Letter of Permission Explained: Studying Elsewhere Without Losing Your Home Registration
By Muntasir • Published Jul 15, 2026 • Updated Sep 27, 2026 • Study Abroad, Canadian Universities & Colleges
A letter of permission lets you take courses at another Canadian university while staying registered at your own school, keeping your degree progress, tuition status and financial aid eligibility intact. Approval comes from your home department and registrar before you enrol elsewhere, and the credit transfers back as credit only, not a letter grade.
🏠 You stay enrolled and eligible for aid at your home university the whole time.
Courses need department and faculty sign-off before you register at the host school.
Deadlines are set per term, often months before the course starts.
Grades convert to credit or no-credit on your transcript, not a letter grade.
A minimum passing grade at the host school is required, often near 60% at schools like UTM.
What a Letter of Permission Does
A letter of permission (LOP) is written authorization from your home university that lets you take a course at another institution while you stay registered at your own school. Your home university treats the course as if you took it there, once it approves the match ahead of time.
This differs from a formal exchange program run through an international office, though the paperwork logic is similar. An LOP typically covers a single course or a short block of courses at another Canadian institution, often for a scheduling reason: a required course is full, unavailable in a given term, or offered somewhere closer to where you live that summer.
Why Staying Registered at Home Matters
Full-time registration status at your home university keeps several things intact:
Progress toward your home degree, since the host course counts toward your requirements once approved.
Continued eligibility for provincial student aid tied to your home institution's enrolment confirmation.
Access to your home university's services, deadlines, and academic standing rules.
Your degree timeline, since you avoid a formal leave of absence or re-admission process.
Without an LOP, courses taken elsewhere sit outside your degree record until you separately request an assessment, and some schools will not backdate that approval.
Who Approves It and How
Two offices sign off before you use an LOP: the department that teaches the equivalent home course, and your faculty's academic advising or registrar's office. At Western University , you submit the LOP form with the host course syllabus and textbook information to the relevant department first, then to your Faculty Academic Advising Office, then to the registrar's office by email.
At the University of Toronto Mississauga , students need a cumulative GPA of 1.50 or higher, no more than 10 transfer credits already earned, no administrative or financial holds, and no prior credit for the same or similar content, before the registrar approves an LOP.
Deadlines to Plan Around
| School | Deadline |
|---|---|
| University of Toronto Mississauga | Jul 1 for fall courses, Nov 1 for winter, Mar 15 for summer |
| Western University | At least 1 month before the host course starts; approval can take up to 3 weeks |
Check your own registrar's page, since deadlines and minimum GPA thresholds are set by each institution and change over time.
How the Grade Shows Up
Once you finish the host course, the host institution sends an official transcript to your home registrar. Most Canadian schools post the result as a credit or transfer notation rather than a letter grade, so the course does not affect your home GPA. A minimum passing grade at the host school is still required for the credit to count, often near 60% at schools like UTM.
Ask your registrar exactly how the notation appears on your specific transcript before you rely on it for grad school or professional program applications, since practice varies by institution.
When to Use an LOP Instead of a Full Exchange
An LOP suits a single course, a summer term, or a short scheduling gap. A formal exchange program, run through your international or global education office, suits a full term or year abroad and usually comes with its own application cycle, host partnerships, and sometimes funding. Both mechanisms protect your home registration status, but exchanges carry more built-in support for a longer stay away from your home campus.
Common Mistakes That Delay Approval
Applying after the term deadline, which pushes your registration to the following term or forces a scramble for an alternate course.
Skipping the syllabus or course outline, which stalls the department review while they request it.
Assuming verbal approval from a professor counts as an LOP; only the signed form and registrar confirmation are binding.
Forgetting to request the transcript be sent directly to your home registrar once the course ends, which can delay the credit posting for months.
Build in a buffer before the deadline for signatures. Advisors and department chairs are not always available the week a deadline falls, especially around Canadian exam periods.
Where CICIC Fits In
The Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials handles recognition of foreign credentials in Canada. It does not process individual course pre-approvals; that decision stays with your home department and registrar. Use CICIC only as background if you want to understand how Canada treats international education more broadly.