FSW - Small gap in 1 year work experience

[joey19802]

Hello all,

I am reaching out for guidance and insights regarding my Express Entry application for immigration. Here's a brief overview of my situation:

I worked at a company in New York from January 31, 2019, to November 6, 2019. Subsequently, I transitioned to my second job in Seattle, which commenced on November 18, 2019, and concluded on October 9, 2020. I needed these few days to relocate and move into a new place in a different city.

I am seeking to claim points for one year of experience under the same NOC code. However, there seems to be conflicting information regarding the acceptability of short gaps between employment. Some sources suggest that continuous experience must be without a single-day gap, while others mention the discretion of the visa officer.

Upon submitting my Express Entry profile online, I noticed that the system accepts only the month and year without specifying the dates, making me eligible for the points according to my CRS score. My concern is whether this will pose an issue when I submit my supporting documents.

Could anyone with any experience on this please advise?

Thank you,

 

[scylla]

Hello all,

I am reaching out for guidance and insights regarding my Express Entry application for immigration. Here's a brief overview of my situation:

I worked at a company in New York from January 31, 2019, to November 6, 2019. Subsequently, I transitioned to my second job in Seattle, which commenced on November 18, 2019, and concluded on October 9, 2020. I needed these few days to relocate and move into a new place in a different city.

I am seeking to claim points for one year of experience under the same NOC code. However, there seems to be conflicting information regarding the acceptability of short gaps between employment. Some sources suggest that continuous experience must be without a single-day gap, while others mention the discretion of the visa officer.

Upon submitting my Express Entry profile online, I noticed that the system accepts only the month and year without specifying the dates, making me eligible for the points according to my CRS score. My concern is whether this will pose an issue when I submit my supporting documents.

Could anyone with any experience on this please advise?

Thank you,

Your work experience needs to be continuous. Technically this means no gaps at all. There is always some discretion with the visa officer. Your gap is close to two weeks so you would certainly be at risk of refusal.

 

[joey19802]

Your work experience needs to be continuous. Technically this means no gaps at all. There is always some discretion with the visa officer. Your gap is close to two weeks so you would certainly be at risk of refusal.

Appreciate the response. Excluding weekends, I notice that it's exactly 7 days technically. I've seen other posts where members were able to provide a letter explaining the gap which is moving to a new job location. That being said, do you think it's unwise for me to apply? Right now, my case sounds like a 50-50 from what I'm hearing folks say.

 

[scylla]

Appreciate the response. Excluding weekends, I notice that it's exactly 7 days technically. I've seen other posts where members were able to provide a letter explaining the gap which is moving to a new job location. That being said, do you think it's unwise for me to apply? Right now, my case sounds like a 50-50 from what I'm hearing folks say.

You're free to apply. Just be aware that IRCC may say your work experience is not continuous. Ultimately your choice if you apply or not.

Do you already have ITA?

 

[joey19802]

You're free to apply. Just be aware that IRCC may say your work experience is not continuous. Ultimately your choice if you apply or not.

Do you already have ITA?

Thank you for your prompt responses; I'm inclined to submit my application. It's difficult for me to comprehend that my 20 months of experience in the USA will hold no weight in Canada simply due to a 7-day gap caused by relocation.

Unfortunately, I haven't received an ITA yet. My score is currently at 520, and I anticipate the cutoff will decrease soon. Hence, I'm proactively gathering my documents to be well-prepared.

 

[joey19802]

Your work experience needs to be continuous. Technically this means no gaps at all. There is always some discretion with the visa officer. Your gap is close to two weeks so you would certainly be at risk of refusal.

Sorry, I had another question. I'm applying under CEC. This post below linked and a lot of others I saw mentioned that if you're applying for CEC and satisfy the 1 year work exp for CEC, the foreign work experience gap won't matter. Is this valid? One of the posts mentions that here -

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/applying-for-cec-foreign-work-experience-question.683790/

 

[scylla]

Thank you for your prompt responses; I'm inclined to submit my application. It's difficult for me to comprehend that my 20 months of experience in the USA will hold no weight in Canada simply due to a 7-day gap caused by relocation.

Unfortunately, I haven't received an ITA yet. My score is currently at 520, and I anticipate the cutoff will decrease soon. Hence, I'm proactively gathering my documents to be well-prepared.

Ultimately it's going to be up to IRCC. None of us here can tell you what the outcome will be.

 

[Cutthroat]

Hello Good People of Internet,

Even I am in a similar situation.

Job A(Paid Internship): Dec 3, 2018 to Apr 4, 2019 (17 weeks)
Job B : Apr 16, 2019 to March 17, 2020 ( 48 week)

Total weeks: 65 (1950 hours)

Both the jobs are in same NOC and I was promoted from Job A to Job B, however there is a gap of 7 days , this was a known contract gap, they need this 1 week to transition me to the new job (to do paper works , update my promotion status, send offer letter) and also for first 4 months we won’t be allowed to take any leave, therefore they give this 1 week relaxation time between contracts for well being of the employee.
What do you guys think? Will this be considered as 1 year continuous experience?
And I also qualify for CEC, I have 2 years continuous experience in Canada.
Thank you in advance for all your valuable replies!!

 

[scylla]

Hello Good People of Internet,

Even I am in a similar situation.

Job A(Paid Internship): Dec 3, 2018 to Apr 4, 2019 (17 weeks)
Job B : Apr 16, 2019 to March 17, 2020 ( 48 week)

Total weeks: 65 (1950 hours)

Both the jobs are in same NOC and I was promoted from Job A to Job B, however there is a gap of 7 days , this was a known contract gap, they need this 1 week to transition me to the new job (to do paper works , update my promotion status, send offer letter) and also for first 4 months we won’t be allowed to take any leave, therefore they give this 1 week relaxation time between contracts for well being of the employee.
What do you guys think? Will this be considered as 1 year continuous experience?
And I also qualify for CEC, I have 2 years continuous experience in Canada.
Thank you in advance for all your valuable replies!!

It will be up to the IRCC officer who processes your application. Technically your experience is not continuous.

 

[Cutthroat]

It will be up to the IRCC officer who processes your application. Technically your experience is not continuous.

Thank you for your response.

One more question, when you enter your details in EE pre and post ITA, work experience section only asks for months (mm/yyyy) and not days (mm/dd/yyyy). So system will automatically think you are eligible, if they were so concerned about the dates, they should have updated the system to enter based on mm/dd/yyyy right?

And will I be qualified with CEC or FSW in my case? Technically if I qualify for CEC, can I still claim points for FSW? And does the experience need to be continuous even then?

 

[Cutthroat]

Thank you for your response.

One more question, when you enter your details in EE pre and post ITA, work experience section only asks for months (mm/yyyy) and not days (mm/dd/yyyy). So system will automatically think you are eligible, if they were so concerned about the dates, they should have updated the system to enter based on mm/dd/yyyy right?

And will I be qualified with CEC or FSW in my case? Technically if I qualify for CEC, can I still claim points for FSW? And does the experience need to be continuous even then?

I did play with my EE profile , I found out that once you qualify for CEC even if your 1 year foreign work experience is not continuous and is in different NOCs it doesn’t matter and you still get points for skill transferability.

 

[CanGoldDigger]

1 year of continuous work is needed only for FSW. It should not be continuous for CEC.

 

[Cutthroat]

1 year of continuous work is needed only for FSW. It should not be continuous for CEC.

Yes you are absolutely correct, people are trying to confuse by linking FSW with CEC. CEC never tells you need to have continuous foreign experience in same NOC. Foreign exp in CEC is just a bonus and comes under skills transferability.

 

[Taran20]

Yes you are absolutely correct, people are trying to confuse by linking FSW with CEC. CEC never tells you need to have continuous foreign experience in same NOC. Foreign exp in CEC is just a bonus and comes under skills transferability.

Thanks for clearing out this confusion. Do you know if we get points for foreign work experience, earned as a student for CEC? I am already close to having 1-year of continuous Canadian experience, which satisfies the minimum requirements for CEC. My foreign experience is a 6-month paid internship (which I did when I was a student) combined with 6-months of full-time experience.