An applicant filed a study permit application (via the then-active SDS stream) for a 2-year course starting Fall 2022, with a passport expiring around September 2023 — and panicked because the SOP never mentioned the expiry. The thread's guidance:
- Not mentioning the passport expiry in the SOP is not a refusal ground. Two members were confident on this: officers see the passport's validity on its face; the SOP doesn't need to flag it.
- Expect the permit to be limited to the passport's validity. The realistic outcome discussed: a permit issued up to (around) the passport expiry date rather than the full course length. That's an inconvenience, not a rejection.
- Renew the passport when eligible, then inform IRCC via webform. The plan members converged on: renew once inside the eligibility window and notify IRCC through the webform so the permit can be extended/aligned with the new passport from inside Canada.
- Mind home-country renewal rules. A practical wrinkle raised in-thread: Indian passport rules only allow renewal within 1 year of expiry, which is why the applicant couldn't simply renew before applying. Build that timing into your plan rather than treating it as a crisis.
(Thread is from 2022 and references the SDS stream, which has since been discontinued; the passport-validity principles apply to regular study permit applications too.)