Submitting the wrong documents required for your Canada student Visa application can get your student visa refused by IRCC.
Now that you have gotten admitted into a Canadian university or college, the next thing is to start preparing for your Canada student visa application which will help you to enter Canada to study your course.
Before you start applying for your student visa, you need to know the Canada student visa requirements for Nigeria or any other country so that your visa application is not refused.
In this article, I am going to break down the kind of documents you need as part of your Canadian student visa requirements for international students, that should be available before submitting your student visa application.
10 Canada student visa requirements for Nigeria & Other Countries
These are the documents you need to submit when applying for your visa as a student.
- Passport
- Bank Statement
- Statement Of Purpose
- Letter Of Acceptance
- Family Ties Documents
- Letter Of Reference
- Employment Letter
- Payslip
- Upfront Medicals
- English Proficiency Exam Certificate
Passport
Before thinking of traveling, the first thing you want to get sorted out is your passport. This is your most important document when it comes to Canada’s student visa requirements for Nigeria or other countries. You will need to provide information on your passport when applying for your Canada student visa.
Bank Statement
IRCC requires that you submit your bank statement when applying for your Student visa application. Your bank statement shows the amount in your bank account and how active your bank account has been for 4-6 months. IRCC requires that you submit your bank statement because they want to know if you or your sponsor can pay for your school fees and living expenses in Canada.
Statement Of Purpose
To get a Canada visa, you don’t need to appear in person. Canada has made it easier for applicants to apply for their visas anywhere in the world. This is where the statement of purpose comes in. You want to write a statement of purpose telling the visa officer why he/she should approve your visa to study in Canada.
Letter Of Acceptance From Your School
When you get your admission, your school will send you a Letter confirming that they have accepted you in their school as a student. The Immigration officer requires you to submit that acceptance letter from your school as this will enable him/her to do a background check on the school and possibly contact the school if thoroughly they gave you that admission letter. Make sure all information in it is correct.
Family ties documents
You will need to prove to the Immigration officer that you will come back after your study in Canada and one of the ways to prove that is to provide documents that tie you back to your home country. These documents can be land documents, parent documents, or any property documents you own in your home country.
This document helps you to convince the Visa officer that you will not overstay your study duration in Canada. So, it is important to submit these documents as part of your Canada student visa requirements for Nigeria, Ghana & other Countries
Letter Of Reference From Work
If you are a student who just graduated from university and do not have any work experience, then you don’t need a letter of reference. In most cases, your reference letter is a letter given to you by your employers where you work.
Make sure you attach that letter when applying for your student visa as it is a part of the document that convinces the Visa officer that you have experience in the course that you want to go and read in Canada.
Employment Letter
If you are working, and you stated it in your statement of letter(SOP), make sure to add your employment letter to your documents.
This particular employment letter is for those that are working. If you are not working you can skip this part.
Pay Slip
If you are submitting your reference letter, make sure to add a payslip for any month you have worked in your company. This pay slip shows that you have been earning a good amount of money over the years and also shows that you are truly working for the company.
Upfront Medicals
If you want to fasten your application process, then I would advise that before submitting your student visa application documents, you should go and do an upfront medical.
The reason is that, after the visa officer reviews your documents, they will request your medical document. The process it takes them to review and give feedback on whether you pass the medicals or not can take a while.
in other to avoid that time wastage, you should do an upfront medical. The visa officer won’t border asking you to send your medical result to them again because you have already done an upfront medical. They will just move to the next stage of the application which is for you to submit your passport for stamping.
English Proficiency Exam Certificate
There are schools in Canada that require you to write an English test exam in other to know if you can speak English or not. If you got admission to a school that requires you to submit the certificate, make sure to write it and pass the exam and then submit the certificate along with your student visa documents.
Make sure to read through your school website that gave you admission, to know the band score they require their student to have in their English proficiency exam before submitting your documents.
How long does it take to get Canada student visa in Nigeria Or Other Countries?
According to the IRCC website, the maximum time it takes for you to get your Canada student visa approved is 1 – 6 months depending on your application.
However, some persons get their student visa approved within a week, 2 weeks, and so on. So many factors can delay your application process which is why it is good to get all the documents I have explained above so as to avoid your study visa from being delayed.
How long does it take to get Canada student visa After Biometrics?
Going for your biometrics and getting it done after IRCC request for it does not mean that your visa is approved yet. You have to wait for IRCC to review your biometrics.
After biometrics, you would be requested to submit your passport to the VAC office for stamping before you can get your study visa approved. So in essence, biometrics is not the last application you will submit before you get your Canada study visa approved.
From my experience and the people I have interacted with, the longest time some applicants have to wait before getting their visa is 1-2 weeks. Have it in mind that it could be longer for other applicants.
You will usually see a Canada visa stamp on passport after IRCC asks you to submit your passport.
How long it takes to get passport request after biometrics
After your biometrics have been approved, IRCC would send for you to submit your passport after 1-2 weeks of submitting your biometrics. I am saying this from my experience and that of my friends who got their visas after 1 week of submitting their biometrics.
In Conclusion
Getting admitted into a university or College is not where the work is but the first step you need to take in other to get your study visa approved.
Gathering your documents for a Canada study visa application is where the work really lies. Your application documents must all be well organized before you start applying for your study visa so that it doesn’t get rejected because of a little mistake that could have been avoided.
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