Hire skilled youth through International Experience Canada

About the process

If you’re a Canadian employer, you can hire skilled youth participating in International Experience Canada (IEC) to fill temporary jobs you haven’t been able to fill locally.

IEC has agreements with more than 30 foreign countries and territories that help youth (aged 18 to 35) from those areas get work permits faster. By hiring an IEC participant, you may be able to find skilled workers to fill jobs sooner.

You don’t need to get a Labour Market Impact Assessment to hire an IEC participant.

Find a candidate

You can find a candidate on your own, or a candidate may approach you.

To find candidates, you can use the same recruiting and hiring practices you use now.

Make sure the job is right for the candidate

IEC has 3 streams that participants can apply to, although not every stream is available for all partner countries. Make sure the job you’re offering matches the requirements for the candidate’s stream.

Young Professionals category

Youth can gain professional Canadian work experience to help them compete in the global economy. To hire somebody from the Young Professionals category, you need to make them a job offer.

The job must

• contribute to the youth’s professional development
• meet all labour laws in the province or territory, including minimum wage requirements
• be classified under Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities (TEER) category 0, 1, 2 or 3 of the National Occupational Classification (NOC)
  • A NOC TEER 4 job might be accepted if the youth can submit a post-secondary diploma, certificate or degree with their work permit application

International Co-op (internship) stream

Participants in this stream must be students registered at a post-secondary institution. The work placement or internship must be required in order to complete their study program. To hire somebody from the International Co-op (Internship) stream, you need to make them a job offer.

The job must:

• be directly linked to the participant’s field of study
• meet all labour laws in the province or territory, including minimum wage requirements

Working Holiday stream

Participants in the Working Holiday stream have open work permits. There are no specific instructions to hire somebody with an open work permit. Follow the same hiring process as you normally would.

Make a job offer

What the worker needs to do

To hire somebody from the Young Professionals or International Co-op (Internship) stream, the person you want to hire first needs to:

1. become an IEC candidate in one of the pools
2. wait to be drawn out of the pool and get an invitation to apply (ITA) for a work permit
3. after getting an ITA, start their application for a work permit

What you need to do (as the employer)

Once the IEC candidate gets their ITA, you:

1. make them a job offer using our Employer Portal
2. pay the $230 CAN employer compliance Fee
3. submit the offer of employment
   • you’ll then get an offer of employment number in your “Employment queue” that begins with “A” followed by 7 numbers
4. give them the offer of employment number
5. give them proof that you paid the employer compliance fee
6. give them a formal, signed job offer letter
   • make sure the details in the job offer letter match the details of the offer of employment you submitted

Make sure you enter the information correctly. Once you submit your offer, you can’t make changes or corrections.

When to submit an offer of employment

You should submit your offer of employment once your candidate receives an ITA. Once they accept the ITA, they’ll have 20 days to submit their complete work permit application.

After you submit your offer of employment

After you submit your offer of employment, give the candidate the offer of employment number, the signed job offer and proof that you paid the employer compliance fee. Then they can submit their work permit application.

The standard processing time for an IEC work permit is 56 days from the time we receive a complete application (including biometric information). If the candidate is approved for a work permit, they can come to Canada to activate their work permit and start working for you on the date specified on their job offer letter.

When hiring a temporary worker, there are certain responsibilities you must meet. Find out what to do after hiring a temporary worker, as well as employer inspections, voluntary disclosure for employers and penalties for employers.