Find Out Why Your Visa Application Was Refused

If you have been refused a study permit, visitor visa, work permit, permanent residence, or any other type of application, you received a refusal letter from IRCC with the officer’s reasons for refusal of the application. However, the refusal letter only contains basic information with generic phrases to show which reasons for refusal apply to your case.

The refusal letter does not go into detail about what exact circumstances in your case caused the officer to refuse the application.

For example, many visitor visa refusal letters state that the officer “does not believe the applicant will leave Canada”. This type of generic reasoning does not explain what went wrong with your application, or how you can address this problem in a new application.

However, the officer’s notes about the grounds for refusal will go into more detail about the problems in the application, which will help you understand why the application was refused and how you can do better next time.

Study Permit / Study Visa – Refusal Notes

Nearly all refusals for Canadian study permit applications are based in section 216 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations:

216 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), an officer shall issue a study permit to a foreign national if, following an examination, it is established that the foreign national

(a) applied for it in accordance with this Part;

(b) will leave Canada by the end of the period authorized for their stay under Division 2 of Part 9;

(c) meets the requirements of this Part;

(d) meets the requirements of subsections 30(2) and (3), if they must submit to a medical examination under paragraph 16(2)(b) of the Act; and

(e) has been accepted to undertake a program of study at a designated learning institution

If you have submitted a study permit application to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), you are entitled to see the detailed notes of the immigration officer who refused the application.

The refusal letter that provides the reasons for refusal of the study permit usually contains reasons which are vague and unclear, especially depending on what documentation was submitted with the application. Frequently, applications are refused for reasons which appear to have no relevance to the applicant’s personal situation.

When making the decision to approve or refuse any application, officers are required to state their reasons for doing so. You can apply for the GCMS notes for the application which includes the reasons the officer has refused the application.

You can also apply for the notes for an application which is still in process, including if it has gone beyond the official processing time.