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Study permit past the '90-day' mark: what waiting applicants actually experienced

Canada • Study Permit • study 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Step-by-Step

Processing standards shift; this reflects a period (around 2021–22) when study-permit timelines were unusually erratic.

An applicant's consultant claimed IRCC's 90-day study-permit window excludes weekends and holidays. The group couldn't confirm that claim, but the shared experience is the useful part:

  1. Treat published processing times as a rough average, not a promise. Several applicants had crossed 90 days with no update at all — exceeding the stated window is common and not by itself a red flag.

  2. Don't read too much into intermediate statuses. One applicant at day 85 worried their medical hadn't been 'updated'; another member replied they'd seen medicals update on the very same day as passport request (PPR). Silence on one line of your file doesn't mean it isn't moving.

  3. Budget 3–6 months mentally. The most experienced answer: timelines had 'gotten weird for every visa office,' so plan around 3–6 months depending on your situation rather than obsessing over the specific counter.

  4. Ignore unverifiable consultant folklore. Nobody could source the weekends-don't-count claim; when a consultant asserts a processing rule, ask for the IRCC page that says it.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Don't: Don't panic when you pass the published processing time — many applicants cross it and still get approved.
  • Tip: Statuses like medicals can update at the same moment as passport request — a quiet file isn't a dead file.
  • Do: Plan your intake and finances around a 3–6 month decision window rather than the advertised minimum.

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