Online Application For International Experience Canada （IEC）
If you can’t complete a medical exam before the deadline to submit your work permit application, you can submit proof that you’ve made an appointment to get one.
Your medical exam results are valid for 12 months. To make sure they don’t expire, you should wait until you’re invited to apply before getting a medical exam.
Learn more about medical exam requirements.
Health insurance
You don’t need to have health insurance when you apply. You do need to have it before you arrive in Canada. Your health insurance must cover the entire time you’re here.
You should purchase 1 policy to cover the entire length of your work permit. If this isn’t possible, you can get 2 consecutive policies instead.
Your insurance must cover
- medical care
- hospitalization
- repatriation
- This includes the cost of
- getting you to a medical facility
- returning you to your home country or
- returning your remains to your home country
- This includes the cost of
Before purchasing your policy, ask your provider what medical coverage is included.
If you don’t have sufficient coverage, you may be denied entry into Canada.
We strongly recommend you wait to get your health insurance until after you get your port of entry letter of introduction.
What if my health insurance is only valid for part of the time I want to stay in Canada?
If your health insurance doesn’t last the entire length of your stay in Canada, you’ll be given a work permit that expires on the same day as your insurance.
If this happens, you won’t be able to apply to change the conditions of your work permit at a later date.
Police certificates
In most cases, you’ll need to get police certificates for countries or territories where you’ve spent 6 or more months in a row since the age of 18.
When processing your application, an officer might ask you for more police certificates.
How long is my police certificate good for?
For the country or territory where you currently live, the certificate cannot be older than 6 months from the day you apply.
For any other country or territory where you’ve stayed for 6 or more months in a row, the certificate must have been issued after you left. You can use the certificate for your IEC application as long as you haven’t gone back to that country or territory.
Uploading your police certificates
There will only be 1 upload field for police certificates. If you need to give us more than 1 certificate, make sure to include all your certificates together in 1 single file.
If your police certificate doesn’t have an expiry date or document number
If your police certificate doesn’t have an expiry date, select a day that’s at least 1 year after the date it was issued. It doesn’t have to be exactly 1 year after.
If your police certificate doesn’t have a document number, type N/A in the field.
If you can’t get one in time
If you can’t get a police certificate before the deadline to submit your application, you can upload
- a copy of the receipt to prove you’ve applied for one, or
- a screenshot of the confirmation page or email you got when you ordered your police certificate online
An officer will send you a request letter in your account later on to ask for your police certificate. You must give us the certificate by the deadline shown in the request letter or your application will be refused.
Special instructions for police certificates
Some places of special instructions for IEC applicants. Read the special notes and considerations for the countries below:
Learn more about police certificates.
CV/résumé
You’ll need to provide a copy of your CV or résumé. A curriculum vitae or résumé is a brief description of your:
- education
- qualifications and
- work experience (main duties for each job).
It should also include your current job title and the city and country where you currently live.
Passport
You must provide a clear, readable copy of your passport.
Your passport must be valid:
- when you apply to the International Experience Canada program and
- when you enter and depart from Canada
Your work permit will not be issued for longer than the validity of your passport. Your passport must include a blank page other than the last page.
Digital photo
You must provide a digital photo of yourself.
Frame size
- The final frame size of the photo must be at least 35mm x 45mm
- The photographs must show a full front view of the head and tops of shoulders, with the face in the middle of the photograph
- The size of the head, from chin to crown, must be between 31mm and 36mm
- Digital dimensions are often expressed in pixels or DPI (dots per inch)
- The physical dimensions in pixels must be at least 420 x 540
Quality/resolution
If you scan a photo you already have, the minimum resolution must be 600 pixels per inch.
File format
- The file may be submitted in JPEG or JPEG2000 format
- The final size of the image should ideally be 240 kB (kilobytes), but not less than 60 kB
- The image must be in colour (24 bits per pixel) in RGB colour space, which is the common output for most digital cameras
