Canadian Visas

Our guide to applying for a Visa through the Canada Student General Working Holiday Programme.

To work legally in Canada on a temporary basis you must get a work permit or visa. The simplest kind of visa to get (and realistically the only kind available if you want to combine working and travelling) is on the Student General Working Holiday Programme.

You can apply for this yourself, but as you have to sort out a job before you apply it is very hard to do.

It is much easier for a reputable organisation to process SGWHP applications for you. They will charge a fee for doing this, but it means you can then arrive in Canada without having a job lined up in advance. See our Canada sections for more information n companies that offer this service: Destination Canada and Jobs in Canada.

If you are from Australia & New Zealand you can apply for a working holiday visa, which is more straightforward.

The Student General Working Holiday Programme

The Canadian government has devised two main programmes in which young travellers from the UK and Ireland can work legally on a temporary basis in Canada.

Programme A

To be eligible for Programme A, you have to be...

• be citizens of and resident in the United Kingdom
• be aged between 18 and 35 (inclusive)
• be full-time students at a UK university.

Employer sponsorship

If you are any of the above, and want to organize your own job, you then have to get a Canadian employer to "sponsor" your application before you apply for a place on the programme. They must offer you a full time job, and then they have to prove that there is not a Canadian suitable to fill that particular job. As you can guess, this is no easy task, and most Canadian employers won’t be prepared to deal with the bureaucracy associated with sponsorship. The terms of the programme allow you to stay for a year in Canada, but you can only work legally for the employer who has sponsored your application.

If someone offers you unpaid work experience, you have to prove that you have sufficient funds to support yourself before you will be given a place on the SGWHP.

Visit the Canadian High Commission in London website

Programme B

As in Programme A, to be eligible for Programme B, you have to be...

Either a student at the moment:

• Or have finished your "A"Levels and have an unconditional offer of a place at uni.
• Or have graduated from university in the last twelve months.

The difference with Programme B is that you do not need to have a job offer (employer sponsorship) before you get your place on the programme. You will however need evidence of funds to support yourself when you arrive in Canada and start looking for work.

Foreign students in Canadian Universities are not required to have a work permit for employment they do on campus, and students in certain provinces can also work off-campus.

For more info on work permits for British and Irish students contact the relevant embassy, or visit

www.cic.gc.ca

Canadian Embassies

London
Canada House
Consular Services
Trafalgar Square
London
SW1Y 5BJ
020 7258 6600

Dublin
65 St Stephens Green
Dublin 2, Ireland
00353 1 417-4100

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