Study Permit Extension Canada: The 2026 Rules and Deadlines

When your study permit actually expires

A study permit normally covers the length of your programme plus an extra 90 days, and it stops being valid 90 days after your school confirms that you completed the programme, whatever date is printed on the card. That single rule creates most of the confusion, and it is worth writing the two dates down separately: the printed expiry date, and the completion date plus 90 days. The earlier of the two is the date that governs.

The completion date is not the graduation ceremony date and it is not the date on your transcript. It is the date your school first notifies you of completion, by completion letter, transcript or award of the credential, and the institution chooses how to report it. A student who receives the completion letter in June and the certificate in September has 90 days from June, and the September document does not extend anything.

If your permit expires before your programme finishes, you need an extension. If your programme finishes before the permit expires, you do not need an extension, and applying for one anyway adds a document, a fee and a decision to a file that did not need it. The check to make is simple: compare the programme end date with the expiry date on the permit, and if the permit runs past the programme, plan the next step instead of the extension.

Apply at least 30 days before expiry if you do need one. IRCC's own help centre states that figure, and the recommendation in practice is to apply earlier, because the file needs the school's letter and a new approval letter in some cases, and both of those take time.

How to apply, step by step

The extension is filed online through the IRCC secure account, on form IMM 5709, and the school has to be part of the file.

1. Sign in to your IRCC secure account and start the extension application for your study permit.
2. Upload the documents the checklist asks for, which normally include your current study permit, your valid passport, and the school's letter of acceptance or letter of enrolment.
3. Add a new provincial or territorial letter of approval if you are changing school or level of study, since January 22, 2025.
4. Pay the fee. A study permit, including extensions, costs C$150 per person, and biometrics are C$85 for an individual or C$170 for a family of two or more.
5. Submit the complete application and give biometrics when the instruction letter arrives.

The letter from your school is the part that takes the longest, and it is worth chasing early. The extension is assessed on the basis of your continued enrolment, and the school is the institution that can confirm it. Most schools have an international student office that issues these letters, and many will do it the same week if you ask with the application reference in hand.

Changing school or level of study

Since January 22, 2025, a new provincial or territorial letter of approval is required when you change your school or your level of study, unless an exception applies. This is the rule that surprises students most, because a change of school used to be a simple amendment.

The practical sequence is that you apply for the new approval first, and the approval letter is what allows the new enrolment to be accepted. In eligible change-of-school situations you are allowed to begin studying at the new institution as soon as you have applied, which means the approval is the gating item and the extension application is the formal part.

Two institutional situations are handled differently and are worth knowing about. If your school has lost its designated status, you can extend your permit to finish the programme you are already in, but you cannot start a new one. If your school has been suspended, the same rule applies. In both cases the practical priority is completing the current programme, and a transfer has to be negotiated with the new school rather than assumed.

Changing the level of study rather than the school follows the same approval rule. Moving from a certificate to a diploma, or from a master's programme to a doctoral one, is a change of level, and it needs a new approval letter. The exception is where the change is within the same school and the approval is already held at a level that covers it, and in that case the school's own letter of enrolment may be enough.

If the permit has already expired

If your permit has expired, you are not extending it. You are restoring your status, and the published fee for restoring student status is C$396.25, which is made up of a C$246.25 restoration charge and the C$150 permit fee. The rules for how long after expiry a restoration can be requested are set separately by IRCC, so the specific deadline for your case should be confirmed before you file.

This is the point where a lot of applicants lose time, because an extension filed after expiry is simply treated as a restoration request with the wrong documents. The fix is to check the dates, and if the expiry has passed, to file the restoration route and to be honest in the explanation about when the status lapsed. An accurate explanation is treated very differently from an omission.

There is a related rule that applies to a different but equally common situation. If you applied for a post-graduation work permit and your study permit expired while you were waiting for your marks, you can apply for a visitor record to stay in Canada longer, or leave the country and file the permit from outside. If you stay and let the permit lapse, you have to restore your student status before you can apply for the post-graduation work permit, and the restoration and the permit application are filed together within 90 days.

The conditions you must keep meeting

An extension extends your permission to study. It does not relax the conditions attached to your permit, and the conditions are the part of the file that is easiest to breach by accident.

• You must be enrolled at a designated learning institution, and your enrolment has to be current. A school that has lost its designated status lets you finish but not start.
• You must be actively pursuing your studies, meaning you are enrolled full-time or part-time in every academic semester, excluding scheduled breaks, and you must be making progress toward completing your courses.
• Authorised leaves are capped at 150 days, and a leave has to be authorised by your school with evidence, not simply taken.
• You must apply to extend if you want to change school, rather than simply enrolling somewhere else.
• You must end your studies and leave Canada when the permit expires, and the 90-day tail after completion is part of that obligation rather than an extra.

IRCC can check these at any time, and proof can be demanded, so the evidence you need is not exotic: enrolment records, transcripts, and the completion letter when you get it. The students who get caught out are usually the ones who changed their enrolment without telling anyone, because a mismatch between the portal and the school is easy to spot.

Working while the extension is processed

A full-time student can work on campus without any additional document, and that continues while an extension is being processed, because the on-campus right comes from being a full-time student on a valid status. Off-campus work is different: it needs an open work permit, and the routes are the post-graduation work permit, the spouse route, and the International Experience Canada Working Holiday category.

The limit that catches students is the clock. Under the rules that apply to a student working off campus on an open work permit, you can work up to 24 hours a week during classes and full time during scheduled breaks such as the winter break, the summer break and the week before a scheduled final exam. If your extension is pending and your open work permit has expired, that clock stops, and the extension application does not reset it.

There is also a rule about the co-op and internship route, because a placement that is part of the programme is governed by the co-op work rules rather than the off-campus rules. A student who is part of a co-op programme is also not eligible for a spousal open work permit while the co-op is running, and an employer who treats a co-op placement as a regular job is creating a problem for the student, not for themselves.

Fees and processing times

The numbers are published and they are the ones to plan around.

The two extension figures measure the same queue in different ways, and the by-week figure includes the number of people waiting, which is the number that tells you whether the queue is growing. About 27,800 people waiting on a route that completes in eight weeks is a functioning queue rather than a stalled one, and it is a reminder that the extension is a scheduled administrative process rather than an emergency one.

If you are extending, the practical timeline is: the school letter, a fortnight for a new approval letter where one is needed, a week for biometrics once the instruction letter arrives, and then the published processing time. Working backwards from your expiry date, you need to file roughly two months before the date to be comfortable.

Mistakes that cost students their status

Five mistakes account for most of the lost study permits, and all five are about dates or paperwork rather than eligibility.

1. Applying for an extension you did not need, because the printed expiry date was read as the real one and the completion date plus 90 days was ignored.
2. Missing the 30-day window, and then filing a restoration instead of an extension, which costs more and takes longer.
3. Changing school without a new letter of approval, which since January 22, 2025 is a condition problem as well as an administrative one.
4. Letting the programme end without requesting the completion letter, which leaves you with no document to start the 90-day clock and no evidence of completion for the post-graduation work permit.
5. Letting the passport or biometrics expire, because the permit is capped by both and a lapsed document quietly shortens the extension.

A sixth mistake is the one that costs the most in the long run, and it is not administrative. The 90-day tail after completion is short, and if the post-graduation work permit is refused, or if the language or field of study rules block the application, the student is expected to leave Canada at the end of a permit that was supposed to be the beginning of something. Planning the post-graduation application in parallel with the final year, rather than after it, is the difference between a smooth transition and a forced departure.

Fees and what you pay for

The study permit extension is priced as a study permit, with one separate restoration charge for the case where the permit has already lapsed.

The restoration route is the one worth budgeting carefully, because it costs more than twice an extension and it is what a missed deadline turns into. A letter of acceptance or letter of enrolment from the school is normally free to obtain and usually the fastest document in the file, and the school is where the timing risk sits rather than with IRCC.

How long the extension queue is running

The published figures describe the same queue in two ways, and both are worth knowing.

About 27,800 people waiting on a queue that completes in about eight weeks is a queue that is moving, which is worth noting because a lot of the anxiety in this area comes from assuming otherwise. The realistic planning window is still two months from the start of the process to the decision: the school letter, a fortnight for a new approval letter where one is needed, a week for biometrics once instructed, and then the published processing time.

If you change programme or level

A change of programme inside the same school and a change of school are treated differently, and the approval letter is the pivot for both.

The pattern is that the approval letter, not the school letter, is the item that takes longest and the item that decides whether the change is possible. Obtaining it early, before the transcript is closed or the intake is full, is what turns a stressful deadline into an administrative task.

What happens if your study permit expires before your grades arrive?

You have two options, and both have to be exercised before the permit expires. You can apply for a visitor record to stay in Canada longer while you wait, or you can leave Canada and apply for the next permit from outside. If you stay and let the permit expire, you must restore your student status before you can apply for the post-graduation work permit, and the restoration and the permit application are filed together inside a 90-day window.

The situation is common because institutions issue the completion letter on their own schedule, and the 180-day post-graduation clock starts from that letter rather than from the ceremony. A student whose permit expires in the gap between the end of classes and the completion letter is in a genuine administrative squeeze rather than a personal failure.

The practical protection is to check the permit expiry against the expected completion date at the start of the final semester, and to ask the school when the completion letter will be issued. If the two dates are close, a visitor record is cheap insurance.

What to do next

The sequence is short.

1. Establish your real expiry date: the earlier of the printed expiry and the completion date plus 90 days.
2. Decide whether you need an extension at all, or whether your programme simply outlasts your permit.
3. Ask your school for a letter of acceptance or letter of enrolment, and if you are changing school or level, apply for the new provincial or territorial letter of approval.
4. File the extension online through the IRCC secure account on form IMM 5709, with your permit, your passport and the school letter, and pay the C$150 fee.
5. Give biometrics when instructed, and answer every document request promptly, because a file that stalls on a request is a file that eats into your remaining study period.
6. After the decision, check the new permit against your actual school, programme and expiry date, and keep the paperwork for the post-graduation work permit application that comes next.

If your permit has already expired, or if your school has lost its designated status, or if you are changing level mid-programme, a short consultation with a licensed immigration representative or a department-authorised representative is usually worth it before you file, because the routes diverge sharply at that point.

Frequently Asked Questions