The answer is “it depends on one specific thing,” and that thing is easy to check. The trouble is that most posts on this subject skip the checking step and go straight to a yes or a no.
We are not government employees, we have not seen your assessment, and we cannot tell you what you will be offered. What we can do is describe how the Ontario government says the process works and where it connects to the federal change that took effect on 1 August 2026.
What the Ontario Page Says
Ontario’s study abroad page says you could still be eligible for a mix of grants and loans through OSAP while studying outside Canada. The school must be “approved for student loan purposes in Ontario,” and you can check that with the OSAP school search. [1]
So the first question is not whether you are Ontarian enough or poor enough. It is whether your school is on the approved list.
If the School Is Not Approved
The page says that if a school is not approved, you can ask the government to consider approving it. You and a school representative complete and sign the Institution and Program Approval Application. The page says the process takes about six to eight weeks after the paperwork is submitted. [1]
That timeline is the thing we would flag. If you are accepted in March and your first tuition instalment is due in August, a six-to-eight-week approval step is not something to start in July. Start the conversation with both your school and the student aid office as soon as you have an offer.
The page does not say whether a specific school or country is more or less likely to be approved, and it does not address medical schools abroad separately. We are not going to guess.
Check the Credential, Too
The same page tells students to confirm that their credential will be recognized in Canada and in Ontario, by contacting the school’s admissions department and the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials. [1] For medicine, we would add the World Directory of Medical Schools listing and the Medical Council of Canada’s information on international medical graduates, because those decide whether you can later apply to Canadian residency.
Funding Limits
The page does not state any funding caps. It does note that international tuition is often higher than fees for Canadian students. [1]
We would plan on the assumption that OSAP covers a modest part of a non-EU medical tuition bill and not the whole of it, because Irish non-EU tuition runs in the region of €55,000 to €61,000 a year. That is our expectation, not a published rule. Ask for your assessed amount in writing before you budget around it.
How This Connects to the Federal Change
From 1 August 2026, students at private, for-profit international schools are no longer eligible for federal student funding, with a transition for students already receiving aid for the same program at the same school until 31 July 2029. [2] OSAP includes federal and provincial components, so the federal change and the provincial approval are two separate checks.
Whether a given school is “private, for-profit” in the sense the rule uses is a question about its legal status, not its reputation. We wrote about that in our article on federal student loans for medical school abroad. Our advice there is the same here: ask your provincial student aid office whether your school is affected and get the answer in writing.
What Else Pays for It
Most Canadians abroad rely mainly on professional lines of credit and family support, with aid as a supplement. We covered how banks treat schools outside Canada, and why a co-signer is common, in our line of credit article.
A Short Checklist in Prose
Look up your school on the OSAP school search. If it is not listed, ask the school to start the approval application. Confirm the federal side with the student aid office. Get your assessed amount in writing. Then compare that number with your first-year tuition and living costs before you decide what else you need.
The Bottom Line
OSAP can apply to study outside Canada, but only at schools approved for student loan purposes in Ontario, and approval of a new school takes six to eight weeks. The federal change from 1 August 2026 is a separate check that depends on the school’s legal status.
Start with the OSAP school search, then speak to the student aid office, and read the government pages yourself. We list them on our Resources page.
References
- Government of Ontario. (2026). Study abroad. https://www.ontario.ca/page/study-abroad
- Government of Canada. (2026). Canada Student Grants and Loans. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid/grants-loans.html