A PAL must be written and signed by a provincial or territorial government and contain the following information:
The student’s full name, as it appears on a valid passport or identity document
The student’s date of birth
The student's current residence address
The designated learning institution (DLI) name (this is the primary/main institution name)
The student’s ID / Student Number
The following fields are added by the Ontario Attestation Letter Service when the letter is created:
Unique PAL ID – This format has been agreed upon with the MCURES and the OUAC for consistency and uniqueness across the province
First part: ON24 (For the next calendar year, it will be ON25)
Second part: 01 (OCAS code) or 02 (OUAC code)
Third part: A library will generate a unique set of characters with letters (caps only) and numbers (excluding 0, o, l and 1)
Date of Issue
Effective / Expiry Date:
For 2025: December 31, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST
Note: The expiry date isn’t enforced or validated by OCAS or IRCC. It’s a "soft" recommendation to encourage applicants to use their PAL in a timely manner.
We’ve attached samples of a generated PAL in English and French. See the Attachments section in the upper-right corner.