Canada Temporary Resident Changes & How it Affects the IEC Visa
What are Canada’s Temporary Resident Changes
In 2023, the temporary resident population in Canada was 6.4%. On March 21st, 2024, Marc Miller, the minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC), announced a plan to reduce Canada’s temporary resident population to 5% in the upcoming three years.
According to Statistics Canada, the population in Canada increased by 430,635 in just three months in 2023, with 96% of the population increase being due to international migration. This increase is the largest Canada has seen in any quarter since 1957.
IRCC aims to “stabilize growth” by reducing the number of temporary residents within Canada. This began at the start of the year with the announcement of a cap on international student permits in January 2024 and the restrictions on eligibility for post-graduate work permits and work permits for spouses of students.
How does this affect IEC visa applicants? Let’s get into it.
How do the temporary resident targets impact IEC visa applications?
People in Canada on an IEC visa fall under the IRCC definition of a temporary resident.
IRCC reported that 10% of temporary residents belong to reciprocal youth exchange programs, like the International Experience Canada (IEC) program.
The announcement about reducing the number of temporary residents in Canada in March has impacted IEC visa invitations. 131,541 IEC invitations were sent by the end of 2023. With 92,482 IEC invitations issued in 2024 and only 24,446 spots left, the predicted number of invitations for 2024 is almost 15,000 less than in 2023.
Invites are also appearing more sporadic than the IEC invitations during previous years. After two weeks of zero invites administered to IEC applicants, 7,402 IEC invitations were issued during the week of July 5th, 2024.
So, what does this mean for IEC visa applicants?
Invites are randomly administered, so there is no guarantee when or if you’ll receive an invite during the pool period. However, the good news is that a large number of invites were issued during the week of July 5th. Plus, most IEC-eligible countries are considered to have an ‘Excellent’ chance for citizens in that country to receive an invitation to apply.
What’s more, if you are applying for the Young Professionals or International Co-op Internship streams, there are typically more spots than candidates. IRCC stated that these categories “usually receive an invitation.”
How to Ensure the Best Chance of Receiving an IEC Invitation
Use the Come to Canada Tool to check your eligibility
The Come to Canada Tool allows you to see which immigration programs you could be eligible for by completing a questionnaire.
Use this tool before submitting a profile for the IEC visa to ensure you are eligible for the program you want to apply for.
You can also select your country or territory of citizenship to see which IEC categories are available to you and the eligibility criteria for applying to any of those categories.
Double-check your IEC profile submission
After reviewing your eligibility, you will want to submit an IEC profile. Make sure that you double-check that your details are correct before submitting your IEC profile. To submit your IEC profile, you need to answer questions about yourself, including your citizenship, country of residence, and other information depending on your IEC stream.
You can view information on submitting your IEC profile here.
Please note: submitting your IEC profile is not the same as an IEC visa application. First, you submit an IEC profile to indicate you would like to apply for the IEC visa, and then you may be invited to apply for the IEC visa at any point during the IEC pool period. You can only submit a full IEC visa application after receiving an invitation to apply.
Submit an IEC profile as soon as possible
You should submit your IEC profile as soon as you can. IEC invitations are on a rolling basis throughout the pool period. So, submitting your profile as early as possible increases your chance of being selected to apply.
If you don’t finish submitting your IEC profile within 60 days, you will have to start from the beginning to submit an IEC profile.
Prepare for your application
Because the invites are random, you could receive an invitation to apply for the IEC visa anytime. So you should be prepared for your IEC application by researching what you need to submit if you receive an invitation, as you will have ten days to start your application.
Check out IRCC’s How to Apply page for more information on documents you may need once you receive an invitation to apply for the IEC visa.