On January 18, 2025, a ministerial order was released that authorizes the requirement to collect Provincial Attestation Letters (PAL) and specified additional groups of students who will require a PAL for the 2025 year, including master’s degree and doctoral degree students. As of Jan 22, 2025, most graduate students require a PAL to apply for a study permit.
UBC has received sufficient allocation to issue PALs for all newly admitted graduate degree-seeking students. As of Monday, Feb 3, 2025, UBC started issuing and distributing PAL via email to admitted students who accept their admission offer. Newly admitted graduate degree-seeking students will receive their PAL within 3 business days after having accepted their graduate degree admission offer. In the meantime, applicants can work on preparing their study permit application.
Common Applicant Questions
A Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) is a formal document that verifies you have a spot in the given year’s provincial allocation and is included in the federal cap to submit a study permit application.
Most students will need to provide a PAL in their study permit application. The most common situations where students need to provide a PAL are:
- You apply for a study permit from outside Canada.
- You change Canadian institutions and need to apply for a new study permit.
- You are a UBC undergraduate student who will begin/has begun graduate studies. If you need to extend your study permit, you will require a PAL because you are changing your study level (from undergraduate to graduate).
The most common situations where you do not need to provide a PAL are:
- You are a current UBC graduate degree seeking student who is extending your study permit to continue graduate studies, whether you finished your first graduate program or not (even if you switch between master’s degree and doctoral degree programs).
- You were previously a UBC undergraduate student whose study permit is still valid. You can study at the graduate level with your current study permit (if you need to extend your study permit, a PAL will be required).
- You are eligible for a temporary policy allowing work permit holders to study without a study permit. (If you need to apply for a study permit to finish your program, a PAL will be required).
- You are from certain countries which have a temporary public policy and apply for your study permit before the policy expires.
Full details about PALs can be found on the IRCC PAL webpage.
PALs will include your name, date of birth, and address, which will be automatically pulled from the program application.
You should double check your personal details in the graduate application system eVision and on the admission letter before accepting the offer. You should confirm that your name matches your name as it appears on your passport, and that your date of birth and address are correct. If changes are required, please contact graduate.apply@ubc.ca. The PAL will be issued based on this information and a PAL cannot be reissued if your personal details are incorrect.
- PALs only support first and last names, they do not take middle names into account. You are advised to enter your legal first and last names as shown on your passport as part of your program application to ensure that the information on the admission letter is consistent with the information on the PAL. If your passport has a separate field for middle name(s) and you entered your middle name into the graduate application, it will show on your admission letter, but not on your PAL. This cannot be changed and based on experience and correspondence with IRCC is not a cause for concern.
- When you are considering whether to use a current address at the time of application or your permanent address, you should be consistent and use the same address which you will have continued access to. The address on your admission letter, PAL and study permit application should be the same.
- Not all address details you enter in the program application form will be shown on the PAL. Information from address line 2, postal code and province/state will not be included on the PAL.
If your PAL has already been issued with incorrect information, you must write a letter of explanation in your study permit application to explain the discrepancy. Contact International Student Advising for support.
Not all address details you enter in the graduate program application form will be shown on the PAL. Information from address line 2, postal code and province/state will not be included on the PAL. This is not an issue of concern and won't cause problems with your study permit application.
PALs only support first and last names, the provincial system does not offer an option to record middle names. If your passport has a separate field for middle name(s) and you entered your middle name into the graduate application, it will show on your admission letter, but not on your PAL. This cannot be changed and based on experience and correspondence with IRCC is not a cause for concern.
UBC distributes PAL via email to you after you accept your graduate degree admission offer. You will usually receive your PAL within 5 business days after having accepted your graduate degree admission offer. If you do not receive your PAL within this time frame you should reach out to your admitting graduate program. In the meantime, you can work on preparing your study permit application.
The PAL only needs to be valid when you submit your complete study permit application to IRCC. The PAL does not need to be valid when you travel to Canada or when you begin your program.
For example: if an applicant starts in May 2026, they can apply with a PAL issued in 2025, as long as the complete study permit application is received by IRCC before Dec 31, 2025. Applications must be submitted before 11:59pm EST on December 31, 2025, in order for their PAL to be valid, and IRCC considers applications based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) 11:59pm, not local time zones, so applicants should not apply at the last minute and should submit their study permit application at least a day before December 31.
If your admission letter and PAL both show the same address, but your address has recently changed, it won't be possible to update your admission letter and PAL to the new address prior to submitting your study permit application. Instead, prepare a letter of explanation to accompany your study permit application, highlighting the following:
- Your previous mailing address at the time of your program application to UBC and PAL issuance - explain that the mailing address is the same in both documents,
- The change in mailing address, ideally along with documentation demonstrating the exact date when you relocated,
- Write your current mailing address (in bold) on the letter of explanation.
Ensure to use your current mailing address in the application form for the study permit.
There are two kinds of level of studies, where there are different PALs for each level of study:
- Graduate-level PALs: for master’s degree and doctoral degree programs
- Undergraduate-level PALs: for all other programs (including undergraduate bachelor’s degrees, graduate certificates and graduate diplomas)
This means:
- A UBC undergraduate student going into a master’s or Doctoral degree who needs to extend their study permit will require a graduate PAL.
- A UBC student in a Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma program changing/laddering into a master’s program will require a graduate PAL.
- A UBC Visiting International Research Student going into a master’s or Doctoral degree program will require a graduate PAL.
- A UBC master’s student going into a Doctoral degree program will not require a PAL since it is the same graduate level of study.
Whether a new PAL will be required depends on your program start date, when you accept your offer, and the time of year.
PALs only need to be valid at the time when you submit your study permit application, and it does not need to be valid when you travel to Canada or when you begin your program.
In most cases, changing your program start date or deferring will not require a new PAL.
For example:
- Changing your start date from Sep 2025, to Jan 2026: you may receive your admission offer sometime between January to April, 2025, accept before June and thus receive a PAL from the current year (in this example, a 2025 PAL with a validity to 31 Dec 2025). As long as you submit a complete study permit application by Dec 31, 2025, the PAL is valid at the time you apply and can still be used for the Jan 2026 start date.
- A deferral from Sep 2025 to Sep 2026: you may receive your offer sometime between January to April, 2025, accept before June and thus receive a PAL from the current year (in this example, a 2025 PAL with a validity to 31 Dec 2025). As long as you submit a complete study permit application by Dec 31, 2025, the PAL is valid at the time you apply and can still be used for the Sep 2026 start date.
It is critical that you apply before your PAL expires, even though your program will start in the following year.
Under certain situations, you may end up accepting an offer for one program, then later accept an offer for another UBC program. As long as all programs are at UBC and are in the same graduate level of study, you will not require a second or additional PAL. This applies across both UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses. While the name of the first accepted program will be printed on the PAL, that PAL can be used for other programs at the same Designated Learning Institution (DLI) and at the same level of studies.