What your application costs: using the free budget calculator
How much does it cost, all in? That is the first question people ask on the phone, before even knowing whether they are eligible. The honest answer comes in two blocks that are not paid at the same time or in the same place: what goes to IRCC in Canadian dollars, and what is settled here, in CFA francs.
The site’s calculator makes that split for you. It is free, it asks for no account, and it fits on a phone screen: /en/check-list.html#couts
Four numbers to enter, not one more
The first card asks about your situation. How many adults are on the application — you alone, or you and your spouse. Then how many dependent children, sorted into three brackets: 15 and over, 11 to 14, 0 to 10.
Why age? For two precise reasons, and the page gives them. The medical exam is priced by age bracket. And biometrics are free for a child aged 13 or under. So a couple with a baby and a teenager does not pay the same as a couple with two teenagers.
What the total actually adds up
Second card: today’s rate. The site fetches the value of the Canadian dollar in CFA francs itself. If your bank quotes you another figure, replace it with yours and the total redraws at once.
Third card, the IRCC fees, in dollars. You read them line by line: processing fee for the principal applicant, for the spouse, for each dependent child, the Right of Permanent Residence Fee per adult, and biometrics. The subtotal appears in dollars and in francs, side by side.
Fourth card, what is paid here: the IOM medical exam. It is not left for you to guess. It is worked out person by person from the age grid, and the detail shows the arithmetic — so many times the rate for 15 and over, so many times the rate for a child. IOM revises that grid every month, which is why the page shows which month it refers to.
At the top, a sticky band keeps the total in sight: the budget to plan for in francs, its approximate equivalent in dollars, and the number of people covered.
What is not in it, and must be budgeted separately
The calculator sticks to what has an official, known price. The rest varies too much from one case to the next for anyone to quote you a figure: the language test depending on the centre, the credential assessment depending on the agency, translations depending on volume, the police certificate, photos and travel. Note those on a sheet beside it, with the amounts you were personally quoted.
The plane ticket and settling in Canada are not counted either. They come later, and they are prepared differently.
Proof of funds: money to hold, not to spend
This is the costliest misunderstanding, and it makes people give up. Proof of funds is not an expense. It is a sum you must have in the bank, available and yours, to show you can settle in. It is not there to pay the fees: it sits on top of them. Money borrowed from someone else is not accepted.
That is why it enters no total in the calculator — putting it there would count it as spending. It sits right next door, in the fee schedule tab, with the amount required for each family size: /en/check-list.html#bareme
Two habits before you close the page
Print it. The Print my budget button produces a clean, dated sheet you can lay in front of your family. That sheet is often where the financing is actually decided.
And redo the calculation on the day you pay. The calculator remembers nothing: every visit starts from today’s rate and a blank page. That is deliberate. A budget built on a rate from three months ago will not help you at the counter.
Nothing you type leaves your device: everything is calculated in the browser. And this estimate helps you organise yourself without replacing IRCC’s official fee schedules, which you should check before paying.
The tool: /en/check-list.html#couts