If you are Working Holiday or Young Professional POE Holder, with valid immigration status in Canada, you might be eligible to activate an IEC work permit from within Canada until December 01st 2025. We explain every detail here!
After the announcement by the Government of Canada as part of Canada’s Border Plan, bringing to an end the previous Flagpoling process in Canada, there have been lots of questions about How do I activate my IEC Working Holiday permit if I am already in Canada?
After the new policy was implemented, work permits will no longer be provided to flagpolers at a port of entry, effective December 23 2024 at 11:59 pm ET, meaning IEC participants can no longer go to a Land Border between Canada and United States to receive their new work permit.
International Experience Canada (IEC) has put in place a Temporary Measure for POE Holders within Canada that match the following requirements, so they can receive their work permit at a mailing address, instead of needing to fly out and back to Canada.
⚠️ IMPORTANT – To be eligible, participants must meet all of the following criteria. Individuals must:
These IEC participants might be eligible to request an examination and issuance (activation of the IEC work permit, such as a working holiday permit) from within Canada using the IRCC Web form from April 16, 2025 until December 1, 2025.
If you don’t meet the conditions stated above, you must leave Canada and re-enter from a country or territory other than the US or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon to activate your work permit.
You can check all the details provided by IEC regarding the steps here – Please note that it is very important that you review them carefully as there is a MANDATORY TEXT for you to include in the request. A single mistake, might not allow you to receive your work permit within Canada.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Please note that this new process has no processing times, so there is no guarantee when you will receive your work permit.
Yes, this is MANDATORY – The Health Insurance will have the same requirements as the regular process. Remember that if your insurance policy is valid for less time than the maximum duration of your IEC work permit, you wil be issued a work permit that expires at the same time as your insurance.
Learn all the details about your IEC Health insurance here, where we answer the most common questions.
We don’t have a exact answer. Ideally you will use the desired start date of your new IEC work permit that you are requesting to IEC to activate for you.
Absolutely not! You must have a valid status to be eligible for this process. Applying for a restoration of status in Canada does not give you a valid status (with that application you are asking to get your status restored), so you would not be eligible to apply for a within Canada IEC work permit activation.
No you can not. This is only an option if you were in Canada with a valid IEC work permit when you submitted your new IEC work permit application for another participation.
Example: A Recognized Organization (RO) participant that secured a POE under RO status while being on a valid IEC work permit in Canada.
No! This request process will not provide you with mantained status, which means that if you want to stay in Canada while waiting for your work permit, you must apply to extend your stay as a visitor before your work permit expires. You must stop working while you wait.
You MUST be sure that you provide an address where you will have full access to the mailbox for the following months. Let’s say if you are moving locations, you should NOT provide your current address and maybe use one where you know you will always have someone that can check the mail for you. This address once submitted, can not be changed.
As of today, there is not official processing times. It could take a few weeks or a few months. This is one of the biggest uncertainties of using this process for an IEC work permit activation.
This is a tricky one, we can not guarantee you can do this. Reason being you might be out of the country and if the work permit is issued at that specific time, CBSA Officers at the port of entry (airport) will NOT be able to print it again for you.
Absolutely! This is still the MOST secure option to activate an IEC work permit as you control exactly when your work permit will start! Just make sure you re-enter from a country or territory other than the US or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon to activate your work permit.
Disclaimer: No Legal Advice Provided.
The material on our website and on this webpage is intended to provide only general information to our clients. Although we make our best efforts to ensure that the information found on our website is accurate and timely, do not, under any circumstances, rely on information found on our website as legal or immigration advice. We can not answer client-specific immigration-related questions or provide any immigration advice. For assistance with your specific inquiry, please contact IEC directly through the IRCC website or contact a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC).
If you are Working Holiday or Young Professional POE Holder, with valid immigration status in Canada, you might be eligible to activate an IEC work permit from within Canada until December 01st 2025. Learn how the process works!
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