For starters, you should determine what type/level of school you should apply to - Secondary school, undergraduate degree, graduate degree, post-graduate degree, diploma, certificate, or language school. Your decision will depend on the highest level of education you have received to date and what your future goals are in relation to that level of education. Do you want to upgrade your career by getting a Doctorate degree, or do you want to change careers from medicine to information technology?

After deciding on the level school, you should now decide what program you would like to study.

Thought should also be given to the maximum length of time that you want to study abroad for. You should also find out from schools, what is the length of programs you are interested in.

Now that you have decided on the school, field of study and the duration of your schooling, you must now go through the admission process of the school you're applying to. You must remember that institutions have different admission rules especially for foreign students.

Where the language of instruction is in English or French, fluency is a deciding factor for you to be admitted to a Canadian institution. More often than not, foreign students will be required to present proof of their fluency in English or French. Otherwise, they will be required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and achieve the acceptable level of fluency required by the school. Applicants who do not reach the acceptable mark will be asked to take English/French as a Second Language first before they can proceed to study their intended course.