I’ve had the strong desire to live overseas for a long time which was compounded by the stories and experiences of the foreigners that worked with a lot. As my Marketing degree was wrapping up in the middle of 2021, the late stages of COVID, I, like many others, had the strong desire to escape! I had zero interest in going from my bedroom desk straight to an office desk, plus I wanted to explore the tourism aspect of my degree! An international gap year was therefore the perfect way to spend my post graduation year… or two.
The next question I had was how was I supposed to get this desire off the ground and complete my final uni assignments simultaneously! Where was I going to go? How do I get a visa? Where do I go to look for a job? And most importantly, how on earth do I get granted permission to leave Australia when international travel is so restricted?
For once my procrastinations paid off. While doomscrolling through Instagram, I came across ads from companies such as Global Work and Travel (GWT) and The Working Holiday Club (WHC) promoting working holiday gap year programs. For a fee they would assist in guiding you through the visa process, find you work in resorts and what I found most important, assisting you in navigating the hurdles of leaving Australia.
Global Work and Travel
Global Work and Travel was founded in 2008 in the Gold Coast, by Queensland brothers Jurgen and Pierre Himmelmann. Now based in Surfers Paradise, the travel company offers travel, working holiday and volunteer holiday packages located in all continents apart from Antarctica.
Included in that was working holidays in the Canadian ski resorts and after looking into the company in mid 2021 they offered services that would assist you in securing you a Canadian work visa, employment and accommodation as well as booking flights. Upon arrival, they would guide you in setting up your bank account, sim card and SIN number (your unique tax number). Last and definitely not least, you received an exciting itinerary including a welcome orientation, Vancouver sightseeing tours, a day trip to Whistler Ski Resort and even an overnight stay in Las Vegas! This package totals to a price of $2,995AUD and hasn’t changed much since I was researching them a couple of years ago.
The Working Holiday Club
The Working Holiday Club was originally founded in London in 2004 by Natalie Broomfield Herregods, in 2009 the Headquarters moved to Noosa, Queensland where it remains today. About half the size of GWT, it is focused on working holiday visas for the UK, Canada and Japan where clients would find roles in ski resorts, hotels, adventure parks and UK pubs.
Similar to GWT, The Working Holiday Club guides you through visa applications, finding you work and accommodation as well as assisting in setting up your bank account, sim card and SIN number. For a cheaper price of $1499AUD WHC doesn’t organise the flights for you or supply an extensive Itinerary upon your arrival, just the necessary orientation, sightseeing discounts and a booking at the Samesun Hostel, the Vancouver accommodation they organise for you.
My Choice
I chose to go with The Working Holiday Club. As a Qantas Frequent Flyer member, I would be able to find cheaper air fares for myself plus at the time I found the scale of the Itinerary unnecessary. I’d rather kill time in Vancouver my own way and the idea of visiting Vegas didn’t appeal to me at the time.
Joining the Club
After submitting an online enquiry on 28th of July, I received my first email from WHC a week or so later. The email was from Emma, a woman who would end up overseeing my whole application process and touch base for major decisions. She went into further detail about the program, breaking down the entire process and quoting a winter discount price of $799 for the package. Once I paid the fee, I quickly received job application forms, visa forms and pre screening interview forms for me to fill out in the following days. By the 14th of August I was already lined up with an interview with Revelstoke Mountain Resort which was organised by another WHC consultant, Julia.
Julia was in charge of securing my employment and was very down to earth when conversing with me. It was very comforting to have some authenticity when we were having progress disruptions and communication delays with Revelstoke. I didn’t feel like a generic client when working with her and she was very transparent on the work she was doing behind the scenes, for example, sharing snippets of her conversations with Revelstoke HR which helped me stay in the loop. In the meantime my visa application was slowly plugging along. I got accepted into the pool and I submitted my police checks. With every update I reported, I received a prompt confirmation from Julia and Emma.
Organising anything during COVID always has its complications. For me it was acquiring my Biometric data from a Visa Application Centre (a VAC Office) The complication was that each of these offices were in cities with lockdowns so harsh they turned into tyrannical states… There was Sydney in the re-established prison colony of New South Wales, Melbourne in the People’s Independent Democratic Republic of Victoria and Perth… which is a city in South Africa right? I don’t know how or why they’re relevant also Perth is really far away
This left me 4 options to get this vital data:
Plan A: Wait for one of the Biometric offices to open in Sydney or Melbourne – lockdown would need to end in early October for this to happen.
Plan B: Travel to Perth’s Bio office – however South Afr- I mean Western Australia… isn’t accepting any New South Welsh without an expensive 2 weeks quarantine.
Plan C: Travel to the US early and get the biometrics done there – however I would have to spend 2 months over there and wait for my visa to be approved and I only have distant relatives and friends that live there.
Plan D: Defer my trip to June for the Summer.
On the 26th of October I ended up going with Plan E. The Canadian immigration implemented an exemption for certain groups of people such as “International Experience Canada.” knowing how frightful the 2020 season was in Whistler where there were zero Aussies to run the lifts, I can see why Canada made the exemption.
Over the course of the past few months had many things up in the air, from my visa, my biometrics, my vaccinations, my job offer, my accommodation and my permission to leave the country. By November 11th all of that had been sorted. My job offer was confirmed and I was in regular contact with the housing manager, informing him of my movements and when I should be expected to arrive. My final COVID shot was booked and right after I submitted many documents to the Australian government for permission to leave… they dropped the whole thing and New South Wales became open for international travel!
I flew out from Sydney on the 30th of November with Cathay Pacific to Vancouver and after a long delay in Hong Kong I arrived at the Samesun Hostel on Granville St. My Working Holiday Club journey wasn’t over however, as now it was time to go through the orientation and perform the scavenger hunt of setting up a bank account, receiving a SIN number, activating my mobile phone and booking the bus to Revelstoke. Because all the WHC participants were in the hostel together, we did a lot of the admin together, which meant you had like minded company straight off the bat! It was also great having a WHC staff member based out of the Samesun, who had gone through the same process you did just a few years earlier.
Soon after, I was off to Revelstoke to start my job, move into my accommodation and ski some big mountains. Come mid season, WHC got in contact with me regarding summer work options they can organise, exactly like the Summer Working Holiday Packages just without the fee and visa documents etc. I didn’t take them up on it as I wanted to pursue other work options, however if I wanted to spend my summer in Banff I would’ve taken it up. The opposite season work add-on still runs today and makes it super easy to transfer between seasons without too much headache.
Conclusion
Moving overseas is a daunting concept, especially when you’re doing it alone and the destination is on the other side of the world. It can be done by yourself but if you have no idea how to go about it and your ‘head down bum up’ in university work like I was, paying a fee to dramatically simplify everything and ensure that you’ll have employment and a warm bed is extremely advantageous, especially when there’s the extra difficulty of a pandemic. The process is long and even in my case I was a late sign up. You should give yourself at least 6-7 months for best results. Once you’re in however, the staff are fantastically helpful with prompt responses, transparent conversations and down to earth communication. My experience with the Working Holiday Club was a fantastic launching pad for living overseas and now I have the confidence to navigate international work visas as I continue to live and work overseas.