All information provided are directly from IRCC Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Changing your school or program
Before you change your school or program, you must meet all the conditions of your study permit. This means you must be:
- enrolled at a designated learning institution (DLI) and
- actively studying while you’re in Canada
You need to contact us if you:
- are a post-secondary student changing schools
- have a co-op work permit and you’ve changed post-secondary schools to another co-op program or
- need to change conditions on your study permit
We may ask you to confirm your student status
If you have a study permit, you may receive an email from us. The email address will end in “@cic.gc.ca.” You must follow the instructions in that email, by the date indicated, to confirm you’re enrolled and actively studying in Canada.
If you change schools and don’t tell us
Your old school will report you as not being registered to study.
If you aren’t registered to study, you’re breaking the conditions of your study permit. You may be asked to leave the country, and this may prevent you from coming to Canada in the future. For example, you may not be approved for another study or work permit in the future.
Moving to the next education level
If your study permit is still valid, you don’t need to change or apply for a new permit if you’re moving between school levels. This could be:
- primary to high school
- high school to post-secondary
- post-secondary to high school or
- any other move between school levels
If your study permit will expire, you need to apply to extend it.
If your permit has already expired, you must restore your status as a student at the same time as you apply to extend your study permit. You must apply to restore your status within 90 days of losing it. You can’t continue or restart your studies until you have status as a student again and we’ve extended your study permit.
Post-secondary students changing schools
If you change post-secondary schools, the school you plan to change to must also be a DLI. Please check the DLI list and confirm your new school is a DLI before you commit to changing schools.
You must tell us each time you change post-secondary schools. Changing the post-secondary school on your account is a free service.
You don’t need to apply to change your study permit if you are changing schools.
Post-secondary studies include:
- university
- community college, CEGEP, institute
- private university, career college, academy, school or training institution and
- ESL/FSL and other language training
Studying in Quebec
If you’re moving to a school in Quebec, you must get a Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ).
If you’re already studying in Quebec and want to change the conditions on your CAQ (for example, the institution), you should contact the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI).
Date modified: 2019-10-02 by IRCCImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada