Continuous work experience

[spanishnick]

Hi everyone,

I was found ineligible for the Express Entry Visa, due to (I believe) my lack of continous work experience for the Federal Working Program. I have high scores in both English and French, and an accreditated Masters degree.

The problem is the following - I have been working under the same NOC from February 2015 until now, with the exception of a gap of 3 months (early August-Mid November) and a gap of three weeks early July this year. The reasons for these gaps is that as my contracts were project based, it took longe than expected to renew a contract (project delays, administration procedures). In both cases, my employer guaranteed that I would be renewed and was expecting to renew me without these gaps in employment. Therefore, I wasn't looking for another position during these periods. I have been working with the same company and office since May 2015.

The 2010 Operational Bulletin (which has now expired) allowed for gaps in employment if the candidate had secured employment between gaps. Do you think that if my employer writes a letter to cic, confirming that I would be renewed for both contracts, that they could waiver the continuous employment requirement?

If not, would that mean that I would have to wait for November 2016 to be eligible? Or July 2017?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Stanlee]

Hi everyone,

I was found ineligible for the Express Entry Visa, due to (I believe) my lack of continous work experience for the Federal Working Program. I have high scores in both English and French, and an accreditated Masters degree.

The problem is the following - I have been working under the same NOC from February 2015 until now, with the exception of a gap of 3 months (early August-Mid November) and a gap of three weeks early July this year. The reasons for these gaps is that as my contracts were project based, it took longe than expected to renew a contract (project delays, administration procedures). In both cases, my employer guaranteed that I would be renewed and was expecting to renew me without these gaps in employment. Therefore, I wasn't looking for another position during these periods. I have been working with the same company and office since May 2015.

The 2010 Operational Bulletin (which has now expired) allowed for gaps in employment if the candidate had secured employment between gaps. Do you think that if my employer writes a letter to cic, confirming that I would be renewed for both contracts, that they could waiver the continuous employment requirement?

If not, would that mean that I would have to wait for November 2016 to be eligible? Or July 2017?

Thank you for your help.

Express Entry is an automated system (at least at the level of profile creation and submission), so any work foreign experience which is not continuous and less than a year do not meet the minimum eligibility criteria and it will render your profile ineligible. To meet the minimum requirement of FSW, you will need at least one year of full-time continuous employment in the same NOC (skill type 0, A or B). The gaps if you are referring to were part of the employment and you were paid during that period, then it can be considered continuous, otherwise, I am afraid, it cannot be considered as continuous. And in that case, you will have to wait to complete one full continuous year.

 

[spanishnick]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your quick replies.

I worked 28h a week from mid-november 2015 to june 30, then 20h from july 1 to july 22 (Friday), and full-time as of July 24, all with the same employer under the same NOC code.

Would my work experience be considered as continuous, despite the changes in contracts and number of working hours per week?

Thank you

 

[Xazar]

Hi! Could you, guys, help me to understand one issue. I was working in Canada at a full-time position for 32 weeks (1437 hours) and I got laid off. If I find a new job with the same NOC will I qualify to claim one year experience? Within what time should I find a new job to be accepted for Express Entry? If I find a new job with the same NOC in 1-2 month, does it mean that my previous hours will be counted to make up 1 year experience?

 

[coolhyd]

Hi! Could you, guys, help me to understand one issue. I was working in Canada at a full-time position for 32 weeks (1437 hours) and I got laid off. If I find a new job with the same NOC will I qualify to claim one year experience? Within what time should I find a new job to be accepted for Express Entry? If I find a new job with the same NOC in 1-2 month, does it mean that my previous hours will be counted to make up 1 year experience?

Canadian Experience doesn't need to be continuous. You are good.

 

[neorol]

Hi! Could you, guys, help me to understand one issue. I was working in Canada at a full-time position for 32 weeks (1437 hours) and I got laid off. If I find a new job with the same NOC will I qualify to claim one year experience? Within what time should I find a new job to be accepted for Express Entry? If I find a new job with the same NOC in 1-2 month, does it mean that my previous hours will be counted to make up 1 year experience?

Candadian Experience doesn't require continuous work experience, nor one occupation if I remember well. Any type (A, B , 0) of skilled work counts. It has to be 52 weeks of full time (min 30 hours/week) our double amount of part time (min. 15 hours/week) in the last 3 years. Part time and Full time experiences also can be combined. Work experience collected under studies (study visa) or through self employment are not eligible.

I remember like this, but please double-check at CIC website. They might have changed something.

 

[Xazar]

Thank you very-very much. The last question - if I go for Canadian Experience Class Programm does my next job have to be under the same NOC as my previous one since I do not have enough hours to make up one full year of experience to qualify for the Programm?

 

[jes_ON]

Thank you very-very much. The last question - if I go for Canadian Experience Class Programm does my next job have to be under the same NOC as my previous one since I do not have enough hours to make up one full year of experience to qualify for the Programm?

No, it does not have to be the same NOC, for Canadian experience.

 

[kashjuni]

Hi Guys,

Although the below questions have been answered by one guy in another thread, still i thought this is a more relevant thread to seek more inputs. Please excuse me for this. Below are the details. Kindly revert.

My work experience goes like this. The experience is split across 4 jobs.
Job 1. 30 months in NOC 2174. Designation: Systems Engineer
Job 2. 6 months in NOC 2174. Designation: Senior Systems Engineer
Job 3. 8 months in NOC 2171. Designation: Business Analyst
Job 4. 19 months in NOC 2171 and 0213 Designation: Business Analyst & Project Manager (If need be, I can manage to show full 19 months for 2171 or full 19 months for 0213)

I am very confused on following points.

> What NOC category do I consider myself experienced in as per Express entry requirements?

Note: I am proficient only in 2171 and 0213; since 2174 jobs were before my MBA whereas 2171/0213 jobs were are after MBA

> Will Job 2 and Job 3 be considered at all in the count of number of months of experience?

> In CRS tool, how many years of experience should I input? Does it matter if we have experience in different NOC codes/categories? and if some experiences are less than 1 year (while others are more than 1 year)?

Awaiting your response guys. Thanks a ton in advance.

Cheers !

 

[mashamasha]

Hi All,

This thread made me wonder about continuous work experience. I wasn't able to work in my NOC while working on my Master's degree, so I have a gap of two years on my resume. I did several internships and also worked on campus, but these gigs don't count towards CIC's work experience requirement. Can someone comment on this please? I have almost three years of work experience..

 

[istari]

Hi All,

This thread made me wonder about continuous work experience. I wasn't able to work in my NOC while working on my Master's degree, so I have a gap of two years on my resume. I did several internships and also worked on campus, but these gigs don't count towards CIC's work experience requirement. Can someone comment on this please? I have almost three years of work experience..

If the work experience was in Canada, it doesn't have to be continuous at all.

If it was outside of Canada, only 1 year has to be continuous.

 

[mashamasha]

Thanks very much!

 

[jes_ON]

I am very confused on following points.

> What NOC category do I consider myself experienced in as per Express entry requirements?

Note: I am proficient only in 2171 and 0213; since 2174 jobs were before my MBA whereas 2171/0213 jobs were are after MBA

CIC/IRCC does not ask you what you are proficient in. They ask 2 things - 1) what is your main NOC (this will be the one assessed for the 1 year continuous experience - does not matter if it is the most recent or not). and 2) what is your skilled work experience. If you have skilled work experience in the past 10 years, you can include it (regardless of when you did your MBA). Of course, if you include it, you will have to be able to document it with a letter of employment, etc.

So, if you can get a letter from your employer for jobs 1 & 2, you can get credit for the experience.

> Will Job 2 and Job 3 be considered at all in the count of number of months of experience?

Yes (if you can get letters from your former employers)

> In CRS tool, how many years of experience should I input? Does it matter if we have experience in different NOC codes/categories? and if some experiences are less than 1 year (while others are more than 1 year)?

Combine all your skilled work experience (that you can document). Note that there is an increase in points from 2 to 3 years, but you do not get more points beyond 3 years of (foreign) work experience,
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/express-entry/grid-crs.asp

 

[omarkhan]

Dear @Stanlee In my case I have a work experience of totalling 10 years as a lecturer. Out of these 10, last 07 years have been on permanent basis, whereas the initial 03 years was contract basis, with couple of days to weeks gaps in between each contract renewal. Both, the contract based and permanent based jobs have exactly same duties and working hours. My head of department has given me the reference letter in which he mentions that I joined the department first on contract based (date mentioned) and then my job was made permanent(again date mentioned), but he didnt mention the small gaps in between the contract based experience and shows both contract based and permanent experience as one seamless experience. Please suggest what should I do? Should I mention the gaps? Just in case if the CIC asks for more documents in addition to reference letter, then if i havent mentioned the gaps, would this be misrepresentation? Please help.

 

[pseetha]

I know it's a bit old post. But have a question. I am aware that 1 year of continuous experience is required for eligibility. In the last 10 years, I have 7 years of experience but it is as- 4 years continuous + 4 years break+2 year's continuous and I am still working now..so can I enter 6 years in the experience in the last 10 years question, when applying for FSW?