Eligible Students for the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP)

The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) is an organization that gives grants and loans to students to pay for their college or university education in Canada. It can be perceived as the primary source of financial help for post-secondary education in this province. You will need to visit the official website for the program to get more information regarding the loans and eligible learning institutions. For you to qualify to apply for the financial help from this program, you must satisfy any of the following conditions.

• You must be a Canadian citizen
• Secondly, you must be a permanent resident in Canada
• You must be a convention refugee or protected person, and you must have the PPSD (Protected Persons Status Document)

Keep in mind that if you are staying in Canada because of educations reasons and you are using study permit, you cannot qualify to apply for the Students for the Ontario Student Assistance Program. This clearly shows that all foreign students are not eligible for financial help from this program. However, such a student can qualify for financial help from the college or university they are joining. Besides, you need to be a resident of Ontario and satisfy any of the following conditions in agreement with the Students for the Ontario Student Assistance Program.

• You were born and had been residing in Ontario. Or, this is the last province you have been residing for the last one year without being post-secondary student full-time.
• You are in a common-law relationship, or you are married. Note that your residency can also be based on the duration your common –law partner or your partner has stayed in Ontario. Your partner must have been living in this province for the last one year before the start of your period. Besides, your common-law partner or your spouse must not have enrolled in post-secondary learning institutions on full-time.
• Not all students are independent. For dependent students, their residency should be based on the residency of their stepparents, parents, official sponsors or legal guardians. The parents or whoever the students depend on must have lived in Ontario for at least one year up to the beginning of your study period. In such a case, you can qualify for the Students for the Ontario Student Assistance Program loans.

If you don’t satisfy OSAP’s residency conditions, you might still qualify for the OSAP financial help. However, you will need to provide detailed information regarding your History of Canadian Residency Form. Besides, you should submit every document required to support the claims about your residency.

In case you have ever lived in any other province, you will need to seek assistance from that province’s students’ help program. Lastly, your field of study and program must satisfy particular eligibility conditions.

For more details about the OSAP eligible students and the requirements that must be met, you need to check the program’s updates, guidelines about applications and application requirements.