Visas

Your Essential Guide

The complete visa guide

Skiing and snowboarding are two of the greatest winter sports. You’ve picked your dream ski trainer course, bagged yourself a place, and now you need get planning to enter a different country and live a life unlike anything before.

Planning for something you’ve probably never done before might make you feel lost, but don’t fret – we’re here to help. We’ve put together this fantastic visa guide to make sure you apply for the right visa for your ski trainer course. After all, you don’t want to arrive and find out you fudged up somewhere and have to go all the way home. The chances of that happening are nil if you follow our expertise. Find out more with our guide below.

Canadian Visas

To enrol on our ski or snowboard courses in Canada, you need to apply for permission to enter, or if intended, to work in the country.

For all of our ski or snowboard courses in Canada, all you need is an eTA (electronic travel authorisation). These are relatively easy to apply for and you’ll get a quick response – usually within 24 hours. This will allow you visit Canada for up to six months.

If you want to join the Banff Internship Programme, you’ll need a Canadian passport or an IEC (International Experience Canada) Visa. There are a limited number of IEC permits allocated to each country each year. For example, the UK offers roughly 5,000 places annually. For Canadian IEC applications, the permits are released around November or December for the following year. Make sure you apply early so you’re in with a chance of being accepted. Use our IEC Visa Guide to assist you.

Follow these five steps to complete your application

  1. Be between 18 – 30 years old (35 in some countries) to be eligible with no serious criminal convictions.
  2. Confirm if you are eligible to apply by completing the Come To Canada form. If successful, you will be given a Personal Reference Code – keep this safe for when you need it.
  3. Create your MyCIC Account using your Personal Reference Code.
  4. Complete four application forms for CIC (Canadian Immigration and Citizenship). Don’t worry about spending a lot of time on these as they’re quite short.
  5. Submit your application to the pool. Make sure you see a confirmation message in your account.

How the pool system works

Now, your CIC application is among all the other candidates applying to work in Canada. These are randomly selected – successful applicants will receive an ‘Invitation to Apply’. This could take weeks or months, however it is important to note that not everyone gets approved as so many people apply. You can view the size of the pool on the CIC website.

Usually, the pool is open between the months of November and July.

Once you have an invitation to apply

Jackpot – you’re approved for a Canadian ski job! If you’ve received this invitation, you have 10 days to accept or decline, so make sure your email notifications are on and even check your junk mail regularly. From then, you are given an additional 20 days to apply online for the work permit. When your CIC application has been completed, you can expect to wait up to eight weeks to receive your POE (Point of Entry) Letter of Introduction – you need this to actually enter Canada, so make sure you have it with you.

 

Austrian Visas

For those of our students who want to be a ski instructor in Austria and have an EU passport, you don’t need a visa to visit or work in Austria. This makes this location an easy choice for some. Residents of Croatia might be required to give additional approval. It’s also worth noting that the UK is no longer part of the EU; therefore, a visa will be needed for any European ski job.

If you’re planning on entering Austria from outside the EU, then you will need a Schengen Travel Visa. Austria is a signatory state of the Schengen Agreement, which means you can travel freely within the entire Schengen zone. This type of visa allows you to only visit Austria for up to 90 days. Please note that this is not a work visa.

Citizens of the listed countries can apply for an Austrian Working Holiday Visa:

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Chile
  • Chinese Taipei
  • Hong Kong
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • Republic of Korea
  • New Zealand

If you are wanting to work in Austria, you can apply for a working holiday visa agreement. For you, the application process is simple and has a great success rate in visas being granted. Contact your embassy for more information.

Other students entering Austria from outside the EU who want to work on our ski trainer course or use the SIA Job Guarantee, you would need a working holiday visa or work visa or an EU passport as a dual national or an Ancestry visa. Unfortunately, Basecamp doesn’t have any influence over embassies or visa applications – all we can do is confirm proof of course enrolment once the deposit has been paid.

Japanese Working Holiday Visas

To receive our Japan Job Guarantee, you need a Japanese Working Holiday Visa (WHV). There are 16 countries Japan has Working Holiday Visa agreements with.

Citizens of:

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • Hong Kong
  • Ireland
  • Republic of Korea
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Slovakia
  • Taiwan
  • United Kingdom

If you are aged between 18 and 30 (18 and 25 for Ireland), you are eligible for a Working Holiday Visa.

It is worth noting that the Working Holiday Visa is a holiday visa, not a work visa. Your Working Holiday Visa won’t be accepted if you want to work on the Japanese ski internship / courses for the season, work for a few months, and then leave to go home. Countries which are part of the visa agreement ask for a detailed itinerary of your trip when you are making your application – advice to take on board here would be to think long and hard about your plans and be as detailed as possible.

We advise you to be as detailed as possible and think very hard about your itinerary beforehand, make a 12 month travel itinerary to maximise your chances of success.

If you’re planning on making your application to our ski instructor course in Japan, we also advise you to travel before or after your ski season to see how beautiful the country is – plus, this will help with your application being approved (the reason why will make sense below).

Unlike the other visas in this travel guide, you need to apply for your Working Holiday Visa in person at your home country’s Japanese Embassy. They may keep your passport for around a month when dealing with your application. Getting approved is largely dependent on the assumption you will be both travelling the country and working on the ski trainer course, so stress the travelling part in your visa application. Here, you will need to provide that detailed itinerary we mentioned above, so think long and hard about where you would like to visit.

CHECK OUT THIS HELPFUL VISA GUIDE VIDEO…

 

“Each country has a consulate of Japan, for the UK we have Edinburgh and London, those are your two options and you MUST visit in person to drop off your documents. Your ski school should help you out with what they know works and what they need for legal reasons. Other than that, it’s a really simple process. Follow all the rules that the consulate sets out for you and you can’t go wrong. You must have some savings in your bank account and that amount is set by the consulate of Japan. You will find all of the information on their website.”

– Jon Ruben Robinson, UK

 

Argentinian Visas

If you have a valid EU passport, you don’t need a visa to access our ski trainer courses in Argentina. You will be issued with a three-month holiday visa when you enter the country.

If you are planning on entering Argentina without an EU passport, then you need to get in contact with your local Argentinian Embassy for more information on restrictions.

New Zealand Visas

To enrol on our ski or snowboard courses in NZ, you need to apply for permission to enter, or if intended, to work in the country.

For our 8-week ski or snowboard courses in NZ, all you need is an NZeTA (electronic travel authorisation). These are relatively easy to apply for and you’ll get a quick response – usually within 72 hours. This will allow you visit Canada for up to three months (or up to six months for British Citizens).

On arrival at the New Zealand border, you will need:

  • Valid Passport. Be sure to check the expiry date to ensure you have suitable time allowed to travel.
  • Valid NZeTA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) – this can be applied for online and costs approx. NZ$17. Visit the NZ Gov website direct and get it authorised within minutes (usually). Do not pay more than this by using third party sites.
  • Proof of a return flight OR additional funds that would be used for a return flight (a credit card is acceptable). Recommended but not essential
  • Proof of insurance for the full length of your intended holiday in New Zealand.
  • Proof of your training course (reason for travel), your order form / invoice should do.
  • We also recommend bringing printed copies of the documents.