Ready to spend a year in Canada, just like we did? Here’s how to make it happen, broken down into 5 simple steps.
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1) Visa — Entering the Pool (the Lottery Hat)
Working Holiday Visa
Canada’s visa system offers plenty of ways to get into the country, but the easiest route for a year in Canada is the Working Holiday visa. It grants you a one-year open work permit, allowing you to work anywhere in Canada and freely enter and leave the country — absolutely ideal for travelling.
The Working Holiday visa is actually a subcategory of the International Experience Canada programme, which is why you’ll see the abbreviation IEC everywhere during the application process.
Eligibility Requirements for the WH Visa
The requirements for obtaining a Working Holiday visa are straightforward. You must be between 18 and 35 years old, hold a valid UK passport (or passport from another eligible country), and have demonstrable savings of at least 2,500 CAD (roughly £1,500 / €1,700). When you arrive in Canada, you’ll need to show proof of a return flight (or evidence that you have enough funds on top of the 2,500 CAD to buy one), a valid passport covering your entire stay, and travel insurance for the full duration as well.
Pool
Here’s how it works: you register in the “pool” — essentially an electronic lottery hat — from which Canadian officials randomly draw applications throughout the year. If you’re lucky, you could receive your visa as early as the following week; if not, you might wait up to six months. You only pay the visa processing fees after you’ve been selected, so entering the pool is completely free.
How to Enter the Pool
First, fill out the eligibility questionnaire HERE. It only takes a few minutes, and at the end it will tell you which visas you’re eligible for. If you qualify for more than one category, select Working Holiday and click “Continue”. This will generate your personal reference code — write it down carefully, you’ll need it shortly.
Next, you need to create a personal account on the Canadian government’s server, which you’ll use to manage your application. Click HERE, select “Continue to GC Key” at the bottom, and then click “Sign Up” on the next page. Create your profile following the simple instructions, and once it’s ready, log in. You’ll see this:
Click on “International Experience Canada (IEC)” and enter the personal reference code you carefully noted earlier (from the questionnaire). Fill in everything that’s required — Personal Details, Contact Details, Application Details, and Work and Education Details. It’s essentially just another very detailed questionnaire.
Once you’ve entered all the information, submit your application to the pool. Now all that’s left to do is wait. 😃
2) Applying for the Visa After Receiving an Invitation
Once you’re randomly selected, you’ll receive an Invitation to Apply (for a work permit), which you must accept within 10 days. You’ll be notified by email, but it doesn’t hurt to check your MyCIC account from time to time as well. After accepting the invitation, you have 20 days to fill in all the required details, upload the necessary documents, and pay the visa fee.
You’ll need:
- a CV in English (or French)
- a police clearance certificate (officially translated and certified)
- a scan of a passport-style photo
- completed forms that appear in your application
- payment of 250 CAD (approx. £150 / €170) online by credit or debit card.
Then you wait to find out whether your application has been approved. If it has, you’ll receive a Letter of Introduction — and off to Canada you go!
3) Choosing Travel Insurance
At the airport, you’ll need to present your passport, Letter of Introduction, proof of sufficient funds, and travel insurance. Without it, you simply won’t be allowed into the country. We strongly recommend getting insurance for the entire duration of your planned stay (for most people, that’s the full year), because if your insurance only covers five months, they may shorten your work permit accordingly.
For a year-long trip like this, we’d recommend looking into True Traveller, a UK-based insurer that specialises in long-term travel insurance and offers great value for extended stays abroad. Have a look at our travel insurance comparison to find the best option for you.
4) Choosing Your Destination and Booking Flights
Lukáš and Lucie recommend
Where to stay in Canada
2 accommodations recommended for your holiday
⭐ TOP CHOICE
🏡 Guesthouse/B&B
AirBnB
Cheaper than hotels, you can usually get a room right in the center. For your first visit, it’s an ideal solution for accommodation in Canada.
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Where to Fly
We don’t have much work experience with eastern Canada, but we can absolutely recommend the western side. Unless your goal is Vancouver (and it probably shouldn’t be — it’s an overcrowded and extremely expensive city), Calgary is an ideal choice. It’s a sprawling, laid-back city with a beautiful downtown skyline and plenty of job opportunities. There’s also a decent expat community that can be incredibly helpful when you’re just starting out. For more tips on choosing the right place in Canada, check out resources like the motivimi guide.
Calgary is also close to Banff and Lake Louise — two mountain towns in the Rocky Mountains with loads of work available, especially during the summer and winter seasons.
Where to Book Flights
We’ve had the best experience with Kiwi.com. They’re brilliant at combining different airlines to find the cheapest routes. From London, you can often find good deals to Calgary or Vancouver with airlines like WestJet, Air Canada, or even connecting through budget carriers.If you’re a student, you could also try StudentUniverse. They offer fantastic low-cost fares (some of the cheapest we’ve seen). We only booked through them once, so we can’t give a full endorsement, but everything went smoothly. We scored a New York–Prague flight for just 250 CAD (about £150), while prices everywhere else started at 400 CAD for the same airline.
Also make sure to read our guide to finding cheap flights for more tips and tricks.
5) Finding a Job and Accommodation Before You Leave
Jobs
Start with Facebook. Post in expat groups for your target location and ask about work opportunities — we found 2 out of 3 of our jobs through Facebook, and we had the first one lined up before we even started packing. Ideally, look for positions that include accommodation. This is common at mountain hotels or more remote locations. Here are some examples of where to look for the Calgary area:
If you’re not having luck, start sending out CVs. Tailor your CV for each position — leave out what’s not relevant and expand on what is. Competition in Canada is fierce!
Where to search for jobs online:
If you can’t find a job before you leave, don’t panic. Print out a stack of CVs once you’re in Canada and hit the streets. Drop them off at every place that catches your eye — that’s simply how it’s done over there.
Cherry Picking in Canada?
If you’ve done fruit picking in New Zealand, you might be wondering whether similar work exists in Canada. Absolutely! You can find more information in this article.Accommodation
If you don’t have a friend who can put you up, we recommend Airbnb. It’s cheaper than hotels, and you can usually find a room right in the city centre. Perfect for getting your bearings during those first few days.
If anything’s unclear or you have questions, drop us a comment below the article. 🙂 Long live Canada!
Tips and Tricks for Travelling in Canada
What to PackCheck out our packing guide for travellers to help you prepare. Choose the right travel backpack, browse our favourite travel gadgets, and make sure you don’t leave anything important behind.Where to Find FlightsSearch for cheap flights on Kiwi.com — it’s our go-to flight search engine. And make sure to read our guide to finding cheap flights.Car HireWe regularly use the comparison site RentalCars.com to find the best car rental deals.Booking AccommodationBooking.com is our favourite hotel search engine. We always compare hotel prices with local rooms and apartments on Airbnb. Read about how we find cheap accommodation.Don’t Forget InsuranceTravel insurance is an absolute must. For shorter trips we go with AXA (50% discount), and for longer trips we use UK-based True Traveller. Check out our travel insurance comparison and pick the one that suits you best. |
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
