An international student in Canada can change his or her school of study; however, there are processes for this. Find out what to do if your application is in progress or if it's been accepted.

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 IRCC 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

• You need to change the conditions on your study permit.

Meanwhile, IRCC may ask you to confirm your student status. If you have a study permit, you may receive an email from them. 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 inform the IRCC Your old school will report you as not being registered to study. If this happens,

• You’re breaking the conditions of your study permit.

• You may be asked to leave the country.

• 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.

Changing your DLI if you’re outside of Canada

If your application is still in progress, You can inform IRCC that you changed your DLI by submitting a new letter of acceptance using the IRCC web form.

If your application has been approved,

If your application for a study permit has been approved and you change your DLI, you must submit a new study permit application with a new letter of acceptance. You must also pay all the fees for the new application.

You don’t need a representative to change your DLI in your online account, even if you used one to apply for your study permit initially. You just need the study permit application details.

Follow these instructions to change your DLI in your online account.

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 expires, 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 inform IRCC 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 an attestation of the issuance of your Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ).

You should contact the ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation, and de l’Intégration if you’re already studying in Quebec and want to change your:

• educational institution
• program
• level of study