Hold a work permit? Since 4 September 2026 you can take a course of six months or less without a study permit.
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Study permit refusal — what to do next — document checklist
Prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc.
Study permit refusal — what to do next — document checklist
The deadline is the thing, and on study permits it is unusually easy to get wrong: an initial refusal from abroad carries a 60-day judicial review limit, while an extension refused from inside Canada may carry 15. There is no appeal. Work out which limit applies before you start collecting anything.
9 documents 9 that decide it Cost Free · $50 if you go to the Federal Court
Preserve the clock
How long do you actually have?Where files fail here: Assembling evidence for weeks while the judicial review limit quietly expires.
Fifteen days or sixty — and here it really bites
An initial permit refused at a visa office abroad gives you 60 days. An extension refused from inside Canada may well be a matter arising in Canada, which gives you 15. Same person, same programme, a quarter of the time.
There is no appeal from a study permit refusal
Study permits are temporary residence, and the Act gives no appeal right for them. Judicial review, with leave, is the only court route.
Recover the real reasons
What did the officer actually think?Where files fail here: Working from the tick-boxes on the refusal letter, which say almost nothing.
Read the officer’s decision note
Released with the refusal since 29 July 2025. It is what separates a funds refusal from a bona fides refusal — and those need opposite responses.
Request your GCMS notes under the Privacy Act
Free, worldwide, in your own name since July 2022. Shows whether the officer doubted the study plan or the money trail.
Diagnose the defect
Was something missing, missed, or wrongly decided?Where files fail here: Skipping straight to “reapply” without knowing which of the four it was.
Work out which of the five grounds was actually cited
IRCC’s published grounds are: no valid acceptance letter; insufficient funds; a failed medical; not satisfied your main purpose is to study; not satisfied you will leave at the end. They are not interchangeable.
Choose the route
Reapply, reconsider, review, or fix the facts first?Where files fail here: Picking the route by habit rather than by what the diagnosis supports.
Check your acceptance letter and PAL or TAL are still alive
Both expire. A reapplication assembled over two months regularly fails on a lapsed letter rather than on anything the officer said.
Answer the ground actually cited
Does the response meet the reason given?Where files fail here: More bank statements against a refusal that was never about money.
Check the funds figure before you use it again
A single applicant outside Quebec must show $23,448 for applications submitted on or after 1 September 2026, plus tuition and travel. The amount is indexed annually — reapplying on last year’s number fails on arithmetic before anyone reads the story.
Rewrite the study plan to answer the real question
Why this programme, in Canada, rather than an equivalent at home — and what happens after. Generic statements of purpose are precisely what “not satisfied your main purpose is to study” refusals are made of.
Evidence you will leave at the end
A separate ground from funds and a separate ground from purpose. It needs its own documents: employment, property, dependants, obligations that resume.
General information, not legal advice. This checklist is prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc. and was checked against the Government of Canada’s published requirements on the date shown. Requirements change and vary by case, and IRCC generates a personalised document list for many applications — where that list or canada.ca differs from this document, they govern.
Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees. Police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC makes all final decisions.
CHK Immigration Services Inc. is an immigration consultancy with offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Our consultants are regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). Nothing in this document creates a client–consultant relationship.
Current version: https://chkimmigration.ca/checklists/study-refusal
Checked against the official IRCC page for this application in September 2026. Where that page disagrees with anything here, it wins. General information, not legal advice. Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees — police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC also generates a personalised checklist for many applications, and that list governs. IRCC makes all final decisions.
Having the documents is not the same as having a persuasive file.
Every item above can be present and correct and the application can still be refused — on intent, on a date that does not reconcile, or on a lead time that ran out. A licensed consultant reads it the way an officer will.
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CHK Immigration Services — Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (CICC). Offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Submitting this form does not create a client–consultant relationship; IRCC makes all final decisions.