Please help! Work experience upon graduation on the remainder of student visa

[Nisa2017]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping for some advice on my situation. I am sorry if its a bit long but its a complicated situation. I am currently at the end of the 2nd year of my Post graduate work permit. Last year I went back to school for a 8 month diploma program and therefore I held a study permit and open work permit simultaneously. The study permit was valid from March 2016 to Jan 21 2017. I graduated from the program in October 2016 and joined a job on Nov 7 2016. I had hoped that this Nov 2017 I would be eligible to apply for express entry (CEC) under the appropriate noc code.

However the lawyer I approached to help me with this application mentioned that since my study permit was valid till Jan 2017 the work experience will be valid only after this date. I don't understand how this is fair since I graduated my program in October 2016. I had finished the program that I had received the study permit for and therefore I would automatically revert back to the original PGWP program isn't it? Would it be possible to include a letter of explanation in my application along with a letter of my graduation date from the school. I understand its only a question of a few months but it is still a setback.
The lawyer refused to help me further with the application unless I come back with the required work hours. I am looking for a second opinion from everyone this to see if I should find another lawyer who can help me with this.

There is another thing that I would like some help on is to calculate part time hours. Lets say if I work 22 hours one week and 28 hours another week how would I calculate this in terms of full time hours?

Thank you for reading this with so much patience. I would greatly appreciate if you can give me some advice on the matter.

 

[rezafc]

Hi there,

First things first, from what I gather around the web, apparently you can have both and work as a full timer. So basically all the hours during that period will be counted towards your experience, regardless of you studying or not. But please do call CIC and ask them if this makes any sense. Remember to ask for the agent's number and the time of your call so you can have a reference to the call records. As shocking as it sounds, I thought PGWP clearly states that you can only work and are not eligble to study. But hey apparently this is possible.

Secondly 30 hours of work per week, period. If you work 29 hours a week that week is not going to get considered and you can not make up for it even if you work 50 hours the next week.

Please stick around for more senior's inputs on this.

Best of luck,

 

[jes_ON]

However the lawyer I approached to help me with this application mentioned that since my study permit was valid till Jan 2017 the work experience will be valid only after this date. I don't understand how this is fair since I graduated my program in October 2016. I had finished the program that I had received the study permit for and therefore I would automatically revert back to the original PGWP program isn't it? Would it be possible to include a letter of explanation in my application along with a letter of my graduation date from the school. I understand its only a question of a few months but it is still a setback.
The lawyer refused to help me further with the application unless I come back with the required work hours. I am looking for a second opinion from everyone this to see if I should find another lawyer who can help me with this.

Your lawyer is wrong, lose him. The day after you graduate, you are no longer a student. Yes, you should provide a letter of explanation and proof of the graduation date (it will either be on your diploma or transcript - both of which you have to provide anyway - or you can get a letter from the school's registrar).

There is another thing that I would like some help on is to calculate part time hours. Lets say if I work 22 hours one week and 28 hours another week how would I calculate this in terms of full time hours?

If you have variable part-time hours, you will need a record of the hours you worked per week (like in an excel spreadsheet); it would be a good idea to include the table with your employment records. Add them up (maximum of 30 hours, if you happened to work more on a given week) for total hours - you will be eligible when you have worked 1560 hours (I hope you realize that if you worked part -time, it will take more than one year to gain the required experience...)

As for how to write it on forms - you can average them (total hours / # of weeks worked; again, do not count more than 30 hours in a week). Your letter of reference should say something similar, like "Mr/Ms X worked variable hours ranging from 10-30 hours per week, for an average of 25 hours per week."

 

[noscaf2014]

Hi there,

First things first, from what I gather around the web, apparently you can have both and work as a full timer. So basically all the hours during that period will be counted towards your experience, regardless of you studying or not. But please do call CIC and ask them if this makes any sense. Remember to ask for the agent's number and the time of your call so you can have a reference to the call records. As shocking as it sounds, I thought PGWP clearly states that you can only work and are not eligble to study. But hey apparently this is possible.

Secondly 30 hours of work per week, period. If you work 29 hours a week that week is not going to get considered and you can not make up for it even if you work 50 hours the next week.

Please stick around for more senior's inputs on this.

Best of luck,

The bold red parts are not correct. Good Luck!

 

[jes_ON]

Hi there,

First things first, from what I gather around the web, apparently you can have both and work as a full timer. So basically all the hours during that period will be counted towards your experience, regardless of you studying or not. But please do call CIC and ask them if this makes any sense. Remember to ask for the agent's number and the time of your call so you can have a reference to the call records. As shocking as it sounds, I thought PGWP clearly states that you can only work and are not eligble to study. But hey apparently this is possible.

The PGWP by itself does not authorize study. If a person obtains a study permit while holding a PGWP, it does not invalidate the PGWP, but again, work experience gained while a student does not count.

Secondly 30 hours of work per week, period. If you work 29 hours a week that week is not going to get considered and you can not make up for it even if you work 50 hours the next week.

Part-time work does count, it just has to be pro-rated. It will take more than a year to qualify using part-time work, by definition. But it is true, if you are counting hours (only part-time workers need to do this), then you cannot count more than 30 hours (then it is simply full-time).

 

[rezafc]

Thanks for the corrections!

 

[Nisa2017]

Hi there,

First things first, from what I gather around the web, apparently you can have both and work as a full timer. So basically all the hours during that period will be counted towards your experience, regardless of you studying or not. But please do call CIC and ask them if this makes any sense. Remember to ask for the agent's number and the time of your call so you can have a reference to the call records. As shocking as it sounds, I thought PGWP clearly states that you can only work and are not eligble to study. But hey apparently this is possible.

Secondly 30 hours of work per week, period. If you work 29 hours a week that week is not going to get considered and you can not make up for it even if you work 50 hours the next week.

Please stick around for more senior's inputs on this.

Best of luck,

Thank you for your valuable input. You are right about work experience under study permit not being eligible.
But the work experience I have was not gained during full time study. They were gained after my graduation but while my study permit was still valid (3 months after graduation). My lawyer told me that the study permit being valid makes my hours for those 3 months ineligible for CEC.
I would also like to point out that part time work under the proper noc is counted towards work experience for CEC. It ofcurse takes longer to accumulate the total number of hours than it would for a full time worker.

The 3 months of work hours being ineligible puts me behind in my application. It is very disappointing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and respond to my query.

 

[Nisa2017]

Thank you for making the corrections.

 

[Nisa2017]

Hi Jes,

Thank you so much for your reply. I did ask the lawyer that about submitting a letter but he flatly refused. Regarding my work hours. I worked part time for a total of 6 weeks and the rest of the year on full time hours even though i am technically a part-timer. Therefore I think I can work another month and make up the hours.. My lawyer also refused to calculate my part time hours and only wanted me to submit the weeks I worked full time. That would make things difficult since though I work full time currently we will have a new staff member which may cut down my hours slightly. Ill take your advice and make a spread sheet for the hours I worked to submit along with my pay stubs. Fortunately I have saved every Pay-stub. If I get paid bi-weekly do I divide it by 2 and put in the hours per week? or just leave it as bi weekly?

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions so thoroughly. You are such a a gem. Thank you so much

 

[jes_ON]

Hi Jes,

Thank you so much for your reply. I did ask the lawyer that about submitting a letter but he flatly refused. Regarding my work hours. I worked part time for a total of 6 weeks and the rest of the year on full time hours even though i am technically a part-timer. Therefore I think I can work another month and make up the hours.. My lawyer also refused to calculate my part time hours and only wanted me to submit the weeks I worked full time. That would make things difficult since though I work full time currently we will have a new staff member which may cut down my hours slightly. Ill take your advice and make a spread sheet for the hours I worked to submit along with my pay stubs. Fortunately I have saved every Pay-stub. If I get paid bi-weekly do I divide it by 2 and put in the hours per week? or just leave it as bi weekly?

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions so thoroughly. You are such a a gem. Thank you so much

You're welcome. It sounds like your lawyer only wants the "easiest" cases, it is up to you if you want to keep them, IRCC clearly accepts part-time work. RE bi-weekly pay, keep it bi-weekly unless you can document weekly hours. So you would use 60 hours bi-weekly as meeting the "full-time" definition, and could count a maximum of 60 hours bi-weekly...

 

[Nisa2017]

You're welcome. It sounds like your lawyer only wants the "easiest" cases, it is up to you if you want to keep them, IRCC clearly accepts part-time work. RE bi-weekly pay, keep it bi-weekly unless you can document weekly hours. So you would use 60 hours bi-weekly as meeting the "full-time" definition, and could count a maximum of 60 hours bi-weekly...

I am no longer going to use the lawyer's services. I will look for someone more capable. I have also created the spreadsheet as per your advice and calculated the full time hours as 60 bi weekly and part time hours as they were. I have completed the required number of hours. I hope to submit my application very soon. Thanks again Jes.