January 4, 2010

Visitor Visa – Study Permit

Q. I am from Pakistan and planning to visit Canada in the next 3 or 4 months. I am 20 years old and I am currently studying and just about to finish my Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Glasgow UK. I would like to start my degree program in Aerospace Engineering in Canada. Before registering, I want to visit a few universities in Toronto. I applied for a visitor visa before at the visa office in UK, but was refused. They said that, because of my immigration status, I have to apply from my home country, Pakistan. I would like to visit Canada before April 2010 so that I could register for September 2010. How do I go about this?

A. You state that you are studying in UK, presumably on a study permit there. If this is true, you should be able to apply for a temporary resident visa (visitor, student) from the UK. SO the refusal does not sound right. There is a distinction made between a permanent resident application, which can be done in the country of your citizenship or in the country where you have been legally admitted for at least one year and a temporary resident visa application that you can make in any country where you have been legally admitted, without a set time period. There is something amiss and you may want to consult counsel. Good luck!