empirestate

You dont HAVE to have a return flight booked if you are entering canada once you get your IEC, you just have to proove you have enough funds to buy a ticket home. However if you intend to enter as a tourist first then I would get a return ticket

Jennika

Hey me too! Flying to Toronto on 14th Feb, from Glasgow though

Wizardoffire

Interesting to read that they say an exception will be made if in the past 3 years you studied abroad, i spent around 6 months studying in Germany back in 2010/2011. Will I have to do anything else aside from mentioning it?

Secondly I have travel insurance with the post office and they've notified me, that it is due for renewal. Im not sure if this is suitable insurance for IEC but was wondering if anyone else happens to know?

Oaken

Check to see the length of 'holiday' it covers, standard travel insurance will only cover you for a maximum number of days in a single trip, usually somewhere between 30-90 days max.

You will obviously need cover for 365 days.

Cumbrian7

If It was over 6 months continuously then you will need to obtain a German police check.

Jay92

hi there guys, hope your well.

Anxiously waiting for the IEC to open this week, was wondering if anyone can help me.

I am aware that the whole application process will be done online this year, which means we will require digital copies of our police check and passport.

I wanted to know what would be the most appropriate and safe option in obtaining the digital copies, should we get them scanned and upload them, or could we just take good quality pictures and upload them?

kid regards

Jay

ro616

I booked a return flight as it seemed to be a condition of getting a tourist visa - not that it helped me much - to paraquote the friendly immigration officer "everyone in this line has return ticket, that's fooling no-one. How do I know you'll get on the flight back?" Wasn't sure how to answer that. Anyway I booked a fully refundable flight so if my iec app is approved I'll cancel the flight.

Oaken

By telling them you where going to apply for a work visa while you were in Canada they immediately presume you have no intention of leaving if you did or didn't get the work visa you wanted.

I just told them I was going to see the sights on an extended holiday and it took me all of 30 seconds to get through passport control.

cptkid89

So it looks like the IRish do not need to sumbit a police check for this year. Was this the same in previous years?

Could that mean that possibly people from the UK don't need to have a police check?

"As part of stage one of the application process to participate in the International Experience Canada (IEC) initiative, you will be required to submit a scanned or electronic copy of the following documents to IEC Kompass. The designated IEC office will review these documents to assess your eligibility to participate in IEC. You may be requested to submit additional documents later in the process.

1.A legible photocopy of the identification pages of your passport (family names, given name(s), date and place of birth, passport’s issue and expiry dates). Your passport must be valid for at least one day beyond the date of your departure from Canada and there must be one completely blank page, other than the last page, available in your passport.
2.Proof that you have paid the IEC program participation fee."

Wizardoffire

it wasn't a continuous 6 months as there were several whole months when I wasnt in the country

yeastery

I like this post and I'm thinking: wouldn't it be cool if we made a guide of how to do the border? Just because it seems to be scary no matter how prepared you go. Something we could do is pool everyone's border crossing experience and see if there is a consensus. Anyone interested in helping me do this?

Wizardoffire

was checking out the post office website depending on which long term travel insurance you go for, it ranges from £390 to £450
looks like I will be shopping around

empirestate

It says police check on the canadian websites, thinking you just need to provide these two basic things to the UK IEC portion, and then a load of stuff including police checks in the myCIC portion to the canadians.

NovaGlaswegian

Getting to the business end of things now! Can't wait to be able to start the process!

On the subject of Insurance, I have done a few price comparisons and have seen one from Sainbury's, which can be found here:

http://www.sainsburysbank.co.uk/trav...nded_pop.shtml

Which seems to cover what we need. I'll be sure to email them and others before buying in order to double check, but after entering in all my details it appears to include: medical and repatriation expenses, cutting short your trip, personal baggage and money and winter sports and comes in at £488 for my girlfriend and I. We'll be in Calgary so don't want to take a package without the sports cover.

As for the flights, Canadian Affair quite often have special deals on. Their website is worth checking, I'm not too fussed on luxury in what will only be a short amount of time in the grand scheme of a Canadian adventure! I've seen singles to Calgary for £260/300, most often when booking between 3-9 months in advance - that's direct with Air Transat from Gatwick and Glasgow respectively.

acrylicus

Does that seem way too cheap to anyone else...?