IEC from application to entry

I came here to Canada as a "Working Holiday" International Experience Canada participant - a programme that allows young people from many different countries to travel and work in Canada for up to two years. Obtaining a visa to work in Canada was no walk in the park, that's for sure!

Why did I want to come to Canada?

One of the main goals of my gap year was to work on my French. Back in 2017 I really wasn't sure if I wanted to take a gap year or go straight to uni. Then, I came across a programme on Oyster Worldwide - "hospitality work in Tremblant". Straight away I liked the sound of it:

1. It was in Canada - a country I had heard great things about and had never been to

2. It included French lessons and promised significant improvement in the language

3. It included paid work which I didn't stand much chance of finding on my own, thus providing work experience and some funding towards my travels

Initial Application

Originally, I wanted to come out for the 2018/19 winter season but I had to have a visa to work in Canada. I couldn't apply for the IEC until I was 18. I wouldn't turn 18 until June and the 2018 visa invitations stopped in July. That meant the chances of me getting a visa in time were very low. However, the thing with the IEC invitations is that they are decided completely at random. Though my chance was tiny, there was a glimmer of hope and so on my 18th birthday I submitted my profile. Needless to say, I got no response and so spent my winter in France instead (no visa required).

November rolled around and the pool for 2019 opened up. I was straight in there filling out my application once again. This time my chance was much higher but it was essential that I got an invitation before April so that I could come out to Canada in May for the summer season. Finally, in January, my wishes were answered and the message I'd been hoping for sailed into my inbox.

Actual Application

Once you get an invitation to apply you have a limited amount of time to fill in the forms, supply the documents they require (police report, ID, etc.) and pay the fees. All this I did from a tourist office in France - the only place I could access wifi! A newly introduced part of the process is giving biometrics. And the extra-fun thing about this is that you have to go to a Canadian Visa Application Centre to give them. Turns out there aren't that many of them in Europe. In a way it was just as well I was not at home because, if I had been, my nearest centre would have been London - an 8 hour drive away. As it was, by that time I was in Switzerland and, of course, there isn't a single Canadian Visa Application Centre in the country. However, I would be returning to France in a couple of weeks time so I worked out that Lyon would be my nearest centre and I could take a detour there on my way to Chambery.

Giving Biometrics

I left Switzerland at 2am to get a lift down to Geneva to get a bus to Lyon (the people I rode with had an early plane to catch). Arriving in Lyon shortly after 7am, I pulled my suitcase (containing five months worth of ski gear) across the city, running on approximately six hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. I reached the centre not long before it opened and already there was a long queue of people waiting to be seen. I waited in line for a while, overheating in my ski jacket and, as I neared the front of the queue, I was able to read the notice taped to the wall: "instruction letters must be printed" followed by an address for the nearest printing location. Having had no access to a printer for the past two months, I had mine only in digital form. I typed in the printing address to google maps, saw it was a couple of streets away, and set off once again. Arriving at the supposed destination, I was a little puzzled - the building appeared to be a residential apartment block. The right building number was painted across the top though so I thought it had to be the one. I pulled open the front door, and sure enough, found myself in the entrance of a block of flats with a coded door barring my way. It couldn't be the right building. I figured I would have to go back to the visa centre and ask someone.

Eventually I reached the front of the queue again and my number was called up. I showed my digital instruction letter to the woman behind the desk and explained that I was unable to find the printing place. She merely pointed to the same address and told me to try again, claiming to know of no other printing facilities in the area. So, after googling libraries and finding all of them to be closed on a Monday, I went back again, now starting to panic slightly - if I couldn't get the biometrics taken that day then it would cost a lot of money to return to Lyon again. Just down the road from the building I'd gone into before was a phone repair shop and I decided I would have to ask in there if they knew of a place on the street that offered printing services. Thankfully, as soon as I walked in I saw some computers round a corner at the back of the shop so I didn't feel too foolish asking in my best French if I could print a document. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got it printed and got the biometrics taken in time to catch my bus to Chambery. I still don't understand why they couldn't have just written the name of the shop on the poster in the visa centre. Surely I can't be the only one who struggled to find the place.

Anyway, the actual giving of biometrics was fine - they took a photo and some fingerprints and that was that. Nonetheless, not one of my favourite days ever.

Entering Canada

As I set off from Scotland, I was a little anxious about getting through customs and getting my work permit. A completely illogical worry of course: I had checked and double checked that I had all the paperwork they asked for and, society being what it is, border control was unlikely to be concerned about a young white girl from the United Kingdom travelling alone. Nonetheless, it was a stress at the back of my mind. There were so many different document required to prove this-and-that and the rest of the visa application process had been so strict that I couldn't help but worry. Canada asks that you bring the letter saying your biometrics have been accepted, passport (of course), proof of travel insurance, proof of money, police certificate, proof of flights... it's a lot to keep track of.

On arrival in Toronto airport, the first stop was a machine which scanned your passport, took your photo, asked you to fill out some details and gave you a little piece of paper to show to border control. This was ok except for the struggle of getting it to register my passport and the question "how many days will you be spending in Canada". How many days is three and a half months? That took a minute of on the spot calculations. And then I started worrying that if I put 105 days they would only give me a visa for that amount of time when really I wanted it for two years.

Next step was to wind through a maze in a long queue to get to a woman at a desk who asked why I was in Canada and drew a big "Z" in green highlighter on the piece of paper I'd got from the passport machine. Then we were directed to various different places according to this mark. I joined a line which, though fairly short, quite literally moved slower than a snail. It was like move a step, stand for ten minutes, move another step. When, at last, I got to the front, I pulled out my folder of documents ready to prove everything and the officer merely smiled at me and looked at my passport and IEC letter. Five minutes later I was walking out of the airport clutching a two year work permit. I had made it to Canada!

#trip #immigration #America #canada #visa #IEC