Streams & Documentation
Visa Streams
Every stream worth knowing about for eight destinations, in the order you would travel through them — with the published criteria, the official fee, and the exact list of documents you have to produce. Tick off what you already hold.
- Study
Study Permit
Permission to study at a designated learning institution, with limited off-campus work.
Duration
Programme length plus 90 days
Official Fee
CAD 150 plus CAD 85 biometrics
Processing
Varies widely by visa office; plan on 8–16 weeks from India.
Documents
11 to produce
Who it is for: Anyone holding a letter of acceptance and able to show the money without borrowing it for the week of the application.
What goes wrong: Refusals cluster on two things: funds that arrived too recently to look like savings, and a programme that does not follow from what you have already studied. Both are fixable before you file and almost impossible to argue after.
- Post-Study Work
Post-Graduation Work Permit
An open work permit after graduating, for any employer.
Duration
8 months to 3 years, tracking programme length
Official Fee
CAD 255
Processing
Around 3–5 months; you may work while it is pending if applied for in time.
Documents
4 to produce
Who it is for: Graduates of eligible programmes at designated institutions.
What goes wrong: This is the single point where a study plan most often fails, and it fails retroactively. Verify the field of study against the eligible list before paying a deposit — not after graduating.
- Residence
Express Entry
The federal points pool for permanent residence.
Duration
Permanent residence
Official Fee
Around CAD 1,525 per adult, plus assessment and language test costs
Processing
Six months from invitation, as a service standard.
Documents
7 to produce
Who it is for: Skilled workers who clear a round's cut-off. Ten category rounds now run alongside the general one and several cut far lower.
What goes wrong: Arranged employment has been worth zero points since 25 March 2025. Anyone still selling you a job offer for points is working from an out-of-date playbook.
In Plain Language
A written read of the figures above. It works from the calculated numbers only — it cannot look anything up, and it is not a substitute for advice from licensed counsel.
What this tool is, and what it is not
It computes published, public criteria. It tells you what the rules say and how your answers score against them. It does not tell you what to file, how to file it, or how to present your case — and no output from it should be read as doing so.
Under section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, advising or representing someone for a fee on a Canadian immigration application is restricted to authorised representatives. We are not one. Where you need that, we refer you to our partner immigration lawyer, who is licensed to give it, and we take no fee for the referral. Full scope statement.
The Other Tools
Destination Comparator
Where Indians actually go, compared on first-year cost, post-study work rights and realistic time to residence — ranked against what you care about rather than a fixed listicle order.
Profile Evaluator
Score your profile against IRCC's published points grid, then see exactly which improvement is worth the most points.
Pathway Finder
Which routes to Canada are open to you, which are within reach, and which are closed — with the reason stated either way.
Cost & Payback Model
A month-by-month cashflow for the study route. What you spend, what you earn, and where you actually stand after the work permit year.
Program Matcher
Institutions filtered by your budget and your test scores, with field-of-study eligibility checked before you apply.