Student Visa Fee for Canada From Nepal: Full Cost Guide

The permit fee itself: what this page will and will not tell you

The study permit application fee and the biometrics fee for applicants in Nepal are set by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, charged in Canadian dollars, and paid online at the moment you submit your application. This guide does not print an amount for either, because those amounts are revised from time to time and a stale figure copied off a consultancy website is worse than no figure at all — check the current fee on the Government of Canada's official fee list on the day you pay, and pay it yourself so the receipt sits in your own account.

That fee is also the smallest number in your file. The money that actually decides your application is the proof of funds, and the money that decides whether you survive the first year is tuition plus city living costs. Those three are below, exactly as published.

Two things that catch Nepali applicants out

The application fee is not refundable if you are refused. Budget for the possibility of paying it twice.

Second, the fee is a payment, not a qualification. Nobody has ever been approved because they paid on time. They are approved because the funds, the course choice and the study plan hold together.

Proof of funds: the figure that is actually checked

This is the settlement funds requirement, for living costs, shown on top of your first year's tuition and your travel. The amount depends on how many people are coming with you.

The published minimum is what gets you past the checklist. What gets checked is whether the money is genuinely yours and genuinely available. A balance that appeared in the account a week before submission, with no matching salary, business income, land sale deed or loan sanction letter behind it, is the single most common reason a well-qualified Nepali applicant is refused. Show the history and show the source. If a relative is sponsoring you, their income documents matter more than the balance screenshot.

A second point families miss: the funds figure above is for living costs. Tuition is separate and sits on top. Use the Master Reckoner to line up a course's tuition against the funds figure for your family size before you commit to a deposit.

Tuition: what the institutions publish

Tuition is the biggest variable in your budget, and the gap between a Toronto research university and an Ontario or Prairie college is enormous. These are the published international figures, per institution, as supplied.

Read the unit carefully. Fleming and Bow Valley are quoted per semester and per term; the rest are per year. Ranges exist because programmes inside one institution are priced differently — engineering, computing and health almost always sit at the top of the range. Do not budget from the bottom of a range.

Some institutions in our database publish no general fee table and are marked "Verify": Capilano University, University of the Fraser Valley, Lakehead, Nipissing, University of Regina, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, St. Lawrence College, Georgian College, Herzing, NorQuest, University of Lethbridge, UNB, Crandall, Columbia College, FDU Vancouver, Acsenda (application fee $155) and Cambria (not stated). Get the figure in writing from the institution before you show it to anyone.

Living costs by city

These are monthly figures for one person. Where you study changes your budget more than almost any other decision.

For households, our cost model applies a multiplier to the single-person figure: 1 for one person, 1.55 for two, 1.85 for three, 2.15 for four. Do not apply that multiplier to the proof of funds table above — that table already has its own amount for each family size.

Quebec has its own requirements for students, so a Montreal offer is not administratively the same as a Toronto one. Confirm the Quebec-specific steps with the institution.

English requirements, because they set your timeline

Your test score decides which of the fee brackets above you can even apply into. These are the published requirements.

Note the bracketed number — that is the minimum band in each section. A 6.5 overall with a 5.5 in writing fails a "6.5 (6.0)" requirement. Waterloo does not accept Duolingo at all. Re-sitting a test costs you an intake, so plan the test date before you plan the deposit.

Official sources

• University of Toronto — https://future.utoronto.ca
• University of British Columbia — https://you.ubc.ca
• McGill University — https://www.mcgill.ca/undergraduate-admissions/
• University of Waterloo — https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/
• University of Alberta — https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions/
• York University — https://www.yorku.ca/admissions/
• Toronto Metropolitan University — https://www.torontomu.ca/admissions/
• Simon Fraser University — https://www.sfu.ca/students/admission.html
• University of Calgary — https://www.ucalgary.ca/future-students/
• University of Ottawa — https://www.uottawa.ca/study/
• George Brown College — https://www.georgebrown.ca/international
• Bow Valley College — https://bowvalleycollege.ca/programs-and-courses/international

More country pages and step-by-step guides: Canada hub · all guides.

Common questions

How much money do I need in the bank for a Canadian study permit from Nepal?

For a single applicant the settlement funds requirement is $23,448, and it rises with each accompanying family member up to $62,054 for seven, plus $6,318 for each person beyond that. That is for living costs only — your first year's tuition and your airfare are shown separately. The officer looks at where the money came from as closely as at the balance itself.

Is the study permit fee refundable if my application is refused?

No. The application fee is consumed when the application is processed, so a refusal does not return it. Build the possibility of a second application into your budget from the start rather than being caught short.

Can I pay the visa fee through a consultancy?

You can, but pay it from an account you control wherever possible so the receipt and the transaction trail belong to you. Files where the applicant cannot explain who paid what, or produce the payment receipt, create avoidable doubt. Keep every receipt in the same folder as your offer letter and fee payment proof.

Which Canadian city is cheapest for a Nepali student?

On the published monthly figures, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and Fredericton sit at $2,200 and other small cities at $2,100, against $3,500 for Toronto and Vancouver. Lower living costs in the Prairies and Atlantic Canada also pair with lower tuition at institutions such as the University of Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan. Run your shortlist through the Master Reckoner so you compare tuition and city costs side by side before you decide.