Application Got Rejected Due to T4 Slips?

[soh3il]

Hey All,

I have received a rejection letter 2 weeks ago. the officer has stated in the email that:

I am not satisfied that you meet the skilled work experience requirements as you have not demonstrated that you have accumulated one year of full of full time employment in Canada at a National Occupational Classification of type 0 or level a or B. I am not satisfied that you have acquired one year of full-time skilled work experience at a NOC 2175 in the last two years prior to submitting your application and after having obtained your Canadian educational credential.

I provided them with 2 letters of employment in my application from my last 2 employers indicating that I've been fulltime employee. So what went wrong?

Here is my thought:
Since I am a web developer, I have been joining startups rather than just going and get a job, so my agreements with both startups where in terms of equity in the company rather than getting cash at a first year, hence I did not paid any taxes nor didn't attach any T4 to my application for the years I indicated that I was working full time.

Although that I provided explanatory letter, do you think that was the reason I got rejected? T4 slips are MUST to provide that I worked for a full time year?

P.s: I am considering to apply again, but this time I want to leave no doubts. although that I worked from May 2011 to May 2012, and now I'm not employed there anymore, but my employer is paying me "NOW, otherwise he had to give my 1 year salary in one place which results in paying a lot of taxes, so he did me a favour and NOW paying me each months so I pay taxes as I was getting paid each month rather than on a bigger amount.

So still I don't got the T4 for the salary that I want to indicate in my work letter for that year. is that gonna be a problem again? any thoughts on this?

 

[seton]

Were you really a full-time employee? If you're taking equity as your entire salary, an argument could be made that you're self employed (as you're taking an ownership stake).

I'm guessing the case officer is doubting the validity of the work experience without receiving a formal salary. The CEC class doesn't give credit for self-employed persons likely for this same reason as it becomes difficult to measure and assess the length of your work without a formal employer-employee salaried positions.

I would say that you have a good chance of running into the same issues with your deferred salary, since it's putting you in the position of a contractor/self-employed person.

 

[soh3il]

Hey Seton,

Thanks for your reply.
Yes I have been really a full time employee, working long hours.

I did not have stock of the company, but simply an equity which is different than ownership of the company. it's pretty common between startup employees. I did get paid 1K each month since may 2011 and have T4 for that. but I believe since the amount for that is pretty low, it may cause the same confusion.

 

[jes_ON]

I agree with seton, equity is a type of ownership and your experience (rightly or wrongly) was likely considered to be self-employed.

Your situation is outside of the guidance provided by CIC. I would suggest either looking into your province's PNP program, or speak to an immigration lawyer.