Overview
OCAS was selected by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) to create the Ontario Attestation Letter Service.
Our service addresses the January 2024 announcement by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) of an intake cap on international study permit applications, along with the requirement that every new study permit application submitted to IRCC must be accompanied by a provincial attestation letter (PAL) from a province or territory.
The Ontario Attestation Letter Service enables designated learning institutions (DLIs) to:
- Upload a list of students requiring provincial attestation letters
- View the status of submitted PAL requests
- Download a zip file with PALs approved by the MCU
- Access reports relating to the PAL process
Background
According to new requirements from Immigration Refugee Citizenship Canada (IRCC), as of January 22, 2024, international students requesting a study permit application to Canada must acquire a provincial attestation letter from the province or territory where they intend to study.
The attestation letter serves as proof that the student has been accounted for under the provincial allocation and that the college has the capacity within its allocation to offer the applicant a new study permit.
The PAL is then submitted to the IRCC along with the study permit application, payment receipt, and Letter of Acceptance from the post-secondary institution.
Features and Benefits
Simple and accessible solution: Generate attestation letters in three easy steps: 1) bulk upload student information, 2) get approval from the MCU, and 3) download the attestation letters. We designed our service to be as simple and efficient as possible.
Easily request PALs: Our portal enables users to import a list of students who require PALs. This process makes it easy for bulk uploads and PAL requests.
Efficiently manage allocations: The Ontario Attestation Letter Service represents a single, centralized portal for DLI’s and the MCU to manage provincial attestation letters. The service provides an interactive dashboard that shows users total student allocation, issued letters, remaining capacity, and includes mechanisms that ensure institutions do not exceed their allocated PALs.
Mitigate mistakes: Our service has built-in error handling and validation processes. This means that our system will alert users if they are submitting duplicate PAL requests or other common errors.
We’d love to hear from you
If you are interested in OCAS' offerings, we’d love to hear from you to learn more about your requirements, processes, and needs.
