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Assuming that you have your letter of acceptance to a learning insitution in hand, it’s now time to start the actual process of applying for a Canadian Study Permit.
But to be able to do that it is important that you understand how the Canadian Visa and Immigration system works. This lesson will help you to understand that system.
In Canada all matters pertaining to visas and immigration are handled by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada — a branch of the Canadian Government. You will see it referred to as IRCC.
IRCC maintains a website (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship.html).
It is important that you learn how this site works because, while it is technically possible to submit applications in paper form, the reality is that virtually everything you do with IRCC will be done online.
Before we actually visit and talk about the website, there are a few things you should understand about doing business there.
First, a lot of the things that you will do involve completing forms that are downloaded from the IRCC website.
These forms use the PDF format. IRCC uses special software developed by Adobe and unique to IRCC.
As a result, you must use Adobe software.
Other programs such as Nitro, Easy PDF, Foxit, etc., may not work at all or may work with errors.
This should not be a problem since Adobe offers a free program – Adobe Acrobat Reader – which will work well for anything that you need to accomplish on the IRCC site. If you do not have it already, you can download a copy of here: https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/pdf-reader.html
It is also important that you download these forms ONLY from the IRCC website and not from other possible internet sources. IRCC makes changes to these forms without notice and only by downloading from IRCC can you be assured of having the most current form.
While some documents or forms are completed online, other items must be uploaded. If you have to send copies of documents use a scanner – not your phone. And that includes using scanner apps for your phone.
As tempting as it may be to simply put a document on your table and click a picture with your phone, this will not provide the quality in terms of clarity and resolution that the examiners at IRCC want to see. Don’t sabotage your application by taking shortcuts that will result in poor quality, illegible or disorganized documents.
IRCC will accept individual documents (such as where a passport image is requested) in different formats such as PDF or image files (jpg, png, tif), but most documents should be submitted in PDF format.
Under no circumstances should you do what we unfortunately see too often… simply scan files and let them be uploaded as individual pages called scan001, scan002, etc. The examiners will not waste their time with files like this and you can expect your application to be denied.
The next thing to know is that everything that you upload or complete on the website must be in English or French. If you have a document that is not in English or French it must be translated and the translation must be accompanied by an affidavit, notarized in your country, confirming that the translation is true and accurate.
Now that we have covered the basics, let’s look at the website.
When you first go to IRCC website, it will look like Fig. 1 above.
The top part of the site contains announcements, news recent developments, and temporary conditions related to immigration matters. Usually this information will not be important to you and you can scroll past it until you get to the IRCC menu which will look like Fig. 3 below.
Here are links for the different services you can access on the website and where you can create an account or access your account. Most of your application process will be completed under the tab that says “My Application” under Services and Information.
The first thing you must do to use the IRCC website is to create an account. Before you create an account, you can access the information pages and find forms, but none of the steps to apply for a visa will be available until you actually create an account – which is very easy.
When you click on “My Application” you will be taken to this screen.
You will see a section titled sign in with GCKey– this is where you will go later, but for now, to begin, scroll down to the section that says:
“Don’t Have an Account?”
Clicking “Register” will take you to the page titled “Register for an IRCC s
Secure Account.
Do not worry right now about all the instructions… scroll down to the blue box that reads “Register with GCKey”.
Do not use Register with sign-in partner – this is an option for using other platform registrations.
The Register with GCKey option is what you want to use.
Once you click that button you will be taken to the log in/registration screen.
Of course, if you do not have a GCKey account you will select the button that reads “sign up”
On the next screen, you must accept the terms and conditions – and once you have done that, you will be taken to the process of creating your username, password and security questions.
Understand that at this point you are registering with GCKey – NOT IRCC. GCKey is a universal registration system for the government of Canada. You are registering here to obtain a GCKey that you will use to commence your application on the actual IRCC website.
This is not very different from other sites that you have registered on in the past. The instructions give you the requirements for the username and on the next screen, the password. Once the username and password have been accepted, you will be asked to create security questions. Once you have done that, at the end of the process you will see the final screen that asks you to continue.
The Canadian Government has adopted two factor authentication and when you enter the system you will see a screen similar to this where you are asked to select the authentication system you would like to use.
Choose whichever option works best for you. All of these options involve you receiving a multi-character code which must be entered in order to continue on the site.
For this discussion, we have selected the email option, and when selected, you will be presented with this screen, where you enter the email to which you would like the authentication code to be sent.
As soon as you enter an email address the next screen appears, which is where you will enter the code once it is received.
Do not close this window. Leave it and go check your email. It may take a few minutes, but you will receive an email that looks something like this:
Just copy the code, paste in into the IRCC website (that you hopefully did not close) and the next screen you see will relate to recovery codes.
Copy these codes (the screen gives you an option to save them). These codes will allow you to access the system if you have problems with the two factor authentication.
This will complete your GCKey registration and initial log in, and you should see this screen:
This means that you have successfully established your account with GCKey.
Once you have completed the GCKey registration, you can go to the IRCC website and click on “my application”.
To continue, simply go back through the steps we have already shown you, once again you will see this initial screen (Fig. 5)
Select the “sign-in or create account button. It will take you to the same screen you were at before, except this time instead of selecting “register”, select sign in with GCKey.
And you will see this screen
Where you will enter your username and password.
The first time that you access the system, you will be asked to create an account. This will be your IRCC account.
This only asks for your actual name and email. Once you have done that you will be asked to create more security questions. And you are finished!! The next thing you will see is this page
And from this page, you will be able to start your visa application online which we will cover in the next lesson.