I’m traveling from Nigeria and I haven’t booked my flight yet. I’m waiting till mid or late July to book.
International Students (approved before 18) need an 'essential' reason to travel to Canada.
- Thread starter Dafaqisgoingon
- Start date
Hey guys, I just tried calling CBSA again today. The agent spoke to me saying that we're not allowed to come if first time traveling and taking courses online. That's non-essential. Don't know what's happening. I told her about the time zone, but she said unfortunately, it's a no.
I'm trying to delay my travel till August 1
Yea by first week of August. It’s best to postpone travel until August as leaving now makes such travel non-essential. Imagine paying rent and feeding when there’s no job.
I'm considering August 1 or 2 actually, but maybe 2. But just called CBSA again and they told me online classes = non-essential. Don't really know what to do now.
Can a student get permission to travel from CBSA before traveling by explaining his/her situation by email? And by convincing them that their travel is essential ?
I believe you can't. I tried emailing them, explaining my situation, but then only an automatic reply. Even if you call the CBS agents, they will tell you that the final decision is made upon your arrival at the border. The agents can't confirm anything.
Hey guys, just come in contact with the friend who traveling first time. When she got to the border, the border officer (BO) searched for her school name and told her that her school was closed but online classes are still operating. Then the BO asked her that if the classes were online, why she need to come as she can still study in the home country. She explained the time zone difference and also her family member in Canada is seriously sick that needs someone to take care of. The BO asked her to submit all the documents as evidence to what she said. After checking, the BO decided to let her in.
Thank you so much for posting this information!
That doesn't make sense at all, right - the BO asking them why they need to come if classes are held online as they still can study from country...? Like what even man? Let's imagine all universities have online courses even for the Jan - April term, except things like science labs and all. So those who do subjects like economics, business, english, social sciences, etc will have only online classes.
Does that mean we have to finish the entire studies in our home country online? That's so stupid on their part to ask people why they need to come if they have online courses. The thing is we don't know when the University will go back to in-class, or till how long online mode will continue. So it doesn't make sense to finish a degree, graduate degree in my case, just from my home country.
They don't seem to understand that the "online" nature of our course is because of Covid. Otherwise, we all will have in-class courses. Plus they said we are exempt if we have the approval before March 18. So why this irrelevant question about online courses now? Just goes above my head.
@vhptanh@97 , if you don't mind, is this friend going to start studying for the fall term, or is already studying online from may?
She was there for Summer Semester. She got in on June 5 I believe
That I think makes sense...I'm not sure. Maybe they allowed because the semester already started.
Those who travel in june for the fall are surely going very early. Maybe that explains the many boarding denials...
I don't really ask when she starts, but summer semester has classes that start in July
Oh I thought it way May.
But then July means she travelled one month before, on June 5. Maybe CBSA is okay with 1 month.
Will ask her.
In addition, she told me that when she transitted at Incheon, before boarding, the flight agents/attendants at check-in counters checked her documents (visa and LOA) really carefully. She told me that the airline has to check if she is going to be admitted to let her board the plane
Is she going to study some technician type program? With mandatory labs, i mean.