Wel­come to my new “How To… Canada” series! In this series, I’ll try to put my knowl­edge to good use and shed some light on my new coun­try: Canada. You will learn how some immi­gra­tion tips and tricks, how to improve your pro­fi­ciency in both offi­cial lan­guages, how to find a job, how to set­tle in Canada etc. I’ll pub­lish a new “How To… Canada” post every Saturday.

Feel like check­ing out Canada before immi­grat­ing? Or just want to expe­ri­ence work­ing abroad? Let’s have a look at how you can work tem­porar­ily in Canada. And luck­ily, you have a few options. You can either:

• Apply for a work permit
• Apply for a work­ing hol­i­day visa, if your coun­try signed an agree­ment with Canada

Let’s be hon­est: obtain­ing a work per­mit for Canada can be quite tricky. Indeed, you will most likely (90% of the time) apply from out­side Canada. But to be eli­gi­ble to apply, you must pro­vide a job offer from a Cana­dian employer… and of course, con­tact­ing employ­ers from abroad, with­out a work per­mit is tough. Plus, the employer will need to get a labour mar­ket opin­ion from Human Resources and Social Devel­op­ment Canada (HRSDC), to con­firm that the employer can fill the job with a for­eign worker (i.e to avoid an impact on Cana­dian job-seekers).

Unless Canada really needs you, the process can be extremely frus­trat­ing. Right now, three spe­cial cat­e­gories enjoy an eas­ier process because of the crit­i­cal short­age: live-in care­givers, busi­ness peo­ple and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy work­ers.

Remem­ber that work per­mits are not immi­gra­tion doc­u­ments. Your work per­mit will include the type of work you can do, the employer you can work for and for how long. Should your employer let you go, you may have to go home… and it does hap­pen. North American’s job mar­ket is extremely flex­i­ble and here, no job is forever!

You can down­load the appli­ca­tion for a work per­mit and all the infor­ma­tions on the CIC website.

Another inter­est­ing option, pro­vid­ing you meet the require­ments, is the work­ing hol­i­day visa pro­gram (WHV). It tar­gets young peo­ple who wish to travel and work in Canada. Cur­rently, it is required to:

• Be a cit­i­zen of: Aus­tralia, Aus­tria, Bel­gium, Czech Repub­lic, Fin­land, France, Ger­many, Ire­land, Japan, Repub­lic of Korea, South Africa, Nether­lands, New Zealand, Swe­den and United King­dom (more coun­tries are being added, so check your local Cana­dian embassy!)

• Be between 18 and 30 years old (but depend­ing of your coun­try of cit­i­zen­ship, you may get a WHV up to 35 years old)
• Have min­i­mum funds (you will need proof of funds)
• A med­ical exam­i­na­tion is not nor­mally required unless the employ­ment is in health ser­vices, teach­ing, child care etc.

The max­i­mum valid­ity of an employ­ment autho­riza­tion issued under this pro­gram is usu­ally 12 months. The addi­tional require­ments vary from coun­try to coun­try. With a work­ing hol­i­day visa, you may not apply for social ben­e­fits and you will have to buy your own health insurance.

Apply­ing for a WHV is usu­ally pretty easy and done with min­i­mum has­sle. How­ever, the num­ber of places are lim­ited yearly through a quota sys­tem and it comes on a first come, first serve basis. I have per­son­ally never heard of a WHV being denied: your biggest issue could be the quota sys­tem. These days, a lot of peo­ple apply for the WHV (to my knowl­edge, espe­cially French, British, Aus­tralians and Kiwis) and it’s com­mon to apply about a year before you actu­ally go to Canada.

The work­ing hol­i­day visa pro­gram is a great way to dis­cover Canada and can be your first step towards immi­gra­tion, as you may apply for per­ma­nent res­i­dence once in Canada.

You might also want to check out these links:

• Work­ing hol­i­days visas and tem­po­rary work per­mits chart
• PVTistes: a French web­site and forum about the Per­mis Tra­vail Vacances (Work­ing Hol­i­day Visa)
• Inter­na­tional Youth Pro­gram: a For­eign Affairs Min­istry page about inter­na­tional pro­grams options
• The Cana­dian Visa Bureau: a good page about the work­ing hol­i­day visa

Hope to see you soon in Canada! And as usual, I will try my best to answer any ques­tion you may have.

Related arti­cles:

1. Five Rea­sons Why I Live In Canada
2. 5 Rea­sons Your Visa Offi­cer Hates You
3. How To Visit Canada (3÷10)
4. How To Immi­grate to Canada (1÷10)
5. Get­ting Your First Job in Canada, The Chal­lenge Never Ends