IEC 2018

tomcorcoran

Hi, I applied a couple of days ago for the Canadian working holiday visa for Canada and was almost immediately accepted to the pool. Since submitting my application, a close friend has told me she is getting married late april 2019 and I would like to hold off on Canada until after the wedding now. Can someone tell me if there is currently a long wait in the pool and whether I will be able to hold on until May at the earliest before initiating the visa? Thanks in advance

jme2010

Once you get the invitation for the visa you have up to a year to activate it.

As I understand that involves entering Canada and getting your visa issued at the immigration / border patrol. Then you could travel back to Ireland for a while. (this is what I believe to be true).

You will need to meet all the criteria for the border agent at the time of arrival in Canada which will be 2 year health insurance cover and up to 2,500 CAD in your bank account.

Doylers

So I activated 1 weeks ago, heres what happened. Presented at the desk with the piece of paper they give you on the plane, said I was activating my visa. She sent me into the immigration hall, and i waited for about 5 minutes with only one person ahead of me.

Went up to the chap said I was activating and gave him the page, typical small talk where ya from, job lined up and where I was staying. Then he went off and that was it. No insurance asked for, no money checked. I had a folder waiting for him and he didn't care.

He then sent me to get my SIN, you need this for working and its beside immigration. They ask to see your visa(which the man gave me), they want you parents names, a phone number and address. These do not need to be permanent and can be a hotel. Nothing will ever be sent there and you wont ever be called.

The girl looking after the SIN's said I can change it if I want but it would be pointless. I then walked out, got the skytrain to downtown(12 dollars) and that was it. Easiest process ever.

jme2010

That's great...can't wait to go over myself.

How is your first week going? How is the rent / accommodation situation working for you at the moment?

Doylers

jme2010 wrote: »

That's great...can't wait to go over myself.

How is your first week going? How is the rent / accommodation situation working for you at the moment?

I'm back in dublin and all haha It was only a short trip, I was checking out London(Its 2 hours south) rent there is great value for money and much higher quality than the likes of Dublin. When I said I was paying 725 euro people gasped because that would get you a deadly gaff in London.

Rent in Toronto seems pretty high alright but again quality does seem to be better. My main goal there was to open a bank account and get a credit card, CIBC gave me 500 dollar limit initially but with a letter from my Irish employer they tripled it. Since credit checks are done so often before renting I wanted a head start before I go for real in the summer(June I hope).
Funny note, the credit card gets delivered to the branch and not mailed out, I know someone there so its all good. I also found out you cant transfer from KBC to a Canadian account, so i'm using transferwise to bounce money around. Defo recommend setting this up now, they needed proof of Irish address and ID.

I also noticed how important a car is, like everything is so bloody far away if your not in Toronto. And before I forget if you want to use your card on the subway its a 3 ticket purchase minimum, so get cash!

Doylers

No idea why my post has to versions of the text! Not showing when I edit.

Edit: Fixed itself

jme2010

Doylers, you have involuntary volunteered to be my guide to moving. Thank you :-D

This info is great please keep the advice coming. I pay 1400 euro a month here and I have friends looking for apartments in Dublin and they can't get in for less than 1800 euro, with queues out the door at open viewings.

Christ, about 5 years ago I was only earning prob 1500 euro after tax. This country is going south fast and another bubble is on the horizon.

I'm on good money now and don't need to move but I want a change and never lived abroad. It's something I think every person should do once in their life.

Cheers Doylers

Doylers

jme2010 wrote: »

Doylers, you have involuntary volunteered to be my guide to moving. Thank you :-D

This info is great please keep the advice coming. I pay 1400 euro a month here and I have friends looking for apartments in Dublin and they can't get in for less than 1800 euro, with queues out the door at open viewings.

Christ, about 5 years ago I was only earning prob 1500 euro after tax. This country is going south fast and another bubble is on the horizon.

I'm on good money now and don't need to move but I want a change and never lived abroad. It's something I think every person should do once in their life.

Cheers Doylers

Haha no worries brother, the more people I know over there the better!  Make everyone's life easier   I'm the very same I think its more for the experience than anything else would be lying if I said I wasn't bricking it a little!
I went for an interview while I was there, turns out the HR recruiter was Irish and sorted me out, but one thing I found is pay seems like a lot over there, so they are like 80/90k and you think deadly but its only like 50-55k euro. Similar jobs would fetch more in Dublin 100%. They also only give 10 days PTO over there, so its a definite negotiation topic for me anyway. Also wait until you see the phone plans, they are dire.

jme2010

Doylers wrote: »

Haha no worries brother, the more people I know over there the better! Make everyone's life easier I'm the very same I think its more for the experience than anything else would be lying if I said I wasn't bricking it a little!
I went for an interview while I was there, turns out the HR recruiter was Irish and sorted me out, but one thing I found is pay seems like a lot over there, so they are like 80/90k and you think deadly but its only like 50-55k euro. Similar jobs would fetch more in Dublin 100%. They also only give 10 days PTO over there, so its a definite negotiation topic for me anyway. Also wait until you see the phone plans, they are dire.

I've heard PTO is completely dependent on the company. I was able to see that IBM Toronto offers 25 days PTO.

I know it will be luck of the draw if I get an interview with a company with good allowance of pto.

I've also heard about the mobile plans, yeah like 1GB per month of slow edge network or similar.

Can you drop the recruitment name here or in a PM? Is it London, CA you are going to try set up there?

Doylers

jme2010 wrote: »

Doylers wrote: »

Haha no worries brother, the more people I know over there the better!  Make everyone's life easier  I'm the very same I think its more for the experience than anything else would be lying if I said I wasn't bricking it a little!
I went for an interview while I was there, turns out the HR recruiter was Irish and sorted me out, but one thing I found is pay seems like a lot over there, so they are like 80/90k and you think deadly but its only like 50-55k euro. Similar jobs would fetch more in Dublin 100%. They also only give 10 days PTO over there, so its a definite negotiation topic for me anyway. Also wait until you see the phone plans, they are dire.

I've heard PTO is completely dependent on the company. I was able to see that IBM Toronto offers 25 days PTO.

I know it will be luck of the draw if I get an interview with a company with good allowance of pto.

I've also heard about the mobile plans, yeah like 1GB per month of slow edge network or similar.

Can you drop the recruitment name here or in a PM? Is it London, CA you are going to try set up there?

He was a recruiter inside the company itself not an outside agency, he was literally filling the one role so it wouldnt be much use to ya. Aye London CA, have a look its on the road from detroit to toronto for all the wold. I'm still very undecided, looking at price of living its defo the best option. If I landed a 6 month contract I'd go without hesitation. But being realistic the jobs are mostly in Toronto. So i'll play it by ear and see what comes my way as far as interviews.

elgeraldo

Hey

Spending about 3 months in Vancouver, will need to set up a bank account to pay rent and get paid. Will also probably use TransferWise to take money from Irish Account and send to new Canadian Account once I'm set up.

Which Bank in Vancouver is the best with lowest fee's for an Irish student.?

Any help would be great, so much info online, hard to decide.

Thanks

Doylers

elgeraldo wrote: »

Hey

Spending about 3 months in Vancouver, will need to set up a bank account to pay rent and get paid. Will also probably use TransferWise to take money from Irish Account and send to new Canadian Account once I'm set up.

Which Bank in Vancouver is the best with lowest fee's for an Irish student.?

Any help would be great, so much info online, hard to decide.

Thanks

Most of the big banks have free banking for the first 9 months - year. So if you were planning to go back again after summer I'd probably go for scoita or RBC
http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,2468,00.html

Try get yourself a credit card with as high a limit as possible(scotia advertise 5k for newcomers) to build history if you ever go back. Never want to close a line of credit if at all possible(generally).

jme2010

Doylers wrote: »

Most of the big banks have free banking for the first 9 months - year. So if you were planning to go back again after summer I'd probably go for scoita or RBC
http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,2468,00.html

Try get yourself a credit card with as high a limit as possible(scotia advertise 5k for newcomers) to build history if you ever go back. Never want to close a line of credit if at all possible(generally).

Do you need to use the credit card to build up credit or can you just have one with no debt on it?

Doylers

jme2010 wrote: »

Doylers wrote: »

Most of the big banks have free banking for the first 9 months - year. So if you were planning to go back again after summer I'd probably go for scoita or RBC
http://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,2468,00.html

Try get yourself a credit card with as high a limit as possible(scotia advertise 5k for newcomers) to build history if you ever go back. Never want to close a line of credit if at all possible(generally).

Do you need to use the credit card to build up credit or can you just have one with no debt on it?

You need a credit card, but if you only spent 10 a month that counts, as a matter of fact say you bill is due May 1st. You should always make sure you dont have a balance over 30% of the available credit on that date.

accap1f8

I'm slightly confused about the 2 year working visa.
I must get a new passport so will be applying in a few weeks.
I presuming I'll go into the pool but that mean you receive an invitation immediately or are they only given out twice a year?

Shine7

accap1f8 wrote: »

I'm slightly confused about the 2 year working visa.
I must get a new passport so will be applying in a few weeks.
I presuming I'll go into the pool but that mean you receive an invitation immediately or are they only given out twice a year?

Seems a number of invitations to apply (i.e. people taken from the pool) happens every week. I applied to enter the pool in mid-April and as of today, I've been approved for the visa so it's a really quick process.

accap1f8

Shine7 wrote: »

Seems a number of invitations to apply (i.e. people taken from the pool) happens every week. I applied to enter the pool in mid-April and as of today, I've been approved for the visa so it's a really quick process.

Thanks for letting me know. Reading the website it seems like there's only a round one and two throughout a year.
I'll be putting in my Garda clearance form early next week and apply a few weeks after.
Hopefully get approved quick.

Shine7

accap1f8 wrote: »

Thanks for letting me know. Reading the website it seems like there's only a round one and two throughout a year.
I'll be putting in my Garda clearance form early next week and apply a few weeks after.
Hopefully get approved quick.

If you keep an eye on this page http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/selections.asp?_ga=2.30465915.553287683.1525292088-746850223.1523740014 you'll see the "Information as of x date" changes every week and the number of people in pool/number of visa given updates.

Also this page on Facebook is really active and helped me a huge amount when applying
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ocanada.iec.discussion.support/

Best of luck!

accap1f8

Shine7 wrote: »

If you keep an eye on this page http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/selections.asp?_ga=2.30465915.553287683.1525292088-746850223.1523740014 you'll see the "Information as of x date" changes every week and the number of people in pool/number of visa given updates.

Also this page on Facebook is really active and helped me a huge amount when applying
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ocanada.iec.discussion.support/

Best of luck!

So there's over 900 spots available now. I presume those spots won't be gone in the next 2 or 3 months I'd imagine?
And do they pick every Irish person that applies until the spots are gone?
I'm an accountant so hopefully will get one.

Shine7

accap1f8 wrote: »

So there's over 900 spots available now. I presume those spots won't be gone in the next 2 or 3 months I'd imagine?
And do they pick every Irish person that applies until the spots are gone?
I'm an accountant so hopefully will get one.

Apparently it's a random draw each week and x amount of people are invited to apply until all are gone, I assume this is so they are not overwhelmed by applications.

The link I gave above which gives updates about the pool and quotas etc says something along the lines of "Your chance of getting an invite in the next round is excellent". I've seen the UK one and it says chances are low so it leads me to believe the Irish demand is unlikely to be greater than the supply.

accap1f8

Shine7 wrote: »

Apparently it's a random draw each week and x amount of people are invited to apply until all are gone, I assume this is so they are not overwhelmed by applications.

The link I gave above which gives updates about the pool and quotas etc says something along the lines of "Your chance of getting an invite in the next round is excellent". I've seen the UK one and it says chances are low so it leads me to believe the Irish demand is unlikely to be greater than the supply.

Yes it seems there isn't huge numbers applying from Ireland. It looks promising.
I like the way it's a 2 year visa as well.
This is a big advantage over Australia and NZ.

jus_tin4

Anyone else have problems logging in? Put in my password etc, accept the t&c and then just keep getting brought back to the pic language page

jme2010

jus_tin4 wrote: »

Anyone else have problems logging in? Put in my password etc, accept the t&c and then just keep getting brought back to the pic language page

I couldn't log in the other day...not sure if I forgot my username or not. Very hard to reset if you forget.

jme2010

accap1f8 wrote: »

So there's over 900 spots available now. I presume those spots won't be gone in the next 2 or 3 months I'd imagine?
And do they pick every Irish person that applies until the spots are gone?
I'm an accountant so hopefully will get one.

Just apply now.

Took about a week to be selected, then another little while to get invited, then you have 21 days to accept the invite then 21 more days to upload documents.

It does take a while to complete, then you have a year to activate the visa.

accap1f8

jme2010 wrote: »

Just apply now.

Took about a week to be selected, then another little while to get invited, then you have 21 days to accept the invite then 21 more days to upload documents.

It does take a while to complete, then you have a year to activate the visa.

Going away this weekend so I have to wait until next week to apply for a new passport.
That'll take another 2 weeks so I have to wait.

jme2010

accap1f8 wrote: »

Going away this weekend so I have to wait until next week to apply for a new passport.
That'll take another 2 weeks so I have to wait.

Pfft...are you coming or not? :pac:

accap1f8

jme2010 wrote: »

Pfft...are you coming or not? :pac:

New passport sorted so applied for the working holiday visa. Hopefully get accepted soon.

accap1f8

Got my WHV for Canada.
So I have to enter by mid June 2019.
I've decided to go to NZ for 9 months or so and then enter Canada before that date.
I'm wondering if they will question why I don't have a police cert for NZ. Is there any reason they would refuse entry?

Shine7

accap1f8 wrote: »

Got my WHV for Canada.
So I have to enter by mid June 2019.
I've decided to go to NZ for 9 months or so and then enter Canada before that date.
I'm wondering if they will question why I don't have a police cert for NZ. Is there any reason they would refuse entry?

I can't swear by this but I think your police cert only needs to be up until you apply. If you stayed in Ireland for 9 months after you got accepted you wouldn't need to get a cert for those 9 months so I don't see why you'd need it for being anywhere else.

I've found this Facebook group really helpful so maybe ask your question there https://www.facebook.com/groups/ocanada.iec.discussion.support/

phil1985

Hey lads

A few of you seem to be sharing some really good info on this, hope you can help.
I am a 33 year old marketing professional with seven years experience about to apply for the IEC visa once the pool opens - expected mid/end November. I have never lived abroad before and Canada is somewhere that has always appealed to me but I have never done anything about it - now is the time before I am too old.

I expect the IEC process to be straight forward, my biggest concerns are for when I get there:- a)securing employment and b)securing accommodation - in whichever order.

I have experience working in bars/hotels etc. from when I was younger and would be open to bar work when I get there as a start, but I really want to maintain and grow my professional career especially given my age.
Has anyone here any experience in getting a professional job in Canada by moving from Ireland? Also, getting accommodation I imagine is dictated by securing employment.

Also, I am not sure where I would rather go , Toronto seems to have all the global/FMCG companies which would really grow my career, but Vancouver seems prettier and possibly a healthier lifestyle but not as many jobs???

Any thoughts by anyone in a similar situation much appreciated, pints are on me when I get there