Canada study permit from Nepal, now that SDS is gone

The Student Direct Stream is gone, it was permanently discontinued on 8 November 2024, so every applicant from Nepal now uses the standard study permit route. That means more documentation, a heavier burden on your financial evidence, and a realistic timeline of eight to twelve weeks rather than a few.

If your information about studying in Canada is more than a year old, most of it is wrong. Here is the current shape of it.

What changed, and why it matters to you

SDS was the fast lane. You put a fixed GIC in place, met a set English score, and got a quicker, more predictable decision. It is closed.

On the standard route nothing is presumed. An officer reads your file and forms a judgement about whether you are a genuine student who can pay and who will comply. That is a higher bar for exactly the kind of applicant SDS used to protect, a decent student with tidy but not enormous family finances.

Three consequences worth internalising:

• Your financial evidence has to tell a story, not just hit a number. Where the money came from matters as much as that it is there.
• Timelines are longer and less predictable. Plan backwards from the intake with real margin.
• Weak files that used to squeak through no longer do.

The money, precisely

Requirement	Amount	Notes
Living costs, single applicant, from 1 Sep 2026	CAD 23,448	Up from CAD 22,895
First year tuition	As per your offer	On top of the above
Travel to and from Canada	Actual cost	On top again
Typical GIC	CAD 20,635	Below the living-cost requirement, see below

Read that last row carefully, because it catches people. A GIC of CAD 20,635 does not by itself satisfy a CAD 23,448 living-cost requirement. You need the difference evidenced somewhere else. Students who assume "GIC done, funds done" get refused for insufficient funds while holding a GIC certificate.

The PAL, and why you cannot chase it yourself

The Provincial Attestation Letter confirms your province has allocated you one of the capped international student places. Without it, a standard application is not going anywhere.

Your institution applies for it, after you accept the offer and pay the tuition deposit. You cannot obtain one independently, and no consultancy can conjure one. If someone tells you they can accelerate a PAL, be sceptical.

The practical implication is about sequencing: offer → accept → deposit → PAL → then lodge. Students who try to lodge before the PAL arrives simply waste the attempt.

What actually gets Nepali applicants refused

In my experience the refusals cluster in four places, and only one of them is about money in the account.

1. Funds that appear from nowhere. A balance that jumps into existence six weeks before lodgement, with no history and no explained source, reads as borrowed for the purpose. Show the trail: the sale, the loan sanction, the accumulated income.

2. A course that does not follow from your past. A BBA graduate applying for a diploma in hospitality has to explain that, convincingly and in advance. Officers ask why you are apparently stepping backwards or sideways, and "it was easier to get in" is the honest answer that fails.

3. Weak ties to Nepal. The study permit is temporary. You need a credible account of what you return to.

4. Inconsistency across the file. Your SOP says one thing about your sponsor, your bank documents say another. This is the most avoidable refusal there is and it is remarkably common.

The Nepal-side paperwork nobody tells you about first

Before your fees can leave Nepal you need your NOC from the Ministry of Education, the bank cannot legally remit tuition without it under Nepal Rastra Bank's rules. Because the PAL depends on your deposit, and your deposit depends on the remittance, and the remittance depends on the NOC, this sits earlier in your timeline than most students expect. We walk through it in the NOC guide.

You will also need the ordinary Nepali financial set: bank balance certificate, sponsor's tax clearance, source of income evidence, relationship certificate from the ward office, and a property valuation where land is the collateral.

A realistic timeline

When	What
5–6 months out	Offer accepted, deposit planned, NOC started
4–5 months out	NOC issued, fees remitted, PAL requested by the institution
3–4 months out	Financial documents assembled, SOP written and checked
3 months out	Application lodged
8–12 weeks	Processing

If that looks generous, it is not. It is what a file needs when nothing goes wrong.

Before you commit money

Work out the true figure first. OfficeYak's funds calculator puts tuition, living costs, the CAD 23,448 requirement, travel and the Nepal-side charges together and gives you the total in rupees, including the gap a GIC alone will not cover.

Then run your paperwork through the document checklist, which knows what Canada asks for at your stage and flags where your file contradicts itself before an officer finds it.

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Figures correct as at 30 August 2026. The living-cost requirement changes and IRCC policy has moved repeatedly since 2024, always confirm the current amount on the IRCC site before you rely on it.