A few things to settle before filing a study permit application: the acceptance letter, the attestation letter, proof of funds

The acceptance letter space holds the acceptance letter and nothing else

When documents are uploaded in the online application, the letter of acceptance has a space of its own. The official page sets out one rule for that space:

Only attach your LOA in the LOA-specific space when uploading documents for your online application.
If you attach other documents in this space, you're giving your consent to disclose these additional documents to your school. All other required documents should be attached in the corresponding spaces in your online application.

Three things are stated there. First, the letter of acceptance (LOA) goes in the LOA space. Second, attaching other documents in that space is giving your consent to disclose those additional documents to your school. Third, all the other required documents go back into their corresponding spaces.

A common belief is that it makes no difference which space a document goes into as long as everything is there. That sentence names who is on the other side: disclose these additional documents to your school. What sits in that space is what the school can see. Proof of funds, the passport information page, information about family members, any of these can end up among the extra files, and they are the applicant's own information.

The wording is giving your consent. The consent is given by the act of uploading, and the upload is a one-time act.

The acceptance letter has to clear validation by the school, and where the school does not respond the application is returned

The letter of acceptance is issued by the school and uploaded to the online application. For post-secondary students the official page states separately:

Your school will give you a letter of acceptance. Upload this to your online application.
Post-secondary students
Your school will be asked to make sure your letter of acceptance (LOA) is valid.
If your school does not respond by the deadline, we'll return your application and refund your processing fee. Confirm with your school that they will validate your LOA before resubmitting your application.

There are three layers here. First, the school is asked to make sure the letter of acceptance is valid. The wording is Your school will be asked; it is the school being asked, and this step happens after filing. Second, where the school does not respond by the deadline, the application is returned and the processing fee refunded. Third, the official page sets out the next step itself: confirm with the school that they will validate the LOA before resubmitting the application.

The nature of the second layer is worth a separate look. The application is returned because of a failure to respond on the school's side, not because of anything in the contents of the application. How long the deadline runs is not written in that passage; what is written is only the consequence of not responding by it.

The processing fee comes back. What is lost is time: resubmitting means queuing again from the start, and the waiting already spent does not carry over.

The provincial or territorial attestation letter (PAL/TAL): accepting the offer and paying tuition come first

The provincial or territorial attestation letter is issued by the school. The official page labels this item Needed in most cases.

Get a provincial or territorial attestation letter (PAL/TAL) from your school. In most cases, you need to accept your offer and pay your tuition fees, either in part or in full, to get your PAL/TAL.
If you're studying in Quebec, you need a Quebec Acceptance Certificate (Certificat d'acceptation du Québec [CAQ]).

The order sits inside that sentence: in most cases the offer is accepted and the tuition fees paid, in part or in full, before the school issues the PAL/TAL. And the PAL/TAL is itself one of the documents that goes with the study permit application. The money goes out first, and the outcome is not there yet at that point.

Tuition is paid to the school; whether the study permit is approved rests with IRCC. What happens to tuition while the study permit has not come through is not written on this official page.

For study in Quebec the document is a different one, the Quebec Acceptance Certificate (CAQ).

Which situations fall outside the most cases, and how the attestation letter itself is obtained, are not covered on this page; the official page governs.

Proof of funds: three things to be shown, and not counting income from working in Canada

You must prove that you have enough money, without working in Canada, to pay for all the following:
• tuition fees for the course or program of studies
• living expenses for yourself and the family members who come with you while you're in Canada
• transportation to and from Canada for yourself and your accompanying family members

The wording is all the following: all three have to be covered. The scope of the last two is written to include accompanying family members, so when the number of people changes, the amount to be shown changes with it. The transportation item says to and from, both legs.

The phrase set inside the sentence, without working in Canada, is a limiting condition: this money has to be there without relying on work in Canada. Whatever is meant to be made up by working after arrival does not enter the calculation. It governs how the whole figure is worked out.

There is a further point on the time span:

• you must show you have enough financial resources for the first year of your studies
• for programs more than a year long, you must also tell us how you plan to pay for the full duration of your studies
• For example: You can show proof that your scholarship is more than a year long, proof that your parents are employed, etc.

The first-year line uses show you have enough financial resources: the money has to be shown to be there. The line for programs more than a year long asks how the full duration of studies is to be paid for, and the examples given are proof that a scholarship is more than a year long and proof that parents are employed.

The current amounts: tuition not included, transportation not included, updated each year

The published living-expense amounts are set out by family size. The scope of the set below is written into its own heading: applications made on or after September 1, 2025, all provinces and territories except Quebec. The column heading reads Amount required per year (excluding tuition and transportation costs) (in CAN$).

The left column counts family size, with the applicant included in it. Above 7, an amount is added to the 7-person figure for each further family member. The official example: you and 2 family members coming to a province or territory other than Quebec for a year need $35,040 for living expenses, which is the 3-person row.

This table carries three limits, and dropping any one of them puts the figure off. First, tuition is not included; tuition is counted separately at what the school actually charges. Second, transportation is not included; the airfare both ways sits outside the table as well. Third, the official page states These amounts are updated each year. The figures on this page were verified on 2026-08-09, and the amounts published for the current period govern.

Taking the first two limits together, this table covers only one of the three things proof of funds has to reach: living expenses. Treating the figure in the table as the amount to have ready leaves out the other two. The amounts in the table are also given per year, so for programs more than a year long, the requirement to say how the full duration will be paid for is still running alongside.

These things sit in different places

A completed form and a full set of documents look no different from having got it right.

The cost lands in a different place each time. Extra files attached in that space have been disclosed to the school, and that action cannot be taken back. Where the school does not respond, the application is returned and the fee comes back, while the time does not. Where the amount is undercounted, the shortfall shows up on the proof of funds.

The difficulty is not that any one of these is hard to follow. They are all written on public pages, and read sentence by sentence they read plainly. The difficulty is working out, before filing, which of them land on this particular application: whether the program is post-secondary, whether family members are coming along, whether the program runs more than a year, whether the destination is Quebec. Different answers change what has to be prepared and in what order.

Once a study permit comes through there is another set of dates to count. The conditions for working during studies, and how the dates after completing studies are counted, are set out in PGWP: three dates that cannot be run together.

Which of these land on a given application is settled item by item before filing. Consultation rates are here.

Common questions

Official sources cited on this page

• IRCC study permit documents page (letter of acceptance, PAL/TAL, proof of identity, proof of funds): https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/study-permit/get-documents.html
• IRCC study permit financial support page (the three things to be shown, the first year and the full duration, the current table of amounts, examples of common proofs of funds): https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/study-canada/study-permit/get-documents/financial-support.html
• IRCC processing times tool: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/check-processing-times.html

Verified throughout on 2026-08-09. Where amounts and rules change, the official publication governs.