Should I pay an agency to help me with my Working Holiday?
Questions like “When is the best time to go on a working holiday in Canada?”
Doubtful thoughts like “Can I do it all by myself?” – “Am I too old?” – “Can I find a job in Canada?”
These thoughts are perfectly normal when you move to a distant country so far away from home. It really can put you in a dilemma and you think about taking the help of an agency to ease your mind… Here is what I can personally say about using the help of an agency.
Many will explain why an agency is worthwhile. Primarily, it serves to give the worried parents a bit of security that their son or daughter is not lost in distant Canada.
Do you only need help with the Working Holiday application?
There are already free step-by-step instructions for this all over the Internet. Even this info blog has a detailed 8 step application guide with many tips not to mess up. The extensive FAQ section in this group has answers to almost all of the questions that have ever been asked in the Working Holiday Facebook groups.
Stay away from agencies that guarantee you a working holiday if you pay for their package. The working holiday process is the same, no matter if you do it on your own or pay a ton of money for agencies to do it for you. They need to fill out exactly the same information and upload the same documents as you would do… Keep in mind, the Working Holiday process is a lottery and absolutely nobody can guarantee a work permit.
Do you need help with finding a job?
Then expect to pay even more money for them to arrange job interviews in Canada. The “package prices” you can choose will double or triple…
From experience of hundreds of other work and travellers, your Canada plans will change during your first days in Canada. You meet new friends and want to travel first, or you don’t like the location you have the job or don’t like the job at all… pah, time to quit! Then the money for the agency really seems wasted.
If you intend to come to Canada for a summer or winter season and work in the hospitality industry, you will not have any problems finding a job. Many employers in Canada are desperate for work and travellers like you.
When you pay an agency a ton of money, you should expect some level of support. But believe me, once you enter Canada, you’re on your own. You will have a local contact person with the agency where you can cry yourself out if there are problems, but none of the agency will take you by the hand and show you around… You have to take care of the SIN (tax number) yourself, apply for the bank account, look for a place to stay and the car, the insurance, a job, etc. An agency can certainly tell you where to get all this paperwork done, but don’t we have free Google to search “Service Canada Vancouver location”?
“Good support” is really a personal matter of opinion and what you expect from an agency. The majority of the work and travellers who used an agency regret it afterwards and felt the money was “wasted”. That’s the word they use when being asked about it.
You can do it!
You will become very independent if you take everything into your own hands. And the money you would spend on the agency, can be very useful here in Canada.
If you use the 8 step application guide but are still lost, or have very specific questions, there are groups such as our IEC support group >here<, where you can get many tips and where you will be helped. The knowledge of the collective community in this group is so strong, even an agency cannot keep up. An agency where the employees sit in their office and have never taken part in a working holiday in Canada. Let alone been to Canada.
So don’t worry, the doubts will be gone the moment you land in Canada and the inner voice is screaming with no regrets:
