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How Can Singapore Students Check a Canadian School’s DLI Number?

Did you know that Canada’s post-secondary institution lookup has a different purpose from a university course catalogue? Singapore students should use the official designated learning institutions list from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). A designated learning institution, or DLI, is approved by a province or territory to host international students.

For a post-secondary choice, find the institution and intended campus, then record its DLI number. The tool lets you choose the relevant province or territory and search by details such as school name or city. Do not copy a number from a similarly named institution or assume that a university’s name identifies every teaching arrangement.

Keep two further checks separate: IRCC’s study-permit document instructions and, if relevant to your plans, post-graduation work permit eligibility. DLI designation does not grant a study permit or guarantee a post-graduation work permit (PGWP).

Find your next step

Official DLI and permit sources · Institution, campus and programme checks · Record the verified details

Which official source answers your question?

Your taskOfficial sourceWhat to check
Look up the institutionIRCC DLI listProvince, institution, DLI number, city and campus
Prepare the immigration fileStudy-permit documentsAcceptance letter and other evidence for your circumstances
Investigate later work eligibilityPGWP eligibilityProgramme, personal and other applicable requirements
Designation, admission, immigration permission and later work eligibility should not be collapsed into one tick.

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How do you use the DLI result correctly?

Match the proposed study location

Start with the official institution name and the campus described in your course information or offer. In the list, compare the city and campus fields as well as the name. Record the number with those details, not as a loose string of characters detached from the institution.

If an offer uses a partner, trading name or teaching location you cannot reconcile with the listing, ask the institution’s international-student office to explain it. Keep that question specific: which listed institution and campus cover this exact programme and location? Do not guess the answer from a logo.

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Know why a school-level search may be empty

IRCC says all Canadian primary and secondary schools are DLIs, but they are not included in this post-secondary list. Therefore, failure to find a primary or secondary school here is not by itself evidence that the school is unsuitable for international students.

Parents researching school-level study should use the school or school board’s official international-admissions instructions alongside IRCC’s guidance for their child’s circumstances. This lookup should not be turned into a ranking or an invented directory of every school in Canada.

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Do the programme check if work after graduation matters

Use the PGWP eligibility page rather than treating the institution’s designation as a work-permit promise. IRCC sets requirements involving the programme, the student and other circumstances, including language or field-of-study requirements where applicable.

Ask about the exact award and delivery arrangement, then compare the answer with the current official criteria. A statement that an institution offers eligible programmes is not a statement that every programme it offers qualifies, or that every graduate will meet the rules.

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Connect the result to the right document checklist

IRCC’s study-permit document page explains the letter of acceptance and the institution’s validation step for post-secondary applicants. It also routes applicants to the current attestation-letter, identity, financial-support and other document instructions. Use the checklist for your situation instead of assuming the DLI search completes the application.

For your own planning, keep three clearly labelled entries: institution and campus matched; academic admission confirmed; immigration tasks still to complete. If the programme or campus changes, revisit the official guidance rather than reusing an earlier set of details automatically.

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Your next step: save a traceable match

Record the official institution name, province, city, campus, DLI number and date checked. Keep the live IRCC link with your course information. Resolve any mismatch with the institution before using the details in an application.

For the fuller explanation, continue with Canadian university application information and Overseas student-visa information. The Singapore school pathways collection connects the wider education and application routes.

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Official sources reviewed: 19 October 2026. Recheck IRCC before applying or changing study plans. This guide does not determine an individual’s study-permit or PGWP eligibility.

Explore the connected learning guides

Choose the question that brought you here. Open one useful guide, try a small task, and stop when you have what you need.

Take one question further

The same learning habit can travel across subjects, while each subject keeps its own methods. These routes help you notice a difficulty, understand one part of it, and return to something you can do.

A word is familiar, but using it is difficult.

Move from recognising a word to retrieving it in a new context. Understand vocabulary plateaus.

Try it without the guide: Choose one word you already know. Close the guide and use it in a new sentence. Explain why it fits; try another context tomorrow.

A piece of writing has ideas, but the reader loses the thread.

Make the order of events and the links between sentences clear. Explore composition writing.

Try it without the guide: Choose one short paragraph. Read the relevant explanation, close it, and revise the paragraph. Ask someone to tell you what happened and why.

The Mathematics seems familiar, but marks still disappear.

Find the first point where the working stops being reliable. Find Secondary 4 A-Math mark leakage.

Try it without the guide: For a Secondary 4 A-Math question you have attempted, locate the first uncertain line. Repair that step, then try a comparable question without the worked answer.

A Science fact is remembered, but the explanation is incomplete.

Connect the evidence to a scientific idea and the resulting change. Follow the Primary Science learning route.

Try it without the guide: Choose a familiar Primary Science example. Explain the evidence, the idea and the result without notes. Then change one condition and explain your prediction.

Two accounts of the world seem to disagree.

Check the question, source, date and evidence before combining claims. Explore the World Knowledge research library.

Try it without the guide: Take one claim. Find the source best placed to support it, note its date, and state what remains uncertain. Return to your original question.

There is plenty of help, but independence is hard to see.

Check what the learner can understand and do after support is removed. Understand how education works.

Try it without the guide: Choose one small task the child has practised. Agree on a calm, brief attempt without prompts. Use what happens to choose one next step, then stop.

For the structure behind these connections, read the eduKateSingapore runtime manifest and the eduKate ecosystem boot contract. The reader map describes public navigation; those manifests preserve the wider ownership and return rules.

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