I found it really, really, tough to find out if I needed one of these visas for my 15-week language course in French as a Foreign Language at Université Laval, Québec. In fact, I flew to Canada still not 100% sure if I was going to need one or not, and hoping that I wasn’t going to be turned away.

I can’t advise you strongly enough to do your own research on these but, as I now understand it, you require a CAQ if you are going to spend more than 3 months in Québec - it’s not needed for the 15-week course I took though. A CAQ is also necessary if you want to get a job, even on campus, while you are there. It is a different form to a study permit, which is necessary for all of Canada in some cases.

UK citizens aren’t normally required to have a visa to enter Canada and, further, I was never asked by the Université to produce a study permit, visa or CAQ of any kind. Again, however, you should definitely do your own research on this, appropriate to your intended activities in Canada.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website and Quebec Immigration Service are probably the best sites I found. Obviously, you should also contact the university, especially if it’s in the province of Québec.

Author: Ed Mason