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By Stephanie Ford
Updated 5 days ago
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The 2026 IEC season officially opened on December 19, 2025. You can now create your profile and enter the pools. Apply early to improve your chances!
Signup to receive the latest updates and quotas.
The International Experience Canada (IEC) pools for the 2026 season officially opened on December 19. Eligible candidates can now create an IEC profile and enter the pools.
We aren’t expecting the first rounds of invitations to begin until later in January. But, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has provided an update on January 2, 2026, showing how many candidates have entered the pool — and it’s quite a few!
In fact, 26,983 candidates are already in the IEC pool waiting for invitations to start being issued for the 2026 IEC season. In other words, this season is shaping up to be very competitive — especially for certain countries.
Remember: IEC is not a first-come, first-served program, entering the pool early allows you to participate in more invitation rounds, increasing your chances of receiving an invitation. So, don’t let this first update put you off entering the pool. If anything, it’s more important than ever to get in early.
If you plan to come to Canada through IEC in 2026, submitting your profile as early as possible is strongly recommended.
IRCC shared some key details about the early IEC pool entrants for 2026 in a January 2, 2026 update.
The programs with the highest number of candidates already in the pool, as of January 2, 2026 are:
Read our earlier coverage for information about last year’s IEC quotas. We don’t know how they will compare to quotas this year (2025 did see a decrease in many quotas compared to 2024). But, it can help you to make sense of your possible odds for receiving an invitation for 2026.
Here’s what we don’t know, based on this update:
In other words, there will likely be some key announcements coming in the next few weeks as IRCC rolls out more information and gears up for the first round of invitations.
The first round of invitations in 2025 took place in the week of January 13, with the quota for this year’s IEC season sitting at 63,555. Over the course of the year, 102,289 invitations were issued before the final round on October 27, 2025, marking the close of the 2025 IEC season.
The last round of invitations saw over 1,300 invitations issued. South Korea’s Working Holiday program led the way with 312 invitations, followed by Australia with 156. Rounding out the top five were the Working Holiday programs for Germany and Ireland, and France’s Young Professionals category.
While major programs such as the UK and France Working Holiday issued limited invitations throughout the year, the number of candidates in the IEC pool decreased slightly – from 40,435 on October 17 to 40,080 on October 27.
Since both these programs remained among those with very low chances of success (with France’s pool oversubscribed from the start), and several additional programs joined the low-odds list toward the end of the season. It is safe to say that competition for spots in the 2026 season is building in some core countries.
The 2025 IEC season officially closed, following this final round of invitations on October 27, 2025.
Although there were 40,080 candidates in the IEC pool competing for just 7,605 available spots, most programs still showed strong chances of receiving an invitation in the last round. That was encouraging news for candidates in select pools. However, with the final round of invitations taking place on October 27, 2025, applicants had one last opportunity to secure an invite for the 2025 season.
Some programs had low or very low odds of receiving an invitation in the final round for 2025:
All other programs concluded the 2025 season with excellent odds of receiving an invitation.
We’re sharing this information to let potential candidates from these countries know that entering the pool early is really important for the 2026. The IEC system is a lottery system, but you improve your odds by exposing yourself to as many rounds of invitations as possible.
Updates for 2026 IEC season
Here’s the data from the most recent IRCC update:
Get the latest IEC news straight to your inbox! Sign up for the Moving2Canada newsletter for alerts and updates on the 2026 IEC Working Holiday season.
IEC Pools opened for 2026. Candidates can now enter the pool and wait for the first round of invitations in 2026.
For the 2026 season, applicants are required to pay an IEC fee of CAN $184.75.
In 2025, the fee was $179.75
2025 IEC Season Closed
If you’re hoping to snag an invitation through IEC, the best thing to do is plan ahead. You can start by checking your eligibility for IEC — take our free Canadian Immigration Quiz to see if you’re eligible.
First, make sure you’re eligible for one of the three IEC programs: the Working Holiday program (the most popular option), Young Professionals, and International Co-op.
If you meet the eligibility for one of the programs, you’ll be able to create a new profile once the 2026 pools reopen and submit it to the pool for your country and program. Submitting your profile early ensures you’re considered in all rounds of invitations.
You can also begin preparing yourself for the work permit application you’ll have to submit if you receive an invitation.
Effective December 23, flagpoling is no longer permitted for those in Canada as workers or students.
According to the IRCC, if you’re in Canada when you receive your POE letter of introduction, you must leave the country and re-enter to activate your work permit.
On 19 February, 2025, IRCC updated its guidance to note that “You may not be able to activate your work permit if you re-enter from the US or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.”
In other words, if you intend to travel to the US to activate your approved work permit, there is a high risk that such a request will be refused due to the confusion around the flagpoling issue and it’s impact on IEC workers.
Rachel walks us through how to come to Canada through IEC.
In order to come to Canada on an IEC work permit, such as the Working Holiday Visa, you need to get health insurance for the duration of your stay.
Every year, we hear stories of people who make major errors when it comes to insurance for their IEC adventure in Canada, leading to shorter-than-expect work permit durations and unnecessary medical bills. That’s why we released a video on all things health insurance. Check it out!
The 2026 International Experience Canada (IEC) season opened on December 16, 2025.
Eligible candidates are able to complete these steps:
Many IEC Working Holiday participants may want to start looking for jobs in Canada before they arrive. Thankfully, we have partnered with several Canadian employers who are looking to hire 2026 IEC participants.
Check out the Moving2Canada Jobs Board and join our IEC Talent Pool.
If you’re looking for a physically demanding job with a great crew, we recommend taking a look at our partner, Young Guns Container Crew. They’re hiring labourers to help unload shipping containers in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Cornwall, Ontario (among others!). They love IECers and can offer you a job before you arrive. Apply here — or get more information by watching this video:
Please explore our many resources to help you plan your application. Research is crucial as you plan for success on your Working Holiday Canada permit.
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