I'm a British citizen and I'm about to start my Masters degree in the U.K.
However I'm really fixed on moving to Canada as soon as possible. I have ALOT of extended family members there. The family atmosphere over there is different to that in the U.K.

I've been looking around and I've found out that there are agencies which offer unpaid internships in my field (engineering) for about 3 months in Canada. Because these internships are unpaid (essentially its volunteering), apparently I don't need a work permit for this.

However my problem isn't with the unpaid internship, my problem is what do I do after the internship?

Can I apply for jobs during or after the internship?
Do I apply for a work permit before applying for jobs or after receiving an offer?
Is 3 months work experience sufficient enough for employers to be considered for a job?

How do I go about this?

I don't know if internships are given an exemption but you need a work permit or permanent resident/citizen status to volunteer in Canada

My bad, I guess I didn't read the info properly.

I would want a second opinion on this. Generally, you do require a work permit to do an internship if it involves doing work that would otherwise be paid work.

I suggest you look at working holiday visas (assuming you are under 30). These can give you up to two years open work permit in Canada, which should be plenty of time to decide if you want to make the move permanent.

If you can get an internship I don't see why not.

As above, look into the working holiday visa program. Otherwise you have to get a job offer first before you apply for a work permit.

Depends. To get a work permit the employer not only has to offer you a job, they have to demonstrate that they could not find a Canadian who was willing and able to do it. Even with an MSC if you are fresh out of university with less than three months working experience I am not sure that an employer will be able to demonstrate that they could not find an equally qualified and inexperienced Canadian.

Did I mention a working holiday visa?

A study visa and doing a masters in Canada makes a lot more sense from the point of view of both working here as an intern and leveraging the degree into a decent job at the end. Its just likely to cost more thats all due to the fee structure.

No way you can intern here without a visa is my first impression.

Ditto what everybody else has said, you definitely can't intern without a work permit. Just for info, the relevant CIC manual says that any "work" needs a work permit, and goes on to say:

Examples of “work” include, but are not limited to:

• a foreign technician coming to repair a machine, or otherwise fulfil a contract, even when they will not be paid directly by the Canadian company for whom they are doing the work;

• self-employment, which could constitute a competitive economic activity such as opening a dry- cleaning shop or fast-food franchise. (A self-employed person may also be considered tobe working if they receive a commission or payment for services);

• unpaid employment undertaken for the purpose of obtaining work experience, such as an internship or practicum normally done by a student.

HTH.

Hi

Not quite right, you can volunteer whatever your status, but the volunteer work is work that is not paid to anyone else doing a similar job, i.e. SPCA, Red Cross etc.

The international fees for masters in Canada is a lot of money and I personally can't afford it. Also, its a bit too late for me now as I start my masters next week in the U.K. and university has already started in Canada.

Sorry I said that you don't need a visa for internships, I guess I must have misread or misunderstood something I read online.

The working holiday idea seems interesting, but I don't think the 3 month internship will be enough work experience for me to go in my field in Canada. I guess I'll give it a go, if I don't succeed, the 3 month experience will help me back in the U.K. for graduate job applications.

Are you talking about this?

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca...ang=eng&view=d

They renamed the working holiday visa to International Experience Canada, and the work permit is only for 1 year.

So basically if I've understood correctly, if I get accepted on to this IEC thing, I can apply for permanent jobs while in Canada, since I would effectively have a work permit for 1 year?