Does an internship earning less than minimum wage count as skilled work experience?

[Whiskieblue]

Hi,
I am hoping to apply for express entry through the FSW track. After I graduated with an undergraduate degree I worked as an intern continuously and full-time for two years and the intern duties align with an accepted NOC. I was paid during this time, but for one year I was making $6/hr and for the other I was making $4.40/hr - both pay rates were below minimum wage at the time and were considered more of a “stipend” then “wages”. Does that matter? Can I still count the internship as my required 1 year of continuous paid professional work experience? I also received free on-site housing during the internship - should I have my former supervisor include this in the reference letter or does that make it sound too much like an unpaid internship? Any assistance or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[primaprime]

If you were paid to perform the duties of a skilled NOC you can count it as work experience. The only issue would be if they think you didn't actually perform those duties for such low pay.

 

[Whiskieblue]

If you were paid to perform the duties of a skilled NOC you can count it as work experience. The only issue would be if they think you didn't actually perform those duties for such low pay.

Thank you so much! This is very helpful.

 

[Hchadda]

If i'm not wrong, if you work more than 30 hr's/week in Canada, you are considered a full time employee. I'm not sure if they look at what you were paid during that period for it count as full time employment or not. It's the hours that count.

 

[primaprime]

The hours are the primary concern, but if someone is working for well below the prevailing wage for their position, IRCC may want to verify whether the person was actually doing the job, or if they've doctored the employment letter to claim duties they didn't perform.

 

[Whiskieblue]

I definitely have the hours - I worked 40 hrs per week both years, and it was continuous. I have a good relationship with my former supervisor, and I'm sure she would be willing to include her phone number if they wanted to call and verify that I actually performed my job duties. My former supervisor is at a completely different job now though, which might make them skeptical that she really was my supervisor? I'm thinking to get around this, my work reference letter could be on company letterhead and signed by someone currently working in HR there, and then it could also include the signature of my former supervisor, since she is the only one who could really verify my duties. So basically my former supervisor would be on the letter verifying I did the job duties I'm claiming, and then the current HR person would verify that both I and my former supervisor worked there.

Does that make sense and sound like a good idea? Or do you have any other suggestions? Thank you so much for the assistance! I've been trying to find a consultant to help me answer this question, and all of them want me to pay lots of money, and even then they say they aren't sure they can answer that question without me hiring them to do my entire application... anyways, I appreciate your help so much!

 

[Whiskieblue]

If that internship was in Canada then you won't be able to count it. You must have been paid at least the legal minimum wage, eg. $14/h in Ontario or $12.65 in BC. If you worked outside of Canada then the salary doesn't matter.

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/does-noc-code-have-wage-requirement-in-cec-canadian-experience-class.577099/

Thank you for taking the time to respond! The work was in USA so I should be ok.