New UK rules for the IEC Canada
Since the 2024 IEC season, a newly announced UK agreement with Canada was implemented. A new age requirement and new participation gives more UK participants a chance at the International Experience Program.
1. As a British citizen, you can now participate in the IEC program twice:
- a first participation of 24 months under any category
- a second participation of 12 months under any category
If you participated in IEC before 2015 for a period of up to 12 months, you are eligible for a second participation of up to 24 months in any category.
Those who already participated in IEC twice are no longer eligible to apply under the regular IEC stream.
2. The age has been raised from 30 years to 35 years inclusive
It means, you must receive an invitation before turning 36 years old to meet the age requirement. When you travel to Canada to activate the work permit, the age is irrelevant and you can be over 36 years old.
Two big misconceptions:
- A lot of participants use the wrong term “extension”. Questions like “How can I extend my work permit by 12 months?” or “How can I apply for an extension?”
- Or others believe they will get a 3-year work permit when they activate the work permit at the border.
It is neither a work permit extension, nor a 3-year work permit.
Your first participation is for 24 months, and to get the second participation of 12 months, it is a completely new application. It means you must create a new profile into the IEC pool, wait to be invited again, submit documents and pay the fees again. (Except the biometrics fee if you provided the biometrics in a previous application.)
The three IEC categories for UK participants
Existing: Working Holiday
Participants in this program receive an “open work permit”.
In this category:
- you don’t need a job to participate
- you can choose where you want to work
- you can work for more than one employer in Canada
New: Young Professionals
Participants in this program receive a “closed work permit” or officially called “employer-specific work permit”. The name of the employer and location will be printed on the work permit.
In this category:
- you can only work for one employer in the same location
- the job offered must be a skilled job in TEER category 0, 1, 2, 3
- the job must contribute to your professional development
- After you received an invitation, the employer must create a profile in the employer portal and submit the job offer
- the employer must pay a $230 compliance fee
A job in TEER category 4 is allowed,
if you and can provide a post-secondary diploma, certificate or degree in that job, that proves that the job offer is in your field of study. If you intend to apply for permanent residency later, a job in TEER 4 will not count as Canadian experience and will not give you any points in the Canadian Experience Class. Only TEER 0-3 jobs will count.
New: International Co-op (Internship)
Participants in this program receive a “closed work permit” or officially called an “employer-specific work permit”. The name of the employer and location will be printed on the work permit.
In this category:
- you need an employer
- you can only work for one employer
- you must be enrolled as a student in a post-secondary educational institution (in your home country) for the duration of the internship in Canada
- the internship must be part of the academic curriculum, and directly linked to your field of studies
- After you received an invitation, the employer must create a profile in the employer portal and submit the job offer
- the employer must pay a $230 compliance fee
To emphasize again:
With a closed “employer-specific work permit” you can only work for one employer in the same location. The name of the employer and the work location will be printed on the work permit. You cannot have other part time jobs or be self employed under this work permit.
Additional information for the two new categories:
After you have received an invitation from the Young Professional or Co-Op Internship category, the employer must:
- create a profile in the Employer Portal,
- submit the job offer,
- pay the $230 employer compliance Fee.
The LMIA exemption code for the IEC program is C21
This is the code the employer has to use when submitting the job offer!
After they paid, the employer will then get an offer of employment number in their “Employment queue” that begins with “A” followed by 7 numbers.
You have to put this number into your own application. Only then you can submit the application and pay the fees.
More info for the employers >> here <<
Important things when you participate again!
If you are currently under the first 2-year participation in Canada (or have already participated once) you can now apply for another participation for 12 months.
You cannot apply in any other way to extend the current participation. Remember, is not an extension, it is a completely new participation in the IEC program.
For the second participation you must go through the new process again. It means you have to create a new profile into the pool, wait for the invitation and submit all necessary documents and fees again.
To participate again, you can use the same GCKey account to apply.
Log into your GCKey account and choose the option “Apply to come to Canada”
In the section where it asks about the residence:
❗️❗️❗️IMPORTANT ❗️❗️❗️
If you want to apply for another Working Holiday participation but have a job, answer NO to the question about the job offer. Otherwise the system will put your profile into the Young Professional pool and send an invitation to the Young Professional category.
ONLY ENTER the Young Professional pool if you also want to use the Young Professional category and are eligible for it.
You cannot change your mind later. The Young Professional category will be prioritized and always be invited first. Once you receive an invitation from one pool, the profile is locked from receiving other invitations. This means as long as there are spots left in the Young Professional category; you will never receive a Working Holiday invitation.
In case this happens and you receive an invitation from the Young Professional pool, but didn’t want to, you need to start from scratch as it was the incorrect category. In this case you cannot continue with the application.
You must delete the current profile, create a new one and re-enter only the Working Holiday pool and wait for a new invitation for the Working Holiday category. There is no other option around this.
Common questions for the application process
Can I apply now even though I am still on the current participation?
Yes, you can apply at any time while the IEC pools are open. But be aware, after the approval, you have 12 months POE validity to activate the new work permit. Plan this accordingly, so you don’t waste the time on the current work permit.
So basically, wait until 12 months before the current expiry to apply for the new participation.
If I did not activate a previous POE; can I participate again?
Yes, you can. It only counts as “participation” if you arrive in Canada and activate your work permit. If you didn’t travel to Canada to activate the work permit, you can participate again without any penalties. So if you apply again, you are eligible for a work permit for 2 years.
If you’re still eligible, you can create a new profile. You must wait until your POE letter expires to create a new profile. You cannot cancel the POE earlier. You must wait for the exact validity date printed on the POE to pass.
I participated through an RO; can I still participate again?
Yes. A participation through a Recognized Organization does not count towards the regular participation.
Example: Your first participation of 2 years was through the regular process, then you participated another 2 years via an RO, you can still apply for another participation of 12 months via the regular IEC process.
Does the new participation have to be consecutive?
No, you can have a break in between participations, you can apply at any time while you still meet the age requirement and while the pools are open. For example if you want to travel first and apply after a few years, that is definitely possible.
I have to renew my passport; what is the procedure?
Very important! A work permit will only be issued until the expiry of your passport.
In case your passport is going to expire during the planned second IEC participation, apply with the old passport and renew it after you received the POE but before you activate the work permit.
Then, when you activate the work permit, show the copy of the old passport and the new passport to the immigration officer. Be aware, if you travel via plane to Canada you need a new eTA for the new passport. Apply for the eTA >> here <<
Do I have to give biometrics again?
Good news. If you gave biometrics for another Canadian work permit application, they are valid for 10 years and can be used for all future temporary resident applications.
In the application process you answer ‘yes’ to the question if you gave biometrics. They will automatically be assigned to your profile a few days after you submitted the application. You can check > here < if your biometrics are still valid.
Can I re-use my police certificates?
This will depend. Here the general rules:
➡️ First check: Is the police certificate under 6 months old? > You can use it.
➡️ Second check: Is the police certificate over 6 months old? Then this applies to you:
- If the police certificate was issued while you were still in the country > you need a new one.
- If the police certificate was issued after you left the country, but you were back to that country > you need a new one.
- If the police certificate was issued after you left the country, but have never been back > you can re-use it
❗️In other words: Police certificates are valid indefinitely and can only be re-used, if:
- they were issued after you left that country and
- you have never been back to that country (not even for a few days to visit).
This graph below applies to the time when you apply for the IEC work permit.
After you received the POE (approval) you do not need an updated police certificate. Take the old one you uploaded in the application when you activate the work permit.
I spent more than 6 months in Canada, do I need a police certificate from Canada?
No. Canada does their own checks. A police certificate from Canada is not required, except IRCC specifically requests it during the application process. If they need one and request it, it will happen after you submitted the application.
Do I need a new medical exam?
If you would like to work in child care, health care, or elderly care, you need to re take the medical exam. The medical exam was valid for only 12 months.
However, there is an exception for the medical exam if you apply from within Canada:
- You applied, or are applying, for either permanent residence or temporary residence.
- You already live in Canada.
- You completed your previous IME in the last 5 years.
- Your previous IME indicated a low risk or no risk to public health or public safety.
Do I need IEC health insurance again?
You must provide IEC health insurance for the new work permit for the entire duration of your stay. If you would like to stay the full 12 months, you need 12 months IEC health insurance.
If your insurance policy is valid for less than your expected stay, you will be issued a work permit that expires at the same time as your insurance. If this happens, you will not be able to extend your work permit later.
Provincial health care or employer benefits are not sufficient to activate the new IEC work permit! They do not meet the IEC requirement as they do not cover repatriation.
Be aware! If you are already in Canada, it must be an “already travelling” policy. Check out True Traveller.
Can I keep working under maintained status while I wait for the new IEC?
No. There is no maintained status between two IEC participations.
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. It costs $100 and you can apply from the same GCKey account. You can find more info and FAQ to the visitor record > here <
While waiting for the visitor record you can stay in Canada but must stop working. You can only start working again after you activated the new work permit.
❗️HELP, I received an invitation for the Young Professional pool❗️
-
decline the invitation,
-
delete the current profile,
-
create a new profile,
-
answer of ‘no’ to the job offer,
-
re enter the Working Holiday pool,
-
wait for a new invitation for the Working Holiday category
How can I activate the new work permit from within Canada?
From inside Canada you can activate the new work permit only:
- by flagpoling at the USA border
- at the immigration office at the airport after you exit Canada and then return
Something else I have to think about?
The only thing that needs to be done after you activated the work permit, is
- apply for the SIN at a Service Canada location if it is your first Canadian work permit
- extend your existing SIN if you activate another work permit (The SIN always expires with a work permit)
When I activated the second work permit I got another 2 years, is this legit?
Definitely yes. If they issued a 2-year work permit instead of 1 year, it was a mistake at the border. Sometimes you can benefit from the incompetence and mistakes of the border officers. Enjoy the extra year in Canada. 🙂 Just make sure you also have IEC health insurance for that extra year. It is still a requirement.
What are my options if I already used the second participation?
If you still meet the age requirement for the UK, which is 35 years, and you would like to stay longer on an open work permit, then you can use two more Working Holiday work permits through a Recognized Organization (RO).
For example:
- Regular participation for 2 years, plus
- Regular participation 1 year, plus
- RO participation for 2 years, plus
- RO participation for 2 years
That makes a total of 7 years in Canada under the IEC program for British citizens. That is enough time to figure out the next pathway if the goal is permanent residency