we now have a buyer for our house (touch wood) and paul is about to apply to the cic for the work permit now that we have his labour force thing through, what i need to know is do we have to apply for the kids study permits at the same time as the work permit, or can we do it from manitoba, i did do a search but its still clear as mud to me, and as pauls stressed out beyond belief and we just might end up killing each other before we get out there at this rate, straight forward answers that a two year old could understand would be a great help ( if just for the sake of my sanity)

If your children are minors (defined as 17 and under in some provinces and 18 and under in other provinces), they can accompany the parent who is entering Canada on a work permit, and they do not need to apply for study permits.

The work permit application has spaces to include the names of family members whom the applicant would like to accompany him/her to Canada. It is very important that Paul include your name and your children's names on that form.

Adults who go to Canada to study need study permits, as do unaccompanied minor children who go to Canada to study.

Edited to add this:

The instructions about who needs and who does not need a study permit are confusing. This page of CIC's website states:


I have phoned the Calgary Board of Education and asked them about this very point. They have told me that they accept a child who has accompanied a parent who has come to Canada on a permanent residence permit, a work permit or a study permit. That is, the child's right to reside in Calgary for a reasonable length of time (a year, if I remember correctly) in and of itself gives that child the right to register in Calgary's public (meaning government-funded) school system.

However, I have long since learned that many aspects of Canadian life differ from province to province and sometimes even from city to city, so it would help if you specified the school jurisdiction to which you would be moving and did the appropriate research for that jurisdiction.

From my memory of previous posts on this forum, children of work permit holders also are allowed to attend public schools in Red Deer, Alberta and Edmonton, Alberta.

Similarly, previous discussions have indicated that that is true too of public schools in Ontario.

I don't know about the rest of Canada.

If you determine that it would be best for your kids to apply for study permits, they would need to do so from outside of Canada, and it would be best to submit those applications at the same time as Paul's work permit application.

Not sure if this will help but, we too have sold our house and almost ready to leave. We have the LMO and employment contract from the employer in Edmonton. They have told us we can arrive in Canada with these 2 things, report to customs, then to immigration, where we will pay for the work and study permits and they will be issued there.Furthermore they have had other families do just this process. Worth checking with your employer in Canada in case it's different in each Province?