Form TL11A: Claiming the Tuition Tax Credit for a Foreign University

What Form TL11A is for

Form TL11A, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate, University Outside Canada, is how a foreign university certifies that you paid eligible tuition and were enrolled at the level Canada's tuition tax credit requires. The university fills out the certification, not you. Once you have it, use the figures on it to complete federal Schedule 11 and claim the tuition amount on line 32300 of your return, following CRA's TL11A form page .

Who qualifies

Your program has to meet CRA's definition of a university outside Canada for tuition credit purposes: you're enrolled in a course lasting at least three consecutive weeks that leads to a degree at the bachelor level or higher, according to CRA Guide P105, Students and Income Tax . This covers a full undergraduate or graduate degree abroad. It also covers a term or year of exchange study that leads toward a bachelor's degree or higher, since the credit tracks the level and length of the course, not where your home degree is based.

You need full-time attendance. CRA treats you as full-time if the university itself regards you as a full-time student, which usually means regular attendance at courses offered at the post-secondary level. Correspondence courses do not count as full-time attendance at a university outside Canada, even if you submit assignments electronically. An online program counts as full-time only if it requires you to attend virtually on a full-time basis for classes and related activities, not only complete coursework on your own schedule.

The $100 minimum and what counts as eligible tuition

Your fees to each institution must total more than $100 in the calendar year the course was taken to qualify. If you studied at two different foreign institutions in the same year, each one needs its own certificate showing more than $100 in eligible fees. Eligible tuition fees include admission fees, library and lab charges, exam fees tied to your program, application fees if you enrol, confirmation fees, and mandatory computer service or academic fees. They exclude board and lodging, transportation, medical expenses, and items you keep afterward like a laptop or uniform. Ancillary fees such as health services or athletic fees count as eligible tuition only up to $250, unless the university charges them to every full-time or every part-time student.

How TL11A differs from a Canadian T2202

A Canadian college or university issues Form T2202 automatically through its student portal, since it reports directly to CRA. A foreign university has no such reporting relationship with CRA, so nothing arrives on its own. You have to request the TL11A yourself, usually through your registrar, student accounts, or international office, and some schools need you to explain what the form is for, since it's a Canadian tax document, not one they use for their own country's tax system.

Getting the form completed

Ask your university's registrar or student finance office for a TL11A, or for whatever official tax receipt shows your eligible fees for the calendar year if the school does not use the CRA form directly. Contact the school if you have not received a certificate by the time you file. Keep the original if you file on paper, or keep it on hand if you file electronically, since CRA can ask to see it after you submit your return.

If your university won't complete the form

Some foreign universities decline to fill out a foreign tax form, especially smaller institutions unfamiliar with Canadian requirements. Ask instead for an official tax receipt or enrolment letter that shows your program dates, full-time status and the tuition fees you paid for the calendar year. CRA Guide P105 allows an official tax receipt in place of the certificate itself, as long as it shows the same eligible fee information.

Match the amount to what you actually paid

Compare the eligible fee amount on your TL11A against your own bank or credit card statements for the tuition payment. Currency conversion and partial-term billing sometimes create small mismatches between what the university certifies and what you remember paying, and it's easier to sort out a discrepancy with the registrar before you file than after.

Claiming, transferring or carrying the amount forward

Report your foreign tuition on line 7 of federal Schedule 11, separate from any Canadian tuition on line 1. If you have no tax owing this year, you don't lose the amount. Transfer up to $5,000 of your current year's federal tuition amount, minus whatever you use yourself to reduce your own tax, to your spouse or common-law partner, or to your own or your spouse's parent or grandparent. Any part you don't use or transfer carries forward automatically to a future year, as long as you file a return and Schedule 11 for the year the course was taken, even in a year you owe no tax.

Check whether your province or territory has its own tuition credit and its own Schedule S11 too, since provincial rules run separately from the federal ones described here. Quebec residents skip this schedule, since Quebec tuition credits are administered by Revenu Québec.