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I am an UK citizen by way of my parent. I do not live in the UK but I do have a UK passport and have had one since I was a child (renewed in between).

In order to qualify for the "Working Holiday Visa", there was once a residency requirement of 3 years of continual UK presence. However this requirement was recently removed and there is no longer a need to prove 3 years of residency. I've looked around the site and it is somewhat unclear (to me) if residency itself is no longer required or if only the 3 year requirement had changed.

Question: Is UK residency still required to qualify for a Working Holiday Visa or is being a citizen sufficient?

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    To be clear, you're wanting to go on a working holiday in Canada, right? Where do you live now? – Flimzy May 3 '14 at 17:07
  • That would be correct. Currently, Barbados (dual-citizenship). – IamAnon May 3 '14 at 18:11
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The following is copied from the Canadian Government website.

"To apply for a work permit at this visa office, you must be legally admitted to or a citizen of a country that is served by this visa - office.http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/information/offices/apply-where.asp "

Barbados and UK are both on that list. So in other words, according to the Government of Canada, you are allowed to apply, just by being a citizen.

Here is a link to the website which has more information and a contact phone number to call for more information about this.

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/united_kingdom-royaume_uni/visas/work_temp_travailler.aspx

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    Thanks for your response. I am aware of this but a "Working holiday" visa is not the same as a workers permit. A workers permit (+ a temporary visa/passport), allows one to work in Canada but with several limitations such as: Work type + exp, Location, Job offer before applying (if I understand correctly), etc. A "Working holiday" is a specialised visa which is: Limited to certain countries; Must be <= 30 yrs; 2x per lifetime(previously 1); Allows benefactor to work+live in the Canada for 1 yr, without limits on job type, exp, location, etc.; Uses a less restricted form of work permit. – IamAnon May 12 '14 at 13:26
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    More on "Working holiday": canadainternational.gc.ca/united_kingdom-royaume_uni/… – IamAnon May 12 '14 at 13:28
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    The second link lists the eligibility criteria, which it seems you satisfy. You are a UK citizen, residency doesn't come into it. – imoatama May 13 '14 at 1:14
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    I would be inclined to agree with you but seeing it was previously a requirement makes me unsure . Furthermore, in the FAQ it responds to a similar the question by saying, "If your usual place of residence is the United Kingdom and you are temporarily out of the country, you may apply from the country where you are...". This could be interpreted as no need of continual residency but there must be some residency. Thus it remains unclear. – IamAnon May 13 '14 at 20:44

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