Yesterday we made the first step in obtaining our Candian work permits and officially started the ball rolling. After talking at length with my partner about how he feels about all this and reading all of the available literature on the permit itself, costs involved and job prospects we decided to apply for our visa through BUNAC.
BUNAC are the UK’s leading non-profit travel club and, as the market leader in work and volunteer abroad programmes, has enabled hundreds of thousands of travellers to explore the world. You can find their website here.
It is possible to apply for your working visa directly through the Canadian High Commission usig the International Experience Canada program (details of which can be found here) however, we felt the BUNAC programme fee of £254 was worth the peace of mind that their step by step advice during the visa process and walk in resource and advice centre in Vancouver itself would provide.
There are a lot of costs that I was not immediately aware of when preparing for an experience such as this - for example, it is a visa criteria that you have both medical and repatriation insurance for the entire length of your stay - for a year this adds up and my initial quote with BUNAC's in house insurance team Endsleigh, who have a work abroad policy ready to go, was in the region of £550. This does not include ski or snowboard insurance, so it will also have to be topped up and leaves you with the question, "if I broke my leg on the mountain, could I not hop down for free?"
I am hoping to receive the confirmation that we are booked onto the programme in the next couple of days, after which the visa application, including police certificate and proof of funds ($1,000 a month for the first 3 months) will begin in haste. The application officially takes 8-12 weeks to process, but as the scheme has recently changed (from one 1 year visa to two 1 year visa's) the Canadian High Commission is dealing with a huge influx of applications and is currently outsourcing the processing of the applications to the High Commission in Paris in order to meet demand. Therefore it could take much longer to receive our letter of introduction - without which you should not book flights or travel. As we plan to leave at the end of August/beginning of September in theory we have plenty of time - lets hope it flies by!
Aimée L’amour x
www.twitter.com/aimeelamour
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