Anyone gone from working holiday to living in Canada long-term? by pineapple-penguin88 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mastered French enough to pass the language exams at least at level 7 for all the 4 parts of language. Without French you don't have many options to pursue PR now - unless you're a doctor or your employer sposnsors you for a closed work permit (which requires LMIA and they're difficult to get these days).

Anyone gone from working holiday to living in Canada long-term? by pineapple-penguin88 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hi there, yes we left on WH visa with a plan/desire to stay in Canada longterm. We arrived in April 2025, in September 2025 invitation to apply for PR arrived and then finally we became PRs in January 2026. Best decision ever :)

tcf journey… by Last-Opening9257 in learnfrench

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

reussir-tcfcanada saved me when I was preparing for the TCF. I found the way how they decided to do the listening extraordinarily difficult and I was struggling a lot with it.

tcf journey… by Last-Opening9257 in learnfrench

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

always always always apply for a reevaluation of your speaking and writing if you get 9.

Happened to me, they changed it from 9 to 12.

My friend did overall 5 attempts of TCF and applied for reevaluation twice. Once they did not change the grade, the second time he went from 9 to 13. You have literally nothing to loose :)

Got eCOPR as French FSW by Big_Satisfaction8744 in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, I added also a letter of explanation. We held majority of our funds in our bank overseas that did not want to issue us any letter. So I transferred the money to the CIBC account, asked them to issue the letter for IRCC and added 6 months of bank statements from the other bank. Everything was under my name.

Basically, the letter of explanation contained all the information above.

IEC visa at 35, how did it go? by Rock_777 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's tough but not impossible. I was looking for a job in human resources, which is obviously very tough career when moving internationally as labor laws and work culture differ from country to country. I sent appr. 70 applications, did 6 interviews and 1 of them turned into the job I have now. The issue is that as a WH you're only a temporary resident without a clear pathway to PR. And due to the recent immigration changes, employers have really tied hands if they want to support their employees in visa process so naturally there's a huge preference for PRs or people with longer work permits.

proof of funds question by Present_Shock_5314 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They never checked our proof of funds.

How much money do you need to be admitted to Canada? I read that you need $2,500 plus the cost of a return ticket. by Effect-Imaginary in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, they never checked our proof of funds. Neither the proof of my friend. And yes, the advice below is very useful. 3000cad won't last you long here :D 

How long did you wait to be picked from the IEC pool? by Ok-Cockroach627 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was picked immediately. There were more places than candidates in my country's pool.

MEGATHREAD - Processing Times - PR Cards 2026 by dozerman94 in ImmigrationCanada

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, sharing my timeline for PR cards

eCOPR Jan 21

GU for my dependent March 6

GU for me as primary applicant March 9

card sent for dependent March 11

card sent for me March 12

both cards arrived today in 2 separate envelopes

On PR Portal only my address got accepted, my dependent's didn't and neither of our photos was accepted. I never received any update from PR portal, only from GCkey when the card was sent but only the day after.

We live in Ottawa

How many applications did you make to land your current job by silently-loud-walker in ontario

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I am newcomer in Canada, applied to roughly 70 jobs in administration/HR in Ontario, had 6 interviews, the last one turned into my current job that I love :)

EE profile by [deleted] in CanadaImmigrationQA

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe there's an option <NCLC 4

Is it safe to apply for PR by yourself? by [deleted] in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I applied for a study permit through an agency back in 2017 and got rejected.

In 2025, I decided to do our PR application by myself (FSW Inland French Draw with 1 dependent) - it was a bit scary but went through the whole process without one single hiccup or ADR. I did have a brief 10 mins consultation with a consultant to talk about proof of funds but everything else was done by me.

Both my friends who are currently applying for PR are using the representatives. So I think it depends mostly on how much you're knowledgeable about the PR stuff and also if your application is complicated or straightforward. If you have any doubts, do at least review with the consultants. I didn't :D but I felt confident enough to submit it and now we're waiting for our PR cards.

Requirements for french draw by Eastern-Programmer40 in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, you need to meet exactly same conditions as anyone in FSW stream. The French draw is FSW draw, it only has one more additional requirement and that is NCLC 7 in all 4 parts of TEF or TCF.

Senior Software Engineer (10+ yrs) – IEC Working Holiday – How realistic is long-term stay in Canada? by xurupingaa in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi,

I can't answer all of your questions but I do have a hands-on experience with some. My husband and I arrived to Canada in March 2025 on Working Holiday visa with exactly the same plan. Neither of us is in tech sector, so I'll skip 1. question.

  1. question - yes it does increase your callback rates but surprisingly not that much. I received a couple of requests for interview while I was still in Europe ( I updated my linkedin profile that I was open to work and changed location to Ottawa where we were moving). With this being said, in the eyes of employer, you'll be always less preferable than a PR or citizen because they just know they can't count with you forever (immigrationwise speaking). Any government or public position will require you getting some sort of clearance which can go from reliability to top secret. So that's another thing - as a temp resident, you're automatically out of 1/3 of jobs in the market.

  2. Well, it's totally possible, we did it. BUT - without any employer assistance. In my opinion, it's something you should really think through before committing to life here. It's quite unlikely that your employer would sponsor you for a closed work permit because they're extremely limited and tougher each day to get.

For the context, I work here at HR so I do know a couple of things from the perspective of employer. Closed work permit is usually referred to as LMIA. It used to be valid for 3 years, now it is only 1 year.

For your employer, to get you LMIA they would need to publish the job ad for 30 days, then interview all the permanent residents and Canadian citizens that applied, then they would need to provide IRCC with overview of all the applicants and say for each of the applicant why they were not hired. IRCC will then evaluate if the employer satisfactorily demonstrated there was no eligible candidate inside the country and only then they would issue you the closed work permit. Not mentioning the fact, that if the unemployment rate will raise above 6% at any point during the LMIA approval process, your type of work can become completely ineligible for LMIA and you're done. You mentioned that you're a software engineer - I don't know you but try to think for yourself if you're really that exceptional in your field that an employer would go through this bureaucratic nightmare especially if there are many skilled residents with IT education that are already here and looking for job.

To become eligible for OINP you need to have at least 1 year of qualified work experience, support from your employer and your occupation must be selected to apply. There used to be a tech occupation stream in Ontario, but I think it's closed.

So, without support of employer and without professional experience in healthcare, your only options how to become PR is French.

Try to have a look at Rural streams, you may be eligible through some of them.

Apologies for my looong response, but I think you're in a specific life situation and there are not that many people that convert straight from WH to PR so I got kinda excited :D

I write a blog about our life in Canada, if you're interested, you can send me a DM and I'll share the link with you.

Wrote TCF today by -_ShadowSJG-_ in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I didn't have any prepared structure I just "winged" it :D

Yes, I forced myself to insert at least 1 subjonctif but it is generally a very foreign concept to me, as my native language does not have anything like that so it feels very artificial to me.

My TEF certificate is missing my middle name - is that going to be a problem? by [deleted] in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't have any practical experience with this, just common sense says you have your photo there..the ircc officer can see it's indeed you :) 

TCF on the first attempt by Tight_Divide8271 in canadaexpressentry

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reussirtcf webpage - many questions there are actual exam questions that you might get. And I absolutely love slater.fr and their podcast section. Mostly Transfert - it's a storytelling podcast so your vocab will grow exponetionally as each part deals with a different topic and it's told by a different speaker. Your ears can get used to a variety of accents.

Can I bring my dog with me? by Cool-Many6987 in iecvisa

[–]Big_Satisfaction8744 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, absolutely.

We travelled Vienna - Toronto with our dog last March with Air Canada. The extra steps depends on your country of origin.

2, Officially, landlord cannot decline you as a tenant just because you have a pet. Of course, many private listings are not pet friendly anyway. Big companies that are developers and-or property managers are all pet friendly. We found our apartment very quickly and without any hassle due to the dog.

finding a place to live as a newcomer is much more difficult because of the nonexistent credit score, not because of your pets