WORK PERMITS

In order to be eligible to work in Canada, a foreign national usually requires a work permit.
Persons from countries which have entered into international experience bilateral agreements with Canada will be issued work permits for limited durations under one of three possible programs: worker holiday, young professional, or international co-op student. The duration and requirements for each category vary from country to country. For citizens of Greece, an open  work permit will be issued to any applicant aged 18 to 35 for a duration of 1 year per program.


A limit of 180 such permits in the worker holiday have been fixed and 31 places remain open for the duration of the year (May 2013 to April 2014).
Nationals of Ireland 18 to 35 are eligible for 2 year work permits under the programs.

Work permits issued under  International Experience Canada (IEP) will not be renewed once the
stated time periods are reached.  In order to remain in Canada and continue to work, two options are available. The first is through a different work permit issued with a labour market opinion (LMO.)

Provided that an applicant apply to extend to his work permit before it expires, he or she can continue working in Canada under implied status until a decision has been rendered on the
extension request. The extension will be granted if Service Canada has issued a positive LMO.
To obtain a positive LMO, an employer must demonstrate that they could not find a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada qualified to perform the work.

The employer must demonstrate, to the satisfaction of a Service Canada staff member, that adequate attempts to recruit a Canadian had been made and were unsuccessful. The minimum recruitment efforts required must include recruitment on Serviced Canada’s job bank website and/ or on a recognized public advertising site, such as Workopolis or the newspaper. If the job is for  Management and Professional Occupations – NOC Skill Type 0 and Skill Level A, either one or the other type of recruitment effort need be made. For Technical and Trade Occupations – NOC Skill Level B, recruitment must be conducted through both sources.
Once the advertisements are in place, an employer must receive resumes of prospective candidates and offer the position to those qualified. If no qualified applicants can be found other than the foreign national, then a positive LMO will be issued. With the positive LMO the applicant is then eligible for a work permit.

The second type of work permit extension for the IEC class of work permit holders would be a bridging work permit. Those applicants who were eligible and had applied for permanent residency under the Canada Experience Class (CEC), relying on at least 1 year of work in Canada, are eligible to receive an open “bridging work permit” which allows them to live and work in Canada until such time as a decision is rendered on their CEC application.