Key points
Yes, if you are French and aged 18 to 35 inclusive: the working holiday (PVT) gives a 24-month open work permit, valid with any Canadian employer, once in a lifetime. The 2027 season hasn’t opened yet (October 2026), and its quotas haven’t been published. In 2026, fees were C$369.75, and you had to arrive with C$2,500 and insurance covering your whole stay.
- Requirements for French citizens: aged 18 to 35 inclusive, passport valid for the whole stay, C$2,500, insurance for the full period, no dependants.
- 2026 fees: C$184.75 participation, C$100 open work permit and C$85 biometrics, for C$369.75. The participation fee rose on December 1 in both 2024 and 2025.
- Places for France: 7,000 in 2024, 6,615 in 2025, 5,811 in 2026. Ten days before the 2026 season closed, more than 21,800 French profiles were still waiting.
- Insurance shorter than your stay gets you a permit that ends with it, and it cannot be extended.
- In Quebec, working holiday participants are not covered by RAMQ, the province’s public health plan: private insurance must cover care and repatriation.
The PVT, which Canada calls the Working Holiday category of International Experience Canada (IEC), the federal program that lets young foreigners work in Canada, gives an open work permit: you can work for any employer, anywhere in Canada. The requirements for French citizens haven’t changed in years, and you can still only do it onceSource: IRCC.
Getting in, though, has become harder. Places for French citizens have fallen every season since 2024, the price creeps up every December, and you can sit in the pool, the list of candidates waiting to be drawn, for months without ever being drawn. As of mid-October 2026, the 2027 season hasn’t opened and its quotas haven’t been published, so the latest figures available are from 2026.
Do you meet the requirements?
The list from IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal immigration department) is short, but every item gets checked at the border. As a French citizen, you need:
Working holiday requirements for French citizens
0 of 7 ticked
The dependants rule often trips up couples. The working holiday is individual: your partner must create their own profile and be drawn on their own. If only one of you gets invited, the other can look into a spousal work permit, but that isn’t automatic and it isn’t the working holiday. Children can’t come with you as dependants under this program either.
What’s the age limit, exactly?
You must be 35 or under while you apply. In practice, you need to have created your profile, received your invitation and submitted your work permit application before your 36th birthday, because some candidates have had their profile removed from the pool on the day they turned 36. Once the application is in, age no longer stops you, and you can enter Canada after turning 36 with your letter of introduction, the approval letter you show at the border.
| Your situation | Can you go? |
|---|---|
| 35 when the season opens, birthday in December | Yes, if you are drawn and apply before December |
| Drawn at 35, applied at 35, arriving at 36 | Yes, with a still-valid letter of introduction |
| Profile in the pool, turn 36 before being drawn | No: the profile leaves the pool |
| 36 when the season opens | Not for the working holiday; look at job-based permits |
If you’re close to the limit, register as soon as the season opens: the first January rounds are often the largest. In 2026, France got 645 invitations on January 23 and 2,292 on January 30, then much smaller rounds, according to the tracker kept by Moving2Canada, a news site about immigrating to Canada.
How much does it cost?
IRCC fees are paid in one go when you submit the work permit application, after you are drawn. In 2026 they came to C$369.75, about €235:
- IEC participation feeC$184.75 since December 1, 2025C$184.7550% share of total
- Open work permit holder feeUnchangedC$10027% share of total
- BiometricsNot charged if you gave biometrics for a permit in the last 10 yearsC$8523% share of total
Fees in force in October 2026, refunded if the application is refused, except biometrics already given. €1 ≈ C$1.57.
Source: IRCC fee list
No 2027 price has been set yet, whatever some sites claim. IRCC raised the participation fee on December 1, 2024 and again on December 1, 2025Source: IRCC, from C$172 to C$179.75 and then to C$184.75, so another increase of a few dollars for the 2027 season wouldn’t be surprising. Check the fee page when you pay.
Those fees are still the smallest part of the budget. Add insurance for the full period, the flight, and above all enough to live on for the first weeks without pay: the C$2,500 required at the border covers little more than one month’s rent in a big city such as Toronto (in Ontario) or Vancouver (in British Columbia, on the Pacific coast).
What are your chances of being drawn?
The working holiday runs on a pool: you submit a profile, then IRCC sends invitations at random, round after round, until the places run out. So your odds depend on France’s quota, which has been shrinking since 2024:
- 2024
- 2025
- 2026
- 2027
Quotas compiled by pvt.fr, a French site about working holidays, from IRCC announcements; the 2026 figure includes 150 places added late in the season.
Source: pvt.fr, PVT Canada 2027
IRCC sends more invitations than there are places, because some people decline. In 2026, about 8,000 invitations went to French candidates, yet more than 21,800 French profiles were still in the pool on October 9, ten days before closing, according to IRCC data reported by Moving2Canada. In other words, most applicants were never drawn. During the season, the official rounds pageSource: IRCC shows the pool size and an estimate of your odds: check it before building a life plan around the working holiday.
How a season works, step by step
Once you’re invited, every deadline is counted in days. Let the invitation expire without accepting it and it’s gone, so you’d have to start over.
An IEC season, from profile to arrival
Create and submit your IEC profile
In your secure IRCC account. You have 60 days after creating it to submit, or you start again. One IEC profile per person.
IRCC →Wait in the pool
Your profile stays there until you are invited, the season ends or you turn 36.
Accept the invitation
You have 10 days to accept or decline the invitation to apply (ITA).
Submit the work permit application and pay
Supporting documents, police certificates if requested, fees. The deadline expires at a set time in UTC: don’t aim for the last evening.
Give your biometrics
Fingerprints and photo at a visa application centre (VAC), after the letter asking you to do so.
Receive the letter of introduction
That letter, not a visa in your passport, is what you show at the border. Check the entry deadline it gives.
Enter Canada and collect your permit
The border services officer (Canada’s customs and immigration agent) prints the permit at the airport after checking your documents.
IRCC →
Why your insurance can cut your working holiday short
At the airport, the officer checks your insurance certificate before printing your permit. If it covers less than your planned stay, you get a work permit that expires when your insurance does, and you cannot extend itSource: IRCC.
The province you settle in matters too. In Quebec, working holiday participants are excluded from RAMQ, the provincial health plan, so private insurance is your only cover for the whole stay. And anywhere in Canada, no public plan pays for repatriation: your policy has to include it.
A working holiday job also differs from a job in France in other ways. Your right to work comes from the permit rather than an employment contract. You get paid under a Social Insurance Number (SIN), Canada’s equivalent of your French social security number, which you apply for on arrival, and the permit ends after 24 months with no renewal.
| Compared | France | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Right to work | An employment contract is enough | Open permit: any employer, any province |
| ID needed to get paid | Social security number | Social Insurance Number (SIN), applied for on arrival |
| Health cover | Social security from your first day | Private insurance required; no RAMQ in Quebec |
| Length | No limit | 24 months at most, not renewable |
Takeaway: You can start authorized work while your SIN application is processed: apply within three days of starting work and give your employer the number within three days of receiving it.
Working holiday, Young Professionals or International Co-op?
French citizens can use three IEC categories. Each can be done only once, but doing a working holiday or Young Professionals first still leaves the Co-op category (an internship in Canada that your degree program requires) open to you, and vice versa.
| Category | Maximum length | What you need | Permit type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working Holiday (PVT) | 24 months | Nothing beyond the basic requirements | Open |
| Young Professionals | 24 months | A signed offer or contract in your field, before creating the profile | Employer-specific |
| International Co-op (Internship) | 12 months | Enrolment at a school outside Canada and a placement your program requires | Employer-specific |
IRCC sends invitations in this order: Co-op, then Young Professionals, then Working Holiday. So the first two are served before the working holiday and, because they need an employer, are far less competitive. If you already have a job offer, don’t waste it waiting on the working holiday draw.
What to prepare before the 2027 season opens
- Check your passport. If it expires in less than two and a half years, renew it now: the permit will stop on its expiry date.
- Open your IRCC account and gather the documents, so you can submit your profile on opening day.
- Get your police certificates: the French one (bulletin n° 3, free online) and one for every country where you have lived more than six months since turning 18. Some countries take weeks to reply.
- Set aside at least C$2,500, and realistically twice that for a big city.
- Compare working holiday insurance over the full period, repatriation included, but don’t buy it before you are invited.
- Watch the official rounds page, which will announce the opening and the quotas.
That leaves wrapping up your life in France, from giving notice on your apartment to your tax return, and those tasks are hard to sort out once you’re in Canada. Check them off one by one on the moving checklist in the weeks before your flight.
Common questions
Can you do two working holidays in Canada?
No, the Working Holiday category is once only. Afterwards, you can still take part once in International Co-op if you meet its conditions.
Can you extend a working holiday?
No. After 24 months you need another status: a job-based permit, Francophone Mobility (for a job outside Quebec), study or permanent residence.
Does the working holiday lead to permanent residence?
Not directly, but a year of skilled work in Canada during the working holiday counts for the Canadian Experience Class of Express Entry, the federal selection system for permanent residence. It’s the most common route for working holiday participants who stay.
Is the draw really random?
Yes: within a pool, invitations are sent at random. Registering early gives no priority, but being in the pool from the first rounds means you take part in more draws.
Do you have to leave right after approval?
No, but you must enter Canada before the deadline on your letter of introduction. The 24-month permit starts on the day you receive it at the border.
