New Additional to IEC
Posted on 03/12/2022
Are you a young professional or worker interested in gaining some work and travel experience in Canada?
As we outline in our blog on International Experience Canada (IEC), Canada has youth mobility agreements with 36 countries around the world allowing younger workers to travel and work in Canada and allowing Canadians to do the same in those countries. For young workers from abroad, IEC is divided into 3 specific programs:
- Working holiday
- Young professionals
- International co-op (internship)
As we explain in our blog on IEC, some countries have access to all 3 programs because they allow young Canadians access to similar programs in their own countries, while others only have access to 1 or 2 of the above programs. It all depends on the specifics of the youth mobility agreement Canada has with that country.
Over the years, Canada has been expanding the list of countries in IEC as it signs more of these agreements and also broadens the terms of individual mobility agreements to include all 3 of the programs. Now, Minister Sean Fraser has announced two important changes to Canada’s IEC program:
- Young Italian workers now have access to all 3 programs. Previously, they only had access to Working Holiday.
- As well, young Canadians can apply for Working Holiday visas, Work visas, or Study/intern visas for Italy through the Italian embassy.
- And across the whole program, IEC’s quotas will be expanded by 20% meaning that now nearly 90,000 young workers will be able to come to Canada under Working Holidays, Young Professionals, or International Co-op.
- Remember that these programs include Francophone workers who of course will often be interested in working in Quebec.
- Minister Fraser repeated several times the importance of providing seasonal workers in the tourism industry in Canada, so keep this in mind if you’re thinking of applying under the Working Holiday category.
Finally, to participate in IEC if you are not from one of the 36 listed countries, you can qualify by using what is called a Recognized Organization (RO). Our blog on IEC linked at the beginning will give you more information on how to use an RO as well as anything else you need to know about IEC – for example, like how to sign up and upload your profile to IEC’s portal. So go to the link to get started.
SOURCES:
Andorra
Luxembourg
Portugal
San Marino
Posted in News Tips and tagged IEC, International Experience Canada
