Self-employment: startup in product development, how to prove skilled work?

[mhj1]

Hi all,

I searched the forum but I could not find a self-employment case related to mine. I hope that I can reach out to someone in a similar situation through this post.

I have been self-employed for the past 1.5 years and wish to count this experience towards me EE profile. The company is a joint-venture by a friend and myself. We have all the articles of incorporation, European Tax No., and so forth. We are developing a hardware product that is currently in the late prototype phase. My friend and I both applied our skills when it comes to programming (desktop and embedded software) and electrical engineering. I also manage the business administration and work with our producer and other partnerships.

The NOCs I would put myself in are:

• 2173 Software engineers and designers
• 2174 Computer programmers and interactive media developers
• 2175 Web designers and developers

However, I fear that I may not be able to successfully prove at least one year of foreign skilled work experience due to the following factors:

1. We do not have clients/customers yet as the product is still under development; as such, we have not generated any revenue yet.
2. Self-declared duties are not acceptable proof according to CIC.

CIC writes: "if the applicant is self-employed, articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership, evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the service provided along with payment details (self-declared main duties or affidavits are not acceptable proof of self-employed work experience)." (source).

I'm able to provide the following:

1. Articles of incorporation from our government and the EU tax title.
2. Tax statements from the date of incorporation.
3. Bills of all our acquired hardware, materials, licenses, and so on throughout those 1.5 years.
4. Bills of our (prototype) producer. They are willing to produce an official statement of our continued partnership.
5. We had a deal with a university where we ran a student project for a few months (they evaluated and worked with our prototypes). I can get an official statement from the person in charge about those activities. I can also show the results of this project (applications developed by the students, documentation).
6. Development history of the software.
7. Statements from my business partner (does this count as self-signed too?)
8. We are planning on selling prototype kits soon but are not at this stage yet, would it make a difference?

Is it enough?

Is there anyone out there that is or has been in a similar situation (self-employed with no real clients/revenue so far)? I would like to hear how you handled the process and whether or not the work experience was accepted. I do not have other eligible work experience as a backup.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mhj1]

Bump, is there anyone that could give me some pointers?

 

[mhj1]

Another bump in the hopes of getting some information.

 

[mhj1]

Nobody at all? Anything is helpful.

 

[pizzaboy99]

Hi all,

I searched the forum but I could not find a self-employment case related to mine. I hope that I can reach out to someone in a similar situation through this post.

I have been self-employed for the past 1.5 years and wish to count this experience towards me EE profile. The company is a joint-venture by a friend and myself. We have all the articles of incorporation, European Tax No., and so forth. We are developing a hardware product that is currently in the late prototype phase. My friend and I both applied our skills when it comes to programming (desktop and embedded software) and electrical engineering. I also manage the business administration and work with our producer and other partnerships.

The NOCs I would put myself in are:

• 2173 Software engineers and designers
• 2174 Computer programmers and interactive media developers
• 2175 Web designers and developers

However, I fear that I may not be able to successfully prove at least one year of foreign skilled work experience due to the following factors:

1. We do not have clients/customers yet as the product is still under development; as such, we have not generated any revenue yet.
2. Self-declared duties are not acceptable proof according to CIC.

CIC writes: "if the applicant is self-employed, articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership, evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the service provided along with payment details (self-declared main duties or affidavits are not acceptable proof of self-employed work experience)." (source).

I'm able to provide the following:

1. Articles of incorporation from our government and the EU tax title.
2. Tax statements from the date of incorporation.
3. Bills of all our acquired hardware, materials, licenses, and so on throughout those 1.5 years.
4. Bills of our (prototype) producer. They are willing to produce an official statement of our continued partnership.
5. We had a deal with a university where we ran a student project for a few months (they evaluated and worked with our prototypes). I can get an official statement from the person in charge about those activities. I can also show the results of this project (applications developed by the students, documentation).
6. Development history of the software.
7. Statements from my business partner (does this count as self-signed too?)
8. We are planning on selling prototype kits soon but are not at this stage yet, would it make a difference?

Is it enough?

Is there anyone out there that is or has been in a similar situation (self-employed with no real clients/revenue so far)? I would like to hear how you handled the process and whether or not the work experience was accepted. I do not have other eligible work experience as a backup.

Thanks in advance.

Hello

I am in a similar situation as you (software product startup, no client reference letters possible). Did you end up submitting your application & was this experience accepted by IRCC?