BIOMETRICS EXTENDED TO 90 DAYS FOR IEC APPLICANTS – COVID-19

BIOMETRICS APPOINTMENT – IEC CANADA WORK PERMIT APPLICATION

Are you an International Experience Canada applicant? Then you are surely affected by the current COVID-19 crisis, including our Recognized Organization (RO) applicants, whether you are in Canada or outside of Canada during your IEC work permit application process.

But no worries! This is a temporary situation and Canada is doing its best to make sure your application is not impacted, although delays can be expected. According to IRCC website, no application in progress will be closed or refused due to not being able to complete the biometrics within the regular 30 days period.

The Government of Canada is updating its IRCC website daily. This is the ONLY source of information to check how COVID-19 is affecting your IEC work permit application. There is a lot of misinformation online, so always make sure you check the IRCC website for the latest update. This is the reason why we are posting the IRCC links on this blog post, as you always need to verify your information on the IRCC website.

Biometrics are required if you are applying for your Working Holiday, Young Professional or International Co-op work permit under IEC.

BIOMETRICS WITHIN CANADA APPOINTMENTS – CANCELLED

For those applicants that had an IEC work permit application in progress during their time in Canada and needed to complete Biometrics, if you had booked your appointment, most likely you have received an email canceling that appointment until further notice. You will be able to complete Biometrics later on once they start to take appointments again.

You will find this message on IRCC website where they have already warned every IEC applicant about the situation. IRCC also confirmed that some visa application centers are closed until further notice, as you can read here.

WAITING FOR YOUR BIOMETRICS REQUEST LETTER WITHIN CANADA

If you apply for an IEC work permit: Working Holiday, Young Professional or International Co-Op work permit within Canada and you have not completed Biometrics beforehand, you will not be asked to pay your Biometrics Fee directly when you submit your IEC work permit application. You will be requested to do this right after the officers receive your application. Learn more about the process in our blog post “How to Pay Biometrics Fee from within Canada”.

Please keep in mind that the deadline to pay the Biometrics Fee (CAD 85) will not be extended (normally you have 7 days after you receive the payment request letter), so go ahead and submit the Biometrics fee payment. Once you do so, you will be able to upload your receipt and after a few days you will receive your Biometrics Request Letter.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS? USE THE IRCC WEBFORM

You can communicate with IRCC through their very useful webform.

Before contacting IRCC, please make sure that your question is not answered through all IRCC websites. Do your research first, as IEC must be swamped in emails at the moment due to the COVID-19 situation. Keep in mind that it might take a bit longer for you to get your answer by email.

To make sure you are sending your question to the right IRCC department, please select:

• “Type of Application/Enquiry”, and then select “International Experience Canada”

Provide as many details as possible along with your question. That way they can understand your situation better. You will be able to include your:

• Client ID number UCI (Unique Client Identifier)
• Application number, this is the number of the application that you currently have in progress that you want to ask about.

You can check the numbers on your IEC work permit application through your MYCIC Account or your Biometric Instruction Letter (BIL). Remember that you can attach documents to your web form before submitting your questions, so go ahead and submit any documentation that could help your case.