Step 4: Wait for an invitation from the IEC pool and prepare
How many rounds of invitations are there?
Only the first and last rounds of invitations during the season are officially announced. In between, there are many smaller rounds, usually occurring weekly, during which a number of invitations are sent out.
Typically, the largest number of invitations is issued in the very first round to ensure a strong start with a high volume of applications. As the season progresses, the number of invitations gradually decreases.
Around the summer months, there is usually a brief pause lasting 1 to 2 weeks. This break allows processing officers time to catch up on the volume of submitted applications.
After the pause, invitations resume and continue until one of two things happens: either all available spots are filled, or the IEC season officially closes, which is usually around October.
What are my chances to receive an invitation from the IEC pool?
The likelihood of receiving an invitation always depends on two main factors: the number of applicants in the pool and the number of spots still available. For this reason, it’s not possible to calculate your exact chances.
Generally speaking, the chances are much higher at the beginning of the season. However, as the year progresses and more spots are filled, the chances tend to decrease.
An invitation can arrive in the very first round, in a later round after several weeks or months, or, in some cases, not at all. Essentially, it’s a lottery.
Throughout the roughly 11-month season, the number of people in the pool will fluctuate. Based on past experience, there are typically more invitations sent out than there are actual spots available.
Take the UK pool as an example from last seasons: more than twice as many invitations were issued compared to the number of available spots. This happens because many applicants:
- decline their invitation,
- miss the deadline to respond or submit their application,
- withdraw their application voluntarily, or
- are refused for various reasons.
As a result, the system compensates by sending out more invitations to ensure all available spots are eventually filled.
Every week on Friday, the pool is updated with the new numbers.
To find out the chances for your country
How can I prepare for the IEC application?
A good preparation is half the work! To save you time with the application, you can make a few preparations while you wait for the invitation.
Passport
- From your current, valid passport, scan the photo page and all pages where there are marks, dates or stamps into a PDF file.
- You will only have one upload spot for the passport, so merge all pages into one PDF.
- You can do this online with PDF Merge.
Police Certificates
You can find many questions about the police certificate answered > here < in an extra post.
- Apply for a police certificate
- from your home country or from the country you currently reside
- from all countries in which you have been for more than 6 months in a row since the age of 18.
- No matter if you were there as a tourist, student or worker. The ‘6 months in a row’ stay counts.
- You can find out how to apply for the police certificate from the respective countries >here< on the official website.
- You will only have one upload spot for all police certificates, so merge all certificates into one file if you have more from several countries. You can do this online with PDF Merge.
Work History
This will be a manual entry in the application system.
Tip: To make sure it is accurate, create a list of your jobs on a piece of paper first. Then you only transfer the data into the application when time comes (after you received the invitation).
- The Work History in the application will ask about your jobs in the past 10 years.
- But you must list everything back to the age of 18.
- Everything before 18 does not need to be listed (can be left out).
- Only month/year + city + country are required. No exact dates or exact addresses.
- Start with the most recent job and go back to your 18th birthday.
- List everything without any gaps.
- If, after turning 18 you were in high-school or studied at university, travelled or were unemployed, list everything and month by month.
- The selection in the application will then be “Student” and “Unemployed”.
- There will be no “Travelling” as a choice in the drop-down list.
One thing could help immensely if you were a student and if you had part-time jobs while studying:
- Leave them out because your main occupation was ‘student’
- For example, if you were a student for 4 years in your home country, your one and only entry for this time frame is ‘student’ and bam, you covered 4 years of entries already.
- You can also leave out jobs that only lasted a few days. Specify everything that went on for more than a month.
Again: Do not leave any gaps in the work history!
If there are gaps in the work history or in the CV/résumé, the processing agent will request a more extensive travel history via a special form. This is a very annoying form to fill out and will delay the application. You should definitely avoid that....
An example of the work history.
You start with the latest (most recent) entry and go back to your 18th birthday:
09/2024 – ongoing Unemployed
02/2021 – 09/2024 Customer Service
06/2020 – 01/2021 Unemployed
09/2016 – 06/2020 Student
Education History
This will be an online entry.
Only the periods after high school must be listed.
This includes any vocational training, university degrees, certification programs, or any other higher education you have attended or are currently attending.
If you hold only a high school diploma and have not pursued any further education, you may simply answer “No” to this question. In this case, you will not need to fill out this section.
If you began post-secondary studies but did not complete them, or if you did not receive a degree or diploma, you are not required to include this information in your education history. However, you should ensure that you list your ‘student’ years under the work history section to cover any gaps in your timeline.
CV/résumé
- This is a document that you must upload. Either in PDF or Word.
- Create your CV that goes back to the age of 18.
- Start with the most recent date.
- It must match the information in the Work History.
- There is no specific required format for the Resume, there are many Resume templates on the Internet you can download.
- This CV/résumé is not intended to apply for a job. The government just wants to see what you have been doing since the age of 18 and where you have been.
IRCC processing officers do not judge your resume or work history. You could have been unemployed for 10 years and it won’t matter.
Photo
- The official requirement as a screenshot for you below.
- You can find the Photo specifications > here
- Taking the photo at a photographer is safest, because the dimensions are set correctly.
- But it doesn’t necessarily have to be a professional photo. There are “Passport Photo Apps” for mobile phones. There you select the settings for Canada, stand in front of a white background and another person should take the photo.
- Then crop the photo exactly to the required dimensions, if necessary.
Family Information Form IMM5707
- This form is part of the required documents, but this form should not be filled out in advance!
- With this form you have to wait, because you always have to fill out the latest version. The version could change until you receive an invitation.
- Only after you received an invitation, you will receive the download link to the current version in the document list of your application.
- To check out what the Family Information Form IMM 5707 looks like, you can download the current version > here <
- If you are having trouble downloading or opening the Family Information Form IMM 5707 or any PDF, > here < are some tricks and settings.
A few more words that will hopefully put your mind at ease
First of all, don’t be intimidated by the list of required documents and information. Although the process may seem overwhelming with all its questions, it’s essentially a combination of your work and travel history, an overview of your life, in other words.
Importantly, the government simply wants to know where you’ve been since the age of 18. They are not concerned with what you were doing during that time.
If a processing officer finds something unclear or incomplete, they will simply request additional documents. There’s no need to worry, this is a normal part of the process.
Moreover, the Canadian government and its processing officers do not judge your personal life or base decisions on it. Whether you’ve worked consistently or spent most of your time unemployed doesn’t matter.
Even if you spent ten years in your parents’ basement playing video games, that’s perfectly fine. What matters is that you can indicate where you lived during that period.
Similarly, your level of education or job experience (whether you’ve just graduated high school, have years of work behind you, or even hold a PhD) is not a deciding factor.
Ultimately, every applicant in the International Experience Canada (IEC) program is treated equally, regardless of their background.
Pro Tip! Print and keep all the documents you will upload in the application.
You will need them again, when you travel to Canada to activate the work permit.