Can I extend my Working Holiday work permit?

Scenario 1:

No - Absolutely not

An IEC work permit cannot be extended beyond the maximum allowed time in the agreement of a country.

A Working Holiday work permit is part of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program and is a special work permit. Each IEC country has its own bilateral agreements with Canada on the length of a work permit. To find out the maximum length of your country enter your country >> here << 

For example Australia and Ireland allow a max. of 24 months. The work permit cannot be extended beyond those 24 months. 

Even if an immigration lawyer tells you otherwise, you can be sure it is an incorrect information. The immigration lawyers are not familiar with the special rules and requirements of an IEC work permit. 

I would like to share the official quotes from the Canadian government. If you have an immigration consultant or lawyer that gives you other information than the one quoted here, you should send the links to your consultant so they can get themselves educated.

As a rule, no work permit extensions are authorized under the International Experience Canada (IEC) Program.

The validity period for an IEC work permit may not exceed the maximum length of stay authorized under the bilateral agreement or arrangement.

Official government Source 

Categories of work with validity periods that may not be exceeded: International Experience Canada programs

Paragraph R205(b), exemption code C21:The work permit cannot extend past the period specified in the country agreement.

Official government Source 

A word of caution:

Because immigration consultants/lawyers are not familiar with the rules and special requirements of this IEC work permit, many will advice people to apply for a fake extension. This is considered illegal advice and should be reported to the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants.

This advised fake work permit application will be 100% refused. There is no such thing as a blank open work permit. 

In general, a work permit application must always be based on a program or pathway, for example the LMIA work permit category, the LMIA exempt work permit category, permanent residency, etc. If it was this easy to apply for a blank open work permit based on nothing, many temporary workers would go this route. But it is not. 

If you deliberately try to circumvent the rules and send a fake extension application, you will have intentionally submitted a false, incomplete application that could have consequences. When you receive the refusal letter, you will be out of status (illegal status) retroactively on the date your work permit expired. 

If the extension application is rejected (incomplete), it is as if the application was never submitted, and the applicant is in status until their existing temporary resident status expires.

Official government Source 

Don't risk your future in Canada

If you follow the unlawful advice from an immigration consultant/lawyer and continue to work after the Working Holiday work permits expires, it is considered illegal work which can also negatively influence future applications (for other work permits or permanent residency). In addition, if you intend to use this work experience for your permanent residency, it will not count because the work experience was gained while working illegally. 

Be aware of the fact, that all work permit refusals must be reported in all future applications and depending on the refusal reasons and how long you were in Canada illegally, that application can be refused with a letter that asks you to leave Canada.

NEVER should anyone risk being out of status in Canada. The information about how to maintain status is available publicly on the government website. You either have to apply for another work permit or the visitor record to stay in Canada legally. 

Future government plans for 2025-2027: The Canadian government wants to reduce temporary workers and permanent residency applications. This is one easy reason to get less applicants by refusing the applications due to illegal work or illegal overstay or even misrepresentation.

Did you know that five countries share immigration data under the ‘Five Eyes Alliance’? Those are: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. It means an overstay in any of those countries can easily be checked during the processing of immigration applications like a temporary work permit, a study permit or permanent residency. Those countries know exactly where you were and how long you spent time in a country. 

Scenario 2:

Yes, under certain circumstances

In three situations, a work permit can be extended to the maximum allowed length under the agreement with your country. Never beyond that allowed time.

The three scenarios:

  1. Mistake: When the immigration officer made a mistake during activation and issued the work permit for a shorter time than you are allowed under your country. This is the most common mistake that you should try to fix on the spot with the officer. 
  2. Passport: Your passport was not valid for long enough when the work permit was activated and therefore a shorter work permit was issued to match the validity of the passport
  3. Young Professional: If the employer created a shorter job offer and therefore a shorter work permit was issued.

If you are in one of the above three situations, > here < is the info on how to extend the work permit. 

And what about the scenario where the work permit was issued only for the length of my health insurance?

In this scenario, the extension of the work permit is absolutely not possible. There 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. If you only have health insurance for a shorter period of time (e.g. 3 months), a work permit will be issued only for as long as the health insurance is valid.

 I quote from this official government source >here< under Scenario 3:

  • IRCC does not allow the client to submit an application to extend the period of their participation to reach the full maximum duration allowed under the bilateral agreement or arrangement.
  • The applicant failed to obtain travel insurance that fully covers their anticipated stay, as stipulated in their letter of introduction; therefore, their work permit application is automatically refused.
  • The IEC participant cannot increase the validity period of their work permit. If they receive a work permit with a shorter validity period due to the length of their insurance coverage, they are not eligible to apply to increase the validity period of their work permit at a later date.

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".

Another Working Holiday

A completely new IEC application via the IEC pools is not considered an ‘extension’, it is a new work permit. 

A few of the IEC countries allow a second Working Holiday participation. Enter your country >> here << to read the requirements. Italy, United Kingdom, Croatia and Chile are among those few countries.

See > here < what other options you have to get another Working Holiday. 

One important thing though:

There is no maintained status between two IEC participations. (See screenshot from the government.) 

If your current work permit expires while you wait for the new IEC application processing, you must change to visitor status by applying for the visitor record online. The visitor record costs $100 and you can apply from the same GCKey account. 

While waiting for the visitor record you can stay in Canada legally, but must stop working. You can only start working again after you activated the new work permit. 

A second Working Holiday for UK citizens

The new UK agreement is not a work permit ‘extension’. It is a completely new application. 

A lot of UK participants use the wrong term “extension” for the newly implemented UK agreement about a second participation.

Questions like “How can I extend my work permit by 12 months?” or “How can I apply for my IEC work permit extension?” confuse other applicants. However, UK participants mean that they want to apply for a new participation in the IEC program. 

The rules and application information about the new UK agreement can be found > here <. 

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