International Students – Financial

There are plenty of things to know before coming to Canada, financial, Cultural and legal aspects are a few aspects that need special attention before making any plans to arrive in Canada. 

Financially, parents of students need to be prepared to pay for their children’s Tuition fee, which varies from $6000 to $10,000 a semester for a typical full time semester and other expenses.

  Also, students need to be mentally prepared to work part-time, when they are studying full time in college. Also, Students should have $2000 CAD ready, when they arrive in Canada. There are a lot of expenses incurred as soon as you land in Canada, for example a place to live in, transportation, food etc. 

Parents are supposed to invest $10,000 in a GIC (Guaranteed Investment Certificate) account, the amount has recently been increased to $20,000. This account provides approximately $670 to students every month and $2,000, when the student opens their account. This account helps students cover a part of their expenses for a year. A few examples of the banks that are well known for safe GIC accounts are Scotiabank, ICICI bank, tangerine, TD bank, RBC bank etc. 

A lot of students are not familiar with the taxes that are added to everything they buy, which can be of a little shock to them at first. Every province has a different taxing system, in BC for instance everything that a person buys comes with 7% PST (provincial sales tax) and 5% GST (Goods and services tax). 

It is important for a student to think about and process all of the above information before making any decision to study in Canada.