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Travel + Fun

06th Apr 2017

If you’re considering a move to Canada then you’ll have to act fast

Laura Holland

There has been a huge increase in demand for Canadian working holiday visas from Irish workers.

VisaFirst.com is reporting that the amount of people applying for the Canadian working holiday programme has already surpassed the numbers for 2016 in its entirety.

At present, there are just under 500 places left in the 2017 programme so if you’re looking to obtain the visa you’ll have to act fast.

Edwina Shanahan, Managing Director with visafirst.com explains:

“This year’s work programme looks likely to fill the quota – perhaps before H1 2017 is out! So anyone who is hoping to be a part of this programme really needs to get organised now.

The Irish quota for this programme is 7700 for 2017 (this is for working holiday visas that will be issued without job offers). To date, 5418 have been issued to Irish workers, and a further 1,794 applicants have applied and should be issued permits if their applications are eligible.

That leaves only 488 places for this year. In 2016, over 1000 places went unused by the end of the year – given that we are only in April it looks extremely likely that this year’s Programme will fill up – and soon.”

VisaFirst is encouraging those who want to apply for the visa to get the relevant documentation in order as soon as possible.

Edwina further advises that if you are looking to make the move to Canada that you need to register your interest under various IEC streams and follow the steps from there.

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