Annalee was one of the lucky ones to bag a two year Canadian visa this year. Check out how she found the visa process below, as well as how easy it was for her to find a job on our Work Canada Ultimate programme!

So, a lot of progress has been made to actually going to Canada! This was planned when me and Mark had just come back from Australia/New Zealand, knowing already that we wanted to keep on travelling, mainly because our trip was cut short! This time we were going to make sure we planned and this how we did it :)

Immediately when we got back we started looking for companies and ways for people to help us get into the country (we heard it was quite hard). We found BUNAC, did some research into the company with their reliability and it's pretty good as they offer a lot of help, having also been around for years.

They started off with webinars (seminar hosted online i.e. voice and powerpoint) after we had paid our deposits, which prepared us for when the visas would become available: police checks, passports in date, photocopying, scanning, printing; it was a lot of preparation. Canadian working holiday visas are done in three rounds, a certain amount available each round, as there is a limit to the visas each year which they hand out to each country. I think the one this year was roughly around 5,000 - 7,000, a lot of people are still waiting for confirmation.

Just before the rounds came out we had then also found out that instead of the one year visa which the Canadian government normally does, this year they added a two year visa which is pretty awesome not having to go through this again:

The first round we had to log into this website and fill out a load of questions which was like a CV, took forever and we had to do it fast before the visas ran out for that round. I think Mark got in about 3 minutes, which was so good! With me I had a laptop which had broken down a week before and was on a desktop which kept freezing because so many other people were on the site! I submitted everything on the 12th or 13th minute and the round had closed.

I was quite gutted, but because of the other rounds it was easier to deal with, as I did still have two more to go. As I had already filled out my information, the website saved your answers so that you only had to sign in and submit, which made things so much more easier. I got mine on the second round :)

Then it was just working and saving, while planning the rest of our trip. As me and Mark decided to go for the Ultimate Package, this is where they give you a lot more help, which then resulted into us going to London for our Blue Mountain interviews! The interviewers were lovely, really friendly people, was super nervous when I got out. Thankfully, they liked me enough to offer me a job Housekeeping! Grateful I'm getting full training on how to clean before I'm thrown in the pond ;D Mark is also going to be a Line Chef at the same place!

We've booked our flights, again with the Ultimate Package we have managed to get a Group Flight to Iceland for two days, then heading off to Toronto. We'll be in a team with a load of other BUNACers which are almost all doing the same thing as us! We've had a Facebook going for awhile, quite a lot will be working at the same place! Which is cool knowing some people you're going out with before you're actually there :)

Soooo... I'm leaving soon and giving all my family and friends hugs and kisses as I will miss them when I am gone! I shall bring more updates when I can.

o/ 

Has Annalee inspired you to start your own Canadian adventure? Just check out our Work Canada programme or give us a call on 03339997516!