Immigration
Your status at UBC
The Visiting International Research Student (VIRS) Program is considered full-time studies for which accepted students will be engaged in research under the supervision of a UBC faculty member. Furthermore, the research a student will engage in forms a student-institution relationship and not an employment relationship with UBC.
Length of Your VIRS Program
As noted on the Application Step-by-Step guide, here are some tips on required immigration documents.
- Six (6) months or less = students can complete their research under visitor status with a Temporary Resident Visa or Electronic Travel Authorization, depending on citizenship.
- Longer than six (6) months = students will require a study permit in which you will need to upload your LoA and a PAL, the latter you will have to request from UBC.
- See how to apply for an initial study permit, and see processing times for various immigration document applications on the Government of Canada website.
Find out which document you need by completing this online questionnaire. If you are applying for a study permit from outside of Canada, you do not need to apply separately for a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) or Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA). These are required to enter Canada as a temporary resident and depending on your country of citizenship/nationality, you will either need a TRV or eTA, but not both.
If you have questions about immigration documents, please contact us at virs.okanagan@ubc.ca. Make sure to include your UBC student number, your country of citizenship, and the length of time of your VIRS studies. If you are refused by Canadian immigration, please contact us immediately and we will work with our UBC immigration advisors to review your case and inform you of your options.
- Verify your personal information (for example, legal name, date of birth, permanent address, etc.) is correct on your student application in the Go Global Student Application Portal and on the VIRS Letter of Acceptance. If the information needs to be updated, you MUST notify Go Global within five business days of the email notification about your admission and prior to accepting your offer of admission.
- Accept your UBC admission offer in the Applicant Service Centre. Your acceptance to UBC is only confirmed after you accept your admission offer. You have three weeks from the date of your acceptance letter to accept your offer.
- Review the following requirements. To be eligible for a PAL, you must meet all of the following:
- Your VIRS research duration is more than six months
- You did not submit a study permit application before Jan. 22, 2024
- You have verified that the personal information in your VIRS letter of acceptance is correct and matches the information in your passport (legal name, date of birth, permanent address, etc
*Admitted VIRS will have visiting student status at UBC and are not considered to be studying in a master’s degree or doctoral degree program at UBC, even if enrolled in a graduate program. For that reason, those students are not exempt from the PAL requirement and need to obtain a PAL for their study permit application. See more details here.
4. Complete the PAL Request Form.
5. UBC will issue your PAL, if you need one. Go Global will forward your request to be processed, and email you the PAL directly once ready. This document is used for initial study permit applications from outside Canada. This process will take approximately two weeks after receiving your form.
*Because of the limited number of PALs available, students will only receive one PAL. You MUST ensure all information is correct prior to accepting your admission offer. We are unable to re-issue PALs due to incorrectly submitted information (wrong birthdate, misspelled name, incorrect address, etc.).
