IEC (Working Holiday) - Which Country for "Permanent Residence" - AUS or UK

[shane_o]

Hello, I put an application in for my girlfriend this morning to enter the pools for the Working Holiday under the IEC program.

She is from the UK but is a Permanent Resident of Australia and also currently living here with me(Irish).

I filled in her details and stated that her country of permanent residence is Australia, which it is.

What I am wondering is if this will affect the application. I have read a few things showing that to be eligible for the IEC/Working Holiday you need to be living in your country of citizenship.

If it is the case that it is a risk can I take the application out of the pools, change the country of PR and re-submit it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

As the UK seems to be very competitive as far as getting a visa for Canada we really want to put in the best possible application and not lose out due to a technicality.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[Bs65]

The IEC application is based on country of citizenship/passport not where you happen to be living at the time which has no relevance at all even though they ask for where you are currently living AND country of citizenship. If you look at some specific IEC forums you will see people applying from all over the place, Canada,NZ,Australia even though they hold for example UK or Irish passports and they all have had no issues when putting living country and actual citizenship country .

As for UK being competitive then with the current process of entering a pool/lottery not as competitive as before with first in although the slots available I guess could be considered competitive but not like before..

As your girlfriend is only assume a PR of Australia not a citizen therefore not an Australian passport holder then the answer would be living in UK and a British Citizen. I dont recall a separate question on perm residence, just citizen of which country so maybe thats new and I forget but do not see that as an issue anyway unless they use that to make an assessment on likelihood to return to home country at the end which as assume a UK passport holder and a PR of OZ could be either anyway.

 

[scylla]

She can only apply under the UK program since that is the only citizenship she holds. Yes - this program is competitive in that there are far more applicants than slots available. Nothing you can do to increase her odds of being selected.

Her country of residency doesn't determine the program she applies under - it's her citizenship. So she's fine to give Australia as her country of residency - she'll still be put in the pool of UK applicants.

For some countries you need to be living in the country of your citizenship to apply for an IEC. The UK is not one of them. So she is fine to apply for the UK program while living in Australia.