The Road to Canada for Aspiring International Students

Teresa Chen

The Vancouver School Board’s (“VSB”) international student program gives international students the opportunity to study abroad in, according to the VSB, “excellent schools offering courses in academics, fine arts, technology, languages, and athletics.”

Students can apply to study for one year – like Chika Inagaki (11), an international student from Japan. They can apply to study for many years, the end goal being to graduate with a grade 12 diploma, – like David Li (12), an international student from China. Or, they can even apply to study for just one summer. No matter their intentions, international students must go through a months long application process to get from their home country to Canada.

The first step is to find a school board to apply to. Inagaki browsed the web for school boards and emailed some that interested her before picking the VSB.

“It’s been one of my dreams to study in North America ever since I started studying English! Vancouver is an amazing place to learn language education, which is what I’m passionate about. Vancouver is also famous for its safe environment and its beautiful nature so I wanted to come study here so badly!” she told The Nest in an interview.

Li said his mom searched around online for school boards and they ended up deciding on the VSB.

“I picked the VSB over other school boards primarily because of its safety. Also, the secondary schools under the VSB’s administration have good academic reputations,” he explained.

The next step is to apply. Contrary to local students, international students can, if applying for a school year, choose to start their school year in either September or February. Li applied to start school in September 2019. He started school with the VSB at the beginning of his 9th-grade year. Inagaki, however, applied to start school in February

2022. She started school with the VSB in the middle of her 10th-grade year.

In their application to the VSB’s international student program, students need to submit an application form, English versions of their original transcripts or school records from the past three years, an immunization record, a participation agreement, and a $300 application fee. Li told The Nest that he also had to pick his top three VSB schools.

When applying to the VSB, applicants can choose to hire an agent to help them with the application process. Both Li and Inagaki applied to the VSB without agents.

“It was a pretty easy process to apply to the school board even though I did everything on my own,” Inagaki commented.

Li didn’t see the need for an agent. “[My mom and I] didn’t think there would be a difference between us handing in our preferences or the agent handing in our preferences on our behalf. Therefore, we did it ourselves,” he elaborated.

After applying, students must wait for the VSB to review their application. According to the VSB, the main factors for selecting students are educational background and present academic standing, as well as the number of spots available. Because of the limited amount of spots, the VSB recommends applying early. The VSB then emails the student within 10 business days to let them know whether they have been accepted.

The international education section on the VSB’s website indicates that accepted students must pay a $16,000 tuition fee and a $1,100 compulsory medical fee each school year. Students must pay these fees immediately after receiving their placement letter, either by certified cheque, money order, or bank transfer payable to the VSB.

Accepted students must also receive a study permit from the Canadian Embassy or Canadian Consulate in their home country.

“I was asked to submit my financial and educational background. Then, we had to verify our information with the embassy to make sure everything was true,” Li illustrated.

“You just prepare and send all the documents – including authentic documents, some essays to show the purpose of your stay, the document that proves your family income, Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from your school board, and more,” Inagaki detailed. She voiced that the documents for the permit took her a month or two to prepare.

During this step, students can once again choose to apply with an agent. While Li did not apply with an agent, Inagaki did.

“If there’s a little mistake on a document, they reject your request and it takes a while to be accepted and you can’t start going to school despite having paid the tuition fee! Also, the protocols change quite often, so there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get a study permit on time,” she explained. Applying with an agency would help “make sure that [she’d] be accepted”.

When asked how long the process took, both Li and Inagaki said that it took them around half a year. They were both pleasantly surprised by how fast the process was. Li remarked that it took his friends, who also wanted to study abroad, eight months. Inagaki mentioned that she too had heard that it would take longer.

Inagaki believes that in general, the application process was convenient – especially applying to the VSB.

“I was able to submit everything online and didn’t have to go anywhere except for the time I recorded my fingerprints!” she exclaimed. But not everything was easy for her.

“I found it hard to apply for a study permit by myself.”

On the other hand, Li found it to be a bit more challenging.

“I think the only hard thing at that time was language. I was not very good at English at the time and didn’t trust machine translation,” he explained.

The VSB recommends that students arrive in Vancouver at least half a month before their school year starts. After arriving in Vancouver, but before starting school, students must also register at the international education office.

According to Li, students must also take the VSB language proficiency exam, which he took in late August 2019. This exam is meant to determine an international student’s English level and place them into an English class for the following school year.

Students must then attend an orientation and assessment, where they will select courses.

“We were sitting in a circle and briefly introduced ourselves. Ms. Gomes showed us around the school and introduced staff members we could find under several scenarios (mainly the international department and the counsellors),” Li revealed.

During their time in Vancouver, students must also find their own living accommodations, such as a homestay, or living with a relative or family friend. Parents of international students can email the international office at intered@vsb.bc.ca for a list of homestay providers. Homestay providers are responsible for managing host family availability, fees, policies, and application procedures.