said beware of the delays in obtaining the form and uploading/ submitting it)
•   Those who want to show liquid cash a.k.a bank balance. I strongly advise you not to spend money from that account very much, you can do transactions as long you’re not crossing the limit or amount you want to show in your visa. There are some issues like keeping min. balance all the time and suddenly depositing huge amount at the time of applying, this is very risky for your visa application. (Though most of the time, the visa officers might be lenient..you can’t expect the same always..)
•       Fixed deposits, yes they’re acceptable.. but make sure they’re in your name or atleast in your parents name…but not your uncle’s name or your uncle’s friend’s cousin’s father name (Just kidding)
•    There is no need for letter from your parents that they can fund your studies. But, if you have some relative in Canada or some other sponsor who is well established or can take care your studies, you should be adding a letter about this sponsorship.
•       Educational loans, some points in this regard are..you won’t be getting any education loan unless you show study permit and you won’t be getting study permit unless you show some finance proofs. So, the best way is to get an in-principle loan sanction letter. Which says something like we the bank is willing/ready to give this student a loan of xxxx Rs. If he/she obtained the relevant permits. Below is mine in-principle loan sanction letter. I didn’t take the loan amount after visa as there was no time to sign the bonds, stamp papers (there will lot of paper work in it) but this letter helped me for the visa process

You can also buy the GIC, Guaranteed Investment Certificate a.k.a Fixed deposit bond in our desi terms.. All you’ve to do is to buy the fixed deposit of 10,000$ almost 5 lakhs and there will be a 200$ fee. So altogether you will be paying 10200$ to buy this one. It is nothing but a secured deposit where this money will be deposited in to the bank in your name and once you enter Canada as a student, they will send 833$ per month to your bank account for an year. These GICs are refundable but not the 200$ process fee. So be careful with it. Currently Scotiabank (a Canadian bank offers this GICs). You can buy them online with your debit card.

•  No need for any property certificates/ notarized proofs/ property valuations etc. But if you’ve already ready with them then that’s fine. But they’re not mandatory.
•   This would be important, if you’re studying right now and your parents are salaried employees and are going to fund you for the studies. You should provide a salary certificate try to get it as recent as possible.  
• At the end it is common to add an explanation letter explaining how you're going to fund yourself during studies. To give you an idea, I'm sharing my explanation letter but it doesn't mean that this is a template for such letter but in general an example.
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I’ve summed up all I could, usually the simple process is to pay the fees for the first term and show a GIC (which means you’re showing that you have funds for your stay of 1 year). And show some proofs for extra funds if you have. 

But some universities like University of Waterloo, which doesn’t accept the tuition fee unless it is just 2 weeks to start the term. In those cases, you’ve to be ready with all/ relevant above mentioned documents.
Last but not the least, some noteworthy points are.

Your photograph (make sure it has white background.. !!) 

You should be paying the study permit application fee 150$ through credit card. No, it doesn’t accept any sort of debit card. You should be paying through credit card, no other options like Netbanking / EMI     or    Paytm , Mobikwik  :D