Frequently Asked Questions

Windmill loans may be used for:

• Education and training programs of two years or less, including courses to help you advance your career
• Fees for licensing and qualifying exams
• Living allowance for the duration of your Career Success Plan
• Credentials assessments, like ones from WES, ICAS, IQAS, or MIFI
• English or French language training as a pre-requisite for the rest of your Career Success Plan
• Relocation costs for employment
• Travel expenses to take courses or exams not available in your area
• Books, course materials, and work equipment
• Professional association fees
• Other costs related to continuing your career may be considered, for example, a laptop for online courses or the cost of childcare

To be eligible for a Windmill loan, you must be an internationally trained individual living in Canada on a permanent status. You must be intending to work in the same field you had before coming to Canada, or in a field where you can use your transferable skills. You must not have an undischarged bankruptcy or a consumer proposal that has been active for less than 6 months. You can check your eligibility by doing our short, 4-question eligibility quiz here.

To be eligible for a Windmill loan, you must be a Permanent Resident, Convention Refugee, Protected Person, Canadian Citizen, or Provincial Nominee. Also please note that Windmill offers a Refugee Loan Program that is interest-free.

Unfortunately, you are not eligible for a loan if you are an international student, live-in caregiver, refugee claimant, or temporary foreign worker.

If you have filed for bankruptcy in Canada, your bankruptcy ends when it is discharged. This means that you are released from your legal obligation to repay the debts covered by your bankruptcy. We cannot consider your application if your bankruptcy is still active, or “undischarged”.

Our loan program is available to immigrants and refugees who will incur costs in order to be qualified to work in their field or a field to which they can apply their transferable skills. Tradespeople, skilled workers and professionals are all encouraged to apply. Read our eligibility requirements to learn more.

No, you do not have to be returning to the exact same position. We support immigrants who are returning to their previous field or a field where they can use their transferable skills.

Yes, but we would need to see that you are either underemployed (working at a level much lower than someone with your education or experience should be), or that your proposed Career Success Plan will give you a competitive edge in the labour market. You are also able to apply for a loan to pursue a career change to a field where you can use your transferable skills.

Windmill has an interest-free loan program for refugees to limit their financial burden as they strive to settle in Canada. Convention Refugees and Protected Persons who have received their Notice of Decision may apply for the Windmill Refugee Loan Program within three years of the date of their Notice of Decision.

We can lend to people living anywhere in Canada, now including Quebec. Our application process is completely online so you can easily access our services from anywhere.

Our process is designed so that you can be assessed and approved for a loan anywhere in Canada. As a temporary measure due to COVID-19, Windmill offices are not seeing clients in person until further notice. We continue to serve all clients remotely.

Not usually, but it may be allowed if you can demonstrate that you very recently paid for the costs of your Career Success Plan on your credit card. We can only approve funds to be used to cover applicable costs incurred within the past 6 months maximum, so please be prepared to provide receipts if you are requesting funds for expenses already incurred.

Windmill loans may be used to help pay for short term living expenses, i.e if you need to quit your job or reduce your hours at work while you are attending school or studying for exams. Applications for living allowance are considered on a case-by-case basis.

• a copy of your immigration status document (ie PR card, COPR, Notice of Decision about your refugee status, etc)
• a government-issued photo ID, if your immigration status document doesn’t have a photo
• proof of your address, if your government-issued photo ID doesn’t include it
• your resume
• your diplomas, translated to English or French, or your credential evaluation from WES, ICAS, IQAS, MIFI, etc
• your letter of acceptance into your program, if applicable, or other documents that explain your Career Success Plan
• proof of your financial situation (pay stubs, letter confirming social assistance, etc)
• your void cheque or Direct Deposit Form, which you can likely download from your online bank account

We ask you to provide your void cheque or Direct Deposit Form as part of the application just to speed things up if your microloan is approved. We need your bank account details in order to send you your loan agreement to sign, so asking for it right away helps to remove one potential delay. Please note that this does not guarantee that your loan will be approved. If your loan is not approved, we will remove your bank form from our system.

• The application process starts with the eligibility quiz, found here. If the quiz tells you that you are not eligible, you may want to speak to one of our staff to determine whether you may become eligible in the future.
• Once you’ve confirmed your eligibility, you can create your account on our online application portal, found here. If you have all of your supporting documents ready, it should only take you 30-45 minutes to complete the application. For a detailed list of the supporting documents that you’ll need, see here.
• Once we’ve received your complete application, we will review it and reach out by phone or email if we have any questions or require any more information. Otherwise, the next time you hear from us will be with an email to complete our online Client Success Assessment, which we use to help determine the resources that will help you find work more quickly. If you have not heard from us a few days after submitting your application, please check your junk mail folder to see if the next steps email went there.
• Once you have completed the assessment, we will invite you to book your coaching session, which can be done online. We recommend that you book your coaching session as soon as you receive the booking email, as spots can fill up fast.
• Your coaching session will last about an hour and you will review your Client Success Assessment, your Career Success Plan, and financial situation, and your Success Coach will explain the Windmill payment terms and conditions.
• Your Success Coach will then write a summary of your application and send it to our Loan Review Committee for consideration. You will receive a decision on your loan within seven business days from the date of your coaching session.
• If your loan is approved, your Success Coach will introduce you to the Loan Management Team, who will ask you to sign your Loan Documents online using AdobeSign and then arrange the disbursement of funds. You should see the funds in your bank account a few business days afterwards.

Windmill created its Client Success Assessment tool to help identify what kinds of assistance will help you find work as quickly as possible. It’s quick, easy and interesting to take, and it will help us better understand your skills, your re-training needs, and your job hunting tools and strategies.

The results of your employability assessment have no effect on your eligibility for a loan from Windmill, so please answer as honestly as possible. This tool has been a valuable source of information for many newcomers as it provides a snapshot of your current strengths and challenges. It also helps Windmill staff understand how to best support your educational and employment goals.

The results of your assessment are confidential, and the report is not shared with anyone outside of Windmill.

You need to complete this assessment before you meet with a Windmill Client Success Coach to discuss your application. Your Success Coach will discuss the report with you and help you create an action plan tailored to your needs.

You may borrow up to $15,000, but the average loan is around $10,000.

The interest rate is the RBC prime rate plus 1.5%. Our loans are a variable interest rate loan product, meaning that as the RBC prime rate increases or decreases, the interest on your loan increases or decreases accordingly. We are proud we have been able to keep the interest rate low. It is not uncommon for microloan programs to charge up to 10% above prime.

The interest we charge helps replenish the loan fund and pays for the interest and bank charges that we have to pay. We have been able to keep payments of principal and interest within the loan fund, helping to ensure the sustainability of the loan fund. Future clients will benefit from the interest paid by today’s clients.

No. Windmill is a non-profit organization. All loan interest goes to the loan fund to provide loans to future applicants, to cover defaulted loans, to pay for the interest Windmill pays if it has borrowed the money it lends out, and to pay bank service charges.

Read our loan terms and conditions to learn more about paying your loan back.

The Loan Management Team will be happy to help you with your next disbursement. You just need to email them at loanmanagement@teamwindmill.org to request it. Even if your next disbursement was scheduled for a certain month, it does not go to your account automatically, and you still need to request it from them.

Windmill (formerly IAF) loans are personal loans, rather than student loans (or government loans). Therefore, the interest payments on this loan are not tax deductible and we do not issue T4s for this loan.