Séverine, how a 1 year working holiday in Canada turned into 14 years

My name is Séverine, I’m 39 years old. I’m from Lille, France and I have a masters degree in international business and negotiations.

I started my working holiday in Canada in June 2008 because I wanted to work and travel in North America. Since it is very difficult to get a permit or visa to the US, I was very happy to discover the IEC Working Holiday in Canada. The choice was obvious!

I started my working holiday by first travelling to several cities including Montréal, Québec City, and New York. Then once I settled in my destination city of Toronto, I started looking for a job. I worked for B2B, a subsidiary Laurentian Bank, as a bilingual administrative agent. And then I worked for Fidelity Investments as a specialist in private and institutional investments.

My WHV gave me everything. It changed my life. It allowed me to grow personally and professionally. I met my husband, as well as developed my career in the banking and financial sector. The WHV was supposed to be just one year but it instead turned into 14 wonderful years in this amazing country.

If I had to pick one memory from just my working holiday, it would be discovering New York City with my best friend because it’s a memory that well captures the essence of the WHV: working and travelling abroad. New York took my breath away. I used to have a very negative bias against the city, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised. The iconic skyscrapers, the legendary Central Park offering a green oasis in a megacity shaped by concrete, its multicultural diversity, its numerous and distinct neighbourhoods… It’s a city that resembles Toronto, but times 10.

I think I would still choose Canada, but I might also consider a Latin American country like Chile or Argentina because I’ve always been passionate about hispanic cultures, and I would like to visit these places.

I would say to prepare abundantly for your trip and to save money, especially if you’re planning to settle in Toronto or Vancouver because the cost of living is quite high. It can take a few months find a job (the recruiting process can be slow).

After my WHV and a Young Professionals permit, I applied for permanent residence in 2010, which took 11 months. After living there as a PR for 3 years, I then applied for Canadian citizenship and got it in 2014. Having spent 14 years in total in Canada and given birth to my daughter there, we returned to France in June 2022 to be closer to family. I always regretted not visiting western Canada. When my daughter is a bit older we will go to explore that part of Canada as a family.

I met my husband (father to my daughter) at a pvtistes meetup at the Madison bar in Toronto!