International Experience Canada (IEC) is a program available to UK (and other countries) residents aged between 18-30, allowing you to get a one year work visa. There are 5,350 places available and last year they didn’t all go until May, about 6 months after the applications opened. This year was the only year the whole application process was done online, so was expected to have some bumps in the process. The process was done in two stages:
Stage 1 – IEC Application to determine program eligibility and sending of payment
Stage 2 – CIC Application to determine whether you get issued your visa or not
The program was expected to open in December, then January. January came and the website changed to say it would be opening soon. IEC finally announced the opening of the first round of the visas on Valentines Day at about 5pm. I was still at work when I saw the email to say it was open. I rushed out of work at 5.30, made a frantic phone calls to Kyle telling him to log on and fill in all our details (then another one to make sure he was doing it right!). I’ve never rushed so much to make sure I got my bus and the next train so I was home as early as I could then ran from the train station to make sure we’d reserve our place in the first round. I even forgot to get a valentines day card (soz Kyle!). We submitted both our applications by about 7, luckily as by 8pm the first 1,000 places were filled. The next two quotas filled just as quick, so we really were luckily to get our place in the first. Continue reading
Our Big Fat North America Travel Adventure! 