Moving to Ireland from Australia
Looking to move to Ireland from Australia? We'll fill you in on the travel and visa requirements, healthcare, cost of living, pros, cons and much more.
Canada is a wonderful and unique country at the northern edge of North America. It’s the second largest country in the world in terms of land mass, behind only Russia, but holds only around 37 million people, mostly packed into a few large cities. Cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver have vibrant cultural scenes and strong economies with lots of working opportunities, and outside the cities is some of the best natural splendor in the world, from the coasts of the maritime provinces to the mountainous west coast¹.
In addition to traditional visa types for work and vacation travel, Canada is one of the countries, like France, that offers a working holiday visa. This article will explain the working holiday visa: what it is, who can qualify for it, what are the requirements for it, and how much it costs. Let’s jump in.
Canada has a simplified visa system, and its visas fall into two categories: temporary and permanent. Temporary visas allow travelers to reside in Canada for a limited span of time for reasons of work, tourism, family visits, or education.
Temporary visas allow people to stay in Canada for up to six months in most cases. They can either be single entry, which means a person can come through customs one time and stay in country, or multiple entry, which means they can enter Canada and leave multiple times on the same visa.
There are multiple types of temporary visas for Canada. The list below defines them².
The Canadian Working Holiday Visa is a random selection visa. Many young people apply for it and the Canadian government can’t grant them all entry, so in fairness they choose from the multitude of applicants using random selection.
To apply for an International Experience Canada visa, your native country must have a working agreement with Canada. You also must meet the eligibility requirements for the specific country you’re traveling from³.
You can apply for an International Experience Canada visa if you are between 18 and 35 years old. Australian citizens can apply for and use the International Experience Canada only once, but when granted it lasts for up to 24 months.
Work Visas are intended for people locked into long-term careers who are traveling to a new country for a job, and are often sponsored for the visa by their employer. Working Holiday Visas are perfect for young travelers from countries that have a bilateral agreement with Canada. Not everyone can afford to travel to a country for months or years at a time.
An IEC visa gives you freedom and flexibility. You don’t have to lock yourself down with one employer, or one location. You can roam through Canada as you please, and pick up work along the way. Working Holiday Visa holders typically find work in hourly wage service roles such as English language teachers, tutors, farm workers, and waiters.
Citizens of other countries who travel to Canada for longer than a couple weeks should seek the IEC visa. It allows you to pick up gigs while experiencing the daily life and culture of Canada. Most travelers don’t have the resources to traipse through a country for months on end without working. The government of Canada doesn’t want the cultural benefits of travel to be experienced by the independently wealthy alone, so as long as you’re willing to put in some regular hours of service work, you’re free to explore the Canadian Rockies or the Saguenay fjord in your own time. It’s a form of cultural outreach, like a study abroad program, but with working replacing academic study⁴.
An International Experience Canada Visa costs $150 CAD⁵.
It can take up to eight weeks for an International Experience Canada Visa application to be approved⁶. That means it’s important to plan your Canada sojourn ahead of time, and allow for plenty of time for your application to wind its way through the bureaucratic system. Don’t wait until the last minute!
If you hail from a country that has a bilateral agreement with Canada, like Australia, to permit working holiday visas, your money will likely be in a local account in your home country, and in your home country’s currency, like Australian dollars. When you apply for an EIC, you must prove that you have a few thousand dollars saved to support yourself. But you’ll have a hard time accessing that money if it’s in a local Australian bank with no branches in Canada, and you risk waving goodbye to a sizable portion of it because of the exchange rate.
Wise is here to help. Wise is an online currency exchange service that lets you to change your funds at the real, mid-market exchange rate. What’s that? It’s the fairest, most advantageous exchange rate for the party doing the exchanging. That’s the rate nearest to the true market rate you can see when you search for a currency pair on Google. Most brick-and-mortar currency exchange vendors set a rate that works in their favor. It’s a way to hide hidden fees to cover the overhead of running a physical business. Wise is all online, so it doesn’t have those considerations. Exchanging at the mid-market rate means you get more money in your pocket.
But Wise’s benefits don’t stop there. They now offer an account specially designed for nomads: the Borderless account. It provides holders with banking information not just for their home country, but for Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, and the EU. It also allows account holders to withdraw their cash not just in one static currency, but in over 40 different currencies. That cash is even exchanged into local currency at the mid-market exchange rate. It’s the perfect option for safe, secure, reliable, and cheap money management for IEC holders.
The International Experience Canada Visa is a wonderful opportunity that enables young, curious travelers without established careers to work while experiencing life in Canada. If you have an itching wanderlust and hail from one of the countries that has a bilateral agreement with Canada, you can spend up to two years traipsing around Canadian national parks, secure in the knowledge that you can earn a living while doing so. Also, keep Wise in mind for your currency exchange and banking needs. You can count on them to give you the fairest exchange rates, as well as a host of helpful services.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada
https://visaguide.world/canada-visa/do-i-need-a-visa-to-go-to-canada/
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/iec/about.html
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/iec/about.html
All sources accurate as of 29 April 2019
*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.
This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.
We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.
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