laurieflynn

Hi, Me and my girlfriend are both travelling to canada under the bunac work canada programme in the next few months. We are either going to locate to vancouver or toronto depending on where we can obtain jobs. As we are only there for one year i know this will hamper our ability to get good career jobs. We are both looking for office/admin work rather than seasonal or bar work. Is there anyone who has been in a similiar situation. Has anyone got any advice where the best place to look for jobs or know any reasonable agencies we could contact.

many thanks

CANZUK

I lived in Toronto and Vancouver during my BUNAC year and thought Vancouver had much more to offer. There are many more SWAP/BUNAC people out in Van and the socials and events are far better. You would be better of for work in Vancouver and the money is better in the west too.

laurieflynn

thanks for the reply, i need all the advice I can get. How did you manage to stay for 14 months on Bunac, as I thought it was just a 12 month visa

CANZUK

Well I worked for 12 months but spent some time in the US and 1 month traveling Western Canada once I'd got some money together. I stayed in my apartment for a while before I booked my flights home, Just so I could enjoy Vancouver and go out every night until coming back to boring England.

katybennett1984

You can stay for 90 days as a tourist after your BUNAC working visa expires, but you cannot work during this time.

laurieflynn

Hi I am looking to stay for the 90 days as my girlfriend as coming 2 months after me, so want her to be there for 1 year as well. Ones my 12 months is up do I need to leave n. america and return to start the 90 days or can I just start it straight after my Bunac visa ends.

katybennett1984

I think it just adds on to the end of your 12 months working visa, you don't need to leave and come back.

DigitalGhost

It's up to six months as a UK citizen and I think you would need to flagpole to do that.

DigitalGhost

No offence, but that is precisely why I would want to go somewhere different.

canada10

What did you work with during those 12 months in Vancouver, Canzuk?

CANZUK

I'm pretty sure 'flagpoling' is illigal, and if you've got a non US/Canadian passport it would be easier to get caught out.
If you've booked an outward flight to satisfy entry requirments you could always pay a small fee to delay your depature, that's what a lot of people do.

DigitalGhost

Flag poling is not illegal, although not an encouraged practise, it's often required to activate a new Canadian visa from inland and Bunac even advise it themselves in their handbook if you're successful in applying for their program but you are already located in Canada otherwise your work approval would not be able to take effect.

The outward flight is not a pre-requisite for entry to Canada and is certainly not a pre-requisite for a YMS visa. It's a requirement for receiving your work permission letter from Bunac as they do not want to bail out idiots who have gone over there, spent all of their money and then cannot afford the flight home. It's for that exact same reason that they also require evidence of an adequate insurance policy and if you apply for YMS on a non-British passport then neither of these things are needed. If you landed as a tourist for up to 6 months without a return ticket then it would be up to the immigration officer on duty as to whether or not they would admit you based on those circumstances and if they did allow for you to enter than the period of leave which you would be given. In either case you would also need to be able to show evidence of adequate funds upon request to fund your designated legnth of stay.

The small fee for delaying departure (which can sometimes be a large fee depending upon the airline and your ticket) is for changing the date and time of your flight only and has no effect on your immigration status within said country. No offence, but before you start handing out advice on here, you should really do a bit of reading up yourself first.

CANZUK

It's nothing I've read, just speaking from experience. Having spent 3 hours in an immigration office at Bellingham at 1am I would just advise not doing the same thing.
All of my experiences were during a BUNAC programme so I am referring to this and not YMS or any other.

Sorry for any confusion and thanks for your advice DG.

DigitalGhost

That's fair enough then I suppose, I think you should be talking to Bunac though since they openly advocate flag poling in their program literature.

What happened with you in Bellingham then if you don't mind me asking? The Bunac program is YMS by the way, it was just outsourced by the CIC in Britain so Bunac effectively act as a consultant for all British participants, not sure why if I'm honest.

CANZUK

ha, yes it can be confusing. I had been informed that flagpoling by land is more difficult than flagpoling by air. It seems a bit annoying as traveling the border by air is more expensive.
I guess in my circumstance it looked dodgy as didnt yet have a fixed address in Canada and didnt have proof of a flight booked out. also had a big bag with me (i was on a greyhound coach).

I think the US are tougher than the Canadians. They actually informed me of the act of 'flagpoling'. Maybe I just got unlucky.