Young Professional - How to apply

Before you apply for the Young Professional category, you already must have

  • a Canadian employer who is willing to support you 
  • with a job in TEER 0, 1, 2, 3 of the NOC.

1. Create a profile into the pool

The Young Professional work permit application is not much different than the Working Holiday application. The application must be done via the pool system of the International Experience Program (IEC) program.

To enter the Young Professional pool you can use the same GCKey Account, that you used for the Working Holiday. Log into the GCKey Account and start the questionnaire. 

Answer those questions with those selections.

The result should also list the Young Professional category. Continue with all rest of the questions and then enter only the Young Professional pool.  

Answer “yes” to the Young Professional category and “no” to the Working Holiday. 

2. Wait for an invitation

If you are at the beginning of the season, here is why it can go very quickly: 

The Young Professional category is less popular than the Working Holiday category, which means less competition in that pool. And it means as long as your country has spots available, and doesn’t have too many applicants, you should receive an invitation pretty fast.

For example if you enter the pool on Saturday, and the next round of invitations is on Tuesday after, you could receive an invitation on Tuesday. Of course this is not a guarantee, because it depends on the number of spots and applicants for your country. 

The numbers of the pools are updated every Friday here. Enter your country and the category to find out your chances of invitations. While you wait, you can be proactive: 

3. After you received the invitation

You can start your application and upload all necessary documents. The document list is the same as with the Working Holiday.

Additionally, after you received the invitation, the employer must:

  • register in the Employer Portal,
  • create and submit the job offer,
  • pay the $230 employer compliance fee.

Very important! The LMIA exemption code for the IEC program is C21

This is the code the employer has to use when submitting the job offer in the employer portal! 

The employer must also provide you with a paper copy of the job offer,

  • that contains all relevant job info, such as:
    • start date
    • employer name and address
    • National Occupational Classification (NOC) code related to the job
    • your pay and deductions
    • your duties
    • the conditions of employment, like your hours of work
  • that is signed by both you and the employer
  • that you must bring along with all other documents for the activation of the work permit. 

After they paid the fee in the employer portal, the employer will get an offer of employment number in their “Employment queue” that begins with “A” followed by 7 numbers. 

Enter this number in the ‘offer of employment number’ field in your application. In the same application screen you must also provide this information:

  • the four-digit National Occupational Classification (NOC) code,
  • job title,
  • employer name,
  • location of employment,
  • employment start date,
  • employment end date 

This information should all be on the paper job offer that the employer gave you. They should match. Only after you provided all information, you can continue in the application, pay the fees, and submit everything.

Helpful links for the employers: 

> Here is a good link from the government that explains the process for the employers. <<

>> Here is the employer portal enrolment guide and user guide for the employer<< 

What if my employer cannot get the employment number in time?

The same as with the Working Holiday application, after you accepted the invitation, you will have 20 days to submit all documents. It should be sufficient time for the employer to get active and do their steps. 

It takes less than 30 minutes for the employer to sign up for the employer portal and submit the job offer. After they paid the fee, the employment number is provided almost instantly and will appear in their “Employment queue”.

As you know from a previous Working Holiday application if you couldn’t get a document on time, you could upload proof that you requested one. However, this is not the case for the employment number in the Young Professional application.

Unfortunately you cannot continue your application without this number. If this is the case, and you cannot get the employment number in those 20 days, you have to decline the invitation to be put back into the pool and wait for another invitation. 

What if my employer has an issue with the employer portal?

Sometimes the employer encounters some system issues or has questions to the enrolment. Then they can send an email specifically for the employers. This is the instruction, I quote, from IRCC to the employers: 

If you’re having technical problems, email us. In your email, include:

  • Your information:
    • your full name
    • Canada Revenue Agency business number
    • business operating name
  • A description of the issue
  • Screen shot/s showing the full browser window of:
    • the page from which you are having difficulties
    • any error message you received

Your email will be processed within 5 business days. If the problem can’t be fixed in that time, we’ll let you know the next steps to take.

4. Wait for the approval

You made it, and from now on, there is nothing that needs to be done than wait. If the processing officer needs more information, they will let you know. For example if they need a new police certificate, they will request one.

Officially it can take up to 8 weeks to process the application. However, if you

  • are perfectly prepared with all documents,
  • have no missing documents,
  • have no gaps in your work history and resume,
  • don’t have to provide biometrics because you provided them as part of your Working Holiday application,

the approval should be within just a few days. 

If approved, do I have 1 year to activate the work permit like the Working Holiday?

Yes, after you received the POE (approval) you have 1 year to activate the work permit. 

A lot more questions and answers to the Young Professional category here 

Back to the main page
Share this information