How to extend my IEC work permit

To the maximum allowed time with my country

First and foremost, an IEC work permit (including the Working Holiday) cannot be extended beyond the max. allowed time under the agreement with your country.

See extra info blog post > here <

You can extend your IEC work permit in three specific situations, but only up to the maximum time your country’s agreement allows. You can’t extend it beyond that limit.

Example to make the rules easier to understand:

Imagine you’re from Germany, where the IEC program allows a 12-month work permit.

When you arrived in Canada and activated your permit at the airport or border, you showed a 12-month health insurance policy.
However, your work permit was mistakenly issued for only 8 months.

If you submit a paper application before your current permit expires, you’re allowed to stay in Canada and keep working until you receive the corrected permit.

You can only work up to the maximum time allowed for your country, which in this case is 12 months.
So you’d be able to work for an additional 4 months (8 months originally issued + 4 more to reach the 12-month limit).

If you want to stay in Canada beyond the 12 months allowed, you’ll need to apply for another type of work permit or a visitor record.

The three scenarios where you can extend the IEC:

  1. Mistake:
    The immigration officer accidentally issued you a work permit that’s shorter than what your country allows, this is the most common issue. Try to get it fixed right away while you’re still with the officer.
  2. Passport*
    If your passport wasn’t valid long enough when you activated your work permit, the officer issued a shorter permit to match the passport’s expiry date.
  3. Young Professional**
    If your employer submitted a job offer for a shorter period, your work permit matched that shorter job offer time.

In all of the above scenarios, you do not have to pay any fees to get the work permit extended. 

The extension can only be done by paper application! Not online. More info >> here << 

Steps for the extension in the above three scenarios:

*Passport: You first must apply for a new passport before you can apply for the work permit extension. 

**For the Young Professional work permit extension: The employer has to submit a new job offer in the employer portal and pay the $230 compliance fee again. Then they will get a new A number that you must include in your letter of explanation.  

  1. Download and fill out and validate Form IMM 5710 >> here <<
    • If you have issues downloading the IMM Form, please follow one of the steps >> here <<
    • The option to check at the top of the form is “Apply for a work permit for the first time…”
  2. Include a letter of explanation that explains:
    • that you are a participant in the International Experience Canada
    • that you apply for an extension of participation
    • that you don’t have to pay any fees
    • why you apply for an extension 
  3. Send the paper application to this address:

Case Processing Centre Edmonton
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada
c/o Work Permit- IEC Station 404
Suite 55 9700 Jasper Avenue NW
Edmonton AB T5J 4C3

Send the paper application with tracking service so you know when it was received. 

You can only extend it to the maximum allowed time if you also had the health insurance for the maximum time.

An important step that is not made clear in the extension application instructions:

Don't forget to send a copy of the health insurance policy that proves that you had one since the start of the work permit and for the entire duration of the intended stay (for example a 2 years policy if your country allows 2 years).

What if I didn't have health insurance for my entire stay when I activated the work permit?

Then the extension of the IEC work permit is absolutely not possible. This is a strict automatic rejection. It is a requirement of the IEC program that you have a health insurance for the entire intended duration of your stay when activating the work permit.

Quote from IRCC:

“If your health insurance was going to expire while you were still in Canada and you didn’t receive the maximum length of stay listed in the agreement between Canada and your country, you’re not able to apply to extend your work permit, even if you extend your health insurance after entering Canada.

It’s your responsibility to make sure you have adequate health insurance for the entire length of your stay in Canada before arriving in the country.”

Also, before you submitted the application you had to electronically sign a disclosure with the information about the health insurance. There is no excuse with "I didn't know".

What happens if my current work permit expires while I wait for the extension?

After you sent the paper application under any of those three scenarios, and ‘on time‘ (before the current work permit expired) you can benefit from maintained status. In other words, it means while the paper application is processed, you can keep working under the same conditions as the current work permit as long as you remain in Canada. You can work until the maximum allowed time under the agreement. 

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