IRCC extends policy allowing International Experience Canada participants to get subsequent permits from within Canada
Foreign nationals working in Canada on International Experience Canada (IEC) work permits will continue to be able to receive permits for subsequent participations from within the country, under a recently-extended policy.
Canada’s immigration department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, has extended a policy that allows qualifying IEC applicants to have their work permits mailed to Canadian addresses.
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To qualify under this policy, an applicant must be physically present in Canada, must hold an existing IEC work permit, and must have received a letter of introduction (LOI) for their subsequent IEC work permit application.
They must also request examination and document issuance using IRCC’s web form prior to the expiry of their LOI.
Prior to this policy, IEC participants within Canada applying for subsequent IEC work permits would have to leave Canada, for example by flying back to their country of origin, simply to receive their new work permit.
Since the ban on flagpoling initiated on December 23, 2024, IEC applicants within Canada have not been allowed to activate their subsequent work permits by e-entering Canada from the United States or from St Pierre and Miquelon.
This policy was extended on February 10, 2026, and has been set to remain in place until further notice.
The policy was first implemented in the spring of 2024 and had initially been set to expire on December 1, 2025.
Under the International Experience Canada program, work permits are available to youth from 36 countries with bilateral youth mobility agreements with Canada.
To qualify, a foreign national must be a citizen of a participating country and must be aged 18-35 or 18-30 (depending on their country), in addition to meeting other program requirements depending on their IEC permit.
Some countries allow only a single lifetime participation under the IEC, while others allow for a second or even a third participation.
In some cases, demand from foreign nationals may exceed their country’s annual quota. In these cases, IRCC uses a lottery system, randomly issuing invitations to apply for work permits to eligible profiles in the IEC pool.
Each year’s IEC pool typically opens in December of the previous year and begins issuing invitations in January.
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