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14 000 places are available in 2012!

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Are you French?
Between 18 and 35 years old?
Want to do an internship or get a fixed-term contract in Canada?

Thanks to the International Experience Canada (IEC) initiative, you can!

IEC allows French citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 to go to Canada to:

• enhance their professional skills in their field
• obtain an internship/on-the-job training placement as part of a study program in their home country
• get a summer job
• explore Canada while working

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Categories
Participation Fee
Processing Time
Reimbursement Policy
Canada-France Youth Mobility Agreement
Questions?

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The initiative is comprised of four categories:

Young Professionals:
This category is designed for French young professionals wishing to gain further professional experience in their field, with a fixed-term employment contract (maximum 18 months).

Internship/On-the-Job Training:
This category is designed for French youth wishing to complete an internship or work placement in Canada during the course of their studies or training (maximum 12 months).

Student Summer Job:
This category is designed for French students wishing to work in Canada during their summer vacation (maximum of 3 months, between May 1st and September 30th, 2011).

Working Holiday (WHP):
This category is designed for French youth wishing to go to Canada for tourism and cultural discovery purposes, while being authorised to work to supplement their financial resources (12 months).

Please note that you can participate twice in the International Experience Canada (IEC) initiative. However, the stays must fall under two different categories.

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Participation Fee

** ATTENTION: An important change has been made to the payment of the participation fee. **

Since 2011, the fee payment only applies to candidates who submit applications that meet all of the IEC eligibility criteria. Consequently, it will be requested only after the file has been examined by the Youth Mobility Unit (YMU).

If your application meets the IEC eligibility criteria, you will receive a conditional acceptance email. In this message, you will be asked to pay the participation fee by wire transfer. The fee amount as well as the bank coordinates of the account to which the payment must be made will be sent to you at that time.

Only the amount indicated in this message will be accepted as it will correspond to the exchange rate on the day of the conditional acceptance.

You must not make this payment before receiving a message of conditional acceptance from the Youth Mobility Unit. If you make this payment before receiving the conditional acceptance email, your application will be refused on grounds of non-compliance.

Additional information concerning the fee payment process will be provided in the conditional acceptance email.

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Processing Time

The current processing times for all IEC categories are calculated from the date on which your completed application is received by the Youth Mobility Unit.

For more information on the processing times, or to recall which ones apply to your file, click here.

We are observing the principle of “first come, first served” both for assigning places within categories and for processing applications.

Note for candidates applying to categories "Young Professionals", "Internship / On-the-Job Training" and "Student Summer Job":
We are aware that certain job or internship confirmations are received late, and we try to process applications so that each candidate can commence his/her position on the date indicated on the contract. However, we cannot guarantee the issuance of the Letter of Introduction before the contract start date if the interval between the date on which we receive the application and the date on which the position begins is shorter than the processing time indicated on our website.

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Reimbursement Policy

The International Experience Canada (IEC) participation fee will only be reimbursed if:

An application package is not accepted due to being incorrectly or incompletely filled out;

You do not meet the criteria of the IEC initiative and thus cannot be a participant;

You cannot be issued a work permit by Citizenship and Immigration Canada by reason of a pre-existing medical condition or criminal record, or because you have not been able to establish that you will come back to your home country;

The established participation quota for the IEC initiative in your country has been filled and no more applications can be accepted, or the quota for the category for which you are applying has been filled and no more applications can be accepted; or,

You voluntarily withdraw before the Letter of Introduction is issued by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

The participation fee will NOT be reimbursed if:

A Letter of Introduction has been issued to you by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, thereby confirming that a work permit will be issued to you at the Port of Entry. From the moment that your Letter of Introduction is issued, you are deemed to be a participant, whether you end up participating or not; or,

You include inaccurate information on the application or declaration form to circumvent the official requirements of the IEC initiative, and, as such, falsely represent yourself.

Please take note that the participation fee is not transferable under any circumstances, neither from person to person nor from year to year.

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Canada-France Youth Mobility Agreement

You can download the Youth Mobility Agreement here | PDF ^* (927 KB)

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Questions?

If you have any questions about the International Experience Canada (IEC) initiative, please consult the FAQ section.

Go for the experience!

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* If you require a plug-in or a third-party software to view this file, please visit the alternative formats section of our help page .