With the CAD around ₹61 and first-semester fees due, a January-2023 applicant asked whether they could pay just the first semester (≈$7,800 of $15,000), confirm the seat, and wait for the rate to drop before paying the rest. The thread's answers reframe the question:
- Partial payment changes your visa category. If you haven't paid the full first year before filing, the application proceeds as non-SDS — and members' experience was that approval chances under non-SDS were lower than SDS. The exchange-rate saving is trivial next to the category downgrade.
- Timing is everything: pay in full before filing and there's no issue. The clean sequence endorsed in the thread: pay first-semester fees to confirm the seat, then complete the full-year payment before lodging the visa — the college doesn't care how many installments, the visa stream cares what's paid at filing time.
- Don't bet on the CAD falling. The blunt currency advice: 'CAD prices are only increasing day by day; it's very rare that it decreases.' Waiting for a better rate usually costs more than it saves.
- Counterpoint noted in the thread: some members observed non-SDS files occasionally processing faster at that time (within a week for some), and non-SDS also opens the option of PTE instead of IELTS. But for approval odds with an Indian profile of this type, the group still favored SDS.
Historical note: SDS was suspended in November 2024, so the category mechanics are era-specific — but 'complete your planned payments before filing' remains sound.