In accordance with the first paragraph of Article 220 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the prerequisite for a student visa is having sufficient, readily available financial resources to pay for tuition fees. However, an important question that may arise about this paragraph is whether the financial resources specified in Article 220 are required to cover the tuition fees for the entire period of study or only the first year.
The document that we will be reviewing below is one of the latest rulings issued by the Federal Court of Canada in 2023 regarding this matter.
Roudehchianahmadi v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2023 FC 626
In this document, an Iranian individual applies to the New York Institute of Technology in Vancouver for a student visa for a Master’s in Energy Management. The study period would last two years, and the tuition fees would be $21,000, but the application is rejected for not having enough financial resources to cover the entire period of study. Therefore, the applicant proceeds with a legal appeal to the federal court.
On appeal, the court initially investigates the procedures at work for this matter; thus, the instructions issued by the Minister of Immigration, which are normally the standard criteria for reviewing student visa applications, are analyzed.
Court verdict: the court initially investigates the procedures at work for this matter. The instructions issued by the Minister of Immigration are then mentioned and presented in their entirety. In the instructions, it is stated that:
“Students are required to demonstrate financial sufficiency for only the first year of studies, regardless of the duration of the course or program of studies in which they are enrolled. In other words, a single student entering a four-year degree program with an annual tuition fee of $15,000 must demonstrate funds of $15,000 to satisfy the requirements and not the full $60,000 that would be required for four years. Officers should be satisfied however that the probability of funding for future years does exist (i.e., parents are employed);”
Accordingly, students are required to prove they can afford to pay for the tuition fees of the first year only, no matter how long the period of study is, and, as per the example set forth, if an individual is applying for a four-year major with a grand total tuition of $60,000, they will only need to prove that they can afford to pay the tuition fees for the first year, which is $15,000.
However, as also underlined above, it is very important that the responding immigration officer be convinced that there is also a possibility of being able to afford the tuition fees for the following years as well, for instance through a parent who will start a job soon and can therefore financially support the applicant.
In this case, the court rules that the responding officer needs to review the applicant’s presented documents, and, if a potential to afford to pay the tuition fees of the following years is not found, they can then proceed with rejecting the application. However, if the officer rejects the application without going through the applicant’s presented documents first and proving that they have searched for a potential to pay, this will be considered a reason to invalidate the officer’s decision.
The judge tending to this case rightfully explains that the officer has not mentioned this matter while making a decision, failing to show whether or not the relevant supporting documents have been reviewed.
Therefore, the federal court invalidates the officer’s decision and sends the application back to the immigration office for re-investigation.
Ultimately, the presented financial documents only need to cover the first year of the study period, however the responding officer may reject the application if, after reviewing the presented documents, they come to the conclusion that there is no possibility of being able to pay for the tuition fees of the following years.
