If you've already paid fees and applied for a study permit based on one university's Letter of Acceptance (LOA), but later receive — and prefer — an offer from a different school, switching is possible but comes with trade-offs.
What group members advised:- Refund eligibility depends entirely on the individual institution's policy. Every university and college sets its own rules, so check directly with the original school before assuming you'll get money back.
- You can switch schools even after your study permit is already in process, and in some cases even after arriving in Canada — but expect it to be a slower, more involved process than a straightforward single-school application.
- Real example shared in the group: one member got an admit from one college, paid fees, and applied for a study permit — then received a second offer from a different university and switched, with their new permit application processing based on the new school. They noted it was workable but took extra time and coordination.
- Regardless of which school you finally study at, this kind of switch can add processing delays, so weigh how much you value the second offer against the time cost of restarting parts of the process.
Bottom line: switching is doable, but check the refund policy first, and be prepared for a longer timeline than if you'd applied to your preferred school from the start.