A family asked what to do when a student visa filed July 1 hadn't arrived and the program at Humber College started September 6: defer, or keep waiting? The thread's collective experience:
- Find your real deadline first. The student could defer up to September 12 — about a week after the program start. Colleges commonly allow enrolment or deferral slightly past day one, so the true decision date is later than the start date. Get yours in writing from the college.
- Late approvals happen — people fly days before (or after) class starts. One member's friend flew out the day before this thread, despite classes having started the first week of August. Don't deferral-panic weeks early.
- Ask the college the key contingency question: what happens if the visa arrives after you've deferred? Members raised exactly this — whether you can un-defer varies by college, so ask before pulling the trigger.
- Contact the college and act on their advice. The thread's bottom-line recommendation: the college's admissions office, not the group, decides what's possible — call them and take the step accordingly.
- Know what deferral costs you. For most programs, deferring means waiting for the next intake — potentially a full year, which is why members treated it as a last resort rather than a safe default.