A student who deferred from one intake to the next and then received PPR asked how proof of funds is checked at the port of entry — and what happens if the originally-shown funds have since been withdrawn.
What members who had landed reported:
- Checks are inconsistent — prepare as if they'll happen. One member was asked for nothing beyond a passport ('they checked literally nothing'); another wasn't asked but had carried updated statements anyway. The officer may ask for GIC confirmation, tuition receipts, or bank statements — you can't predict which.
- Carry updated documents, not application-era ones. After a deferral your original statements are months stale. The advice: bring fresh bank statements, your GIC certificate, and tuition payment receipts in hand luggage.
- Don't withdraw the funds you showed. The bluntest and most repeated advice: keep the money you demonstrated in your account until you reach Canada. If an officer does check and the funds have vanished, you've handed them a genuineness concern at the worst possible moment. 'You don't know about coincidences — keep it in your account until you reach there.'
The pattern across landings: most students sail through with a passport scan, but the cost of being the exception with missing funds is disproportionate — so land with the paper trail intact.