I have just married my Canadian husband after a four year long distance relationship, and I've come to Ontario from the States to live with him while we apply for PR under inland spousal. I am in Canada on a Visitor Permit that prohibits working or studying in Canada until I have AIP. My 13 yr old (Grade 8) child is immigrating with me. Ontario Education Act says that it is illegal to refuse to admit any child under 18 years of age into school because their parent or guardian is in Canada without immigration status. Canadian International Law states basically the same. I am not here without immigration status, but I am here, technically, as a visitor on a permit that says "No Study". I read somewhere that a child is entitled to go to school here UNLESS their parent is here as a visitor. Thus, my dilemna. We have a letter of invitation from the local public school, but we were told (before our marriage) that Immigration Canada requires a Study Permit. Unfortunately the Study Permit application is not at all applicable to a minor child applying to study in Canada, and others (local CIC, MPs office) have told us it's not necessary. So does anyone have experience with this? Can my child attend public school while we are under an inland spousal PR ap? Can she go simply because her step-parent is a Canadian citizen? Does my husband (or my ex-husband) need to do anything to facilitate this (ie Custodianship Declaration found with info on Study Permit)? Any help would be appreciated.
we went through this.. your son NEEDS a study permit.. we got 3 study permits at the POE (Sarnia), before we even had an application in for PR..
i dont' know how the application reads, cuz we were just given them ( at $125 a peice!).. but you may need to take a drive to the border and ask them..
Ontario changed teir rules regarding accepting kids in public school, the rules are now that as long as the childs biological parent(s) have an application in for PR and have proof of that application, then the school boards have to accetpt them.. BUT they do need a study permit.. our school board asked for them, and we later asked again at Niagara Falls POE and they told us the same thing.. I was also told this a few years ago by a CIC IO at a local office, and again by the IO who finalized our case this past year..
so somewho you need to get a study permit, after that, you're good to go..
get this, when we first got here, the school board wanted $8200 per child to attend school for a year! we said screw that (we had 3, but even 1 is not worth it) and they stayed home for a year.. joys..
you know, we filled out study permit applications, well, they were renewals, last fall, cuz the first ones expired.. we never sent in payment, so the app's were rejected, but we filled them out for the kids, what problems are you finding while filling the form out?? if there's a weird part of the application, then just send in a letter with it, stating whats going on.. but you'd be better off going to N falls and walking accross the bridge and back (go visit Goat Island , it's nice, while you're in NY, lol) and get a visa there, much faster.. they offered renewals to us, but we didnt' want to shell out another $375 that day, so they let us go with the ones that we had, expiring in 10 days, and said to mail an app w/o payment, as that would take a month or two to process, and should hold us over till our app was closer to finalization.. lol..
Man, I wish these people would get their acts together! First the local CIC office said my child couldn't go to school until after PR was granted. A year later the school said all we needed was to show that we had paid the fees for PR, and they enrolled her. Then the district sent the invite letter with a little "sticky" note on it that said this was for the Study Permit. Then an IO at the border said we had to go to the Consulate in Buffalo to get a Study Permit; then, later, the local CIC said get the Study Permit at the border, along with a Visitor Permit. So we went to the border and asked for a Visitor Permit and a Study Permit - and we got refused re-entry to Canada and told not to come back until we were married! So then, after we knew we were getting married and that we were going back we wanted to be sure we wouldn't be stopped and refused re-entry again so my hubby talked with the MP's office and they contacted the local CIC office who told us it wasn't necessary for my child to have a study permit to go to school. We got married, and we were allowed back in, and the IO at the border gave us a Visitor Permit - no mention whatsoever about a Study Permit. This is making me nuts!!!
I'm sorry.. :( I know how frusterating it is when they all tell you different things.. we had our share of conflicting stories too..
I know that you do for sure need a study permit, we were told this many many times, by different ppl, CIC and School board.. as for how the best way is to get it I dont' know.. but yes, if you have the study visa and you have paid your PR processing fee's your child can go to school in Ontario..
this new ruling regarding no payment for school fee's came into affect on Sept of 2005 for the 05/06 chool year.. leg was passed in April of '05.. before that you had to pay, but CIC still had to grant you a study permit..
I arrived in Canada ,Ontario in 1996 accompanied by my children who were 4 and 7 years who also had a tourist visa for 6 months.
I married my boyfriend a month later, so I applied for permanent residence for me and my daughters, and while I did the request for a temporary student visa for my daughter who was 7 years old. (I did not have to submit a letter of acceptance from an educational institution in place because of the application where they ask information about the school that she was going ... I wrote that we were applying for permanent resident in the process ....( it means I do not have to pay for her to study so I paid the price for her application and the price of extending the tourist visa for me and my younger daughter and asked to extend for two years since we did not know how long it took to run the process ) months later, we received a tourist visa for two years and for her temporary student for a year when we receive the permanent residence papers I presented the school.