Getting temporarily laid-off due to Covid-19 while 4 months away from CEC application..

[leowings]

Hi Dear Friends,

I am an interntional student from China and graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting last summer after which I immediately started working full time on post-grad work permit in Vancouver, BC in mid August. If nothing goes wrong I will have one year work experience this August and up for EE application under CEC with a decent IELTS score -- I should have 471 once I hit the one year mark.

But just a week ago, my employer notified me that I will be temporaily laid-off due to the financial impact to the company from this pandemic and won't be back to work for up to 13 weeks according to BC legislation. They will call me back once there is work for me to do.

I have been at home for a week now and just got my first payment of CERB, financially I'm doing ok and it should be good for a while, but I am just worried would this temporary laid-off time still count toward my work experience? I looked up on BC gov website, it says it is still considered "employed" during temporary laid-off, but I am not sure would IRCC see it the same way and I have not seen any clarification from them about my situation which I am sure a lot of other international students are going through.

On my last day before the laid off I was issued an ROE, not sure how would that affect my immigration application... It would be great if you guys can shed some lights on this and cheer me up in this difficult time Lots of love

 

[scylla]

Hi Dear Friends,

I am an interntional student from China and graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting last summer after which I immediately started working full time on post-grad work permit in Vancouver, BC in mid August. If nothing goes wrong I will have one year work experience this August and up for EE application under CEC with a decent IELTS score -- I should have 471 once I hit the one year mark.

But just a week ago, my employer notified me that I will be temporaily laid-off due to the financial impact to the company from this pandemic and won't be back to work for up to 13 weeks according to BC legislation. They will call me back once there is work for me to do.

I have been at home for a week now and just got my first payment of CERB, financially I'm doing ok and it should be good for a while, but I am just worried would this temporary laid-off time still count toward my work experience? I looked up on BC gov website, it says it is still considered "employed" during temporary laid-off, but I am not sure would IRCC see it the same way and I have not seen any clarification from them about my situation which I am sure a lot of other international students are going through.

On my last day before the laid off I was issued an ROE, not sure how would that affect my immigration application... It would be great if you guys can shed some lights on this and cheer me up in this difficult time Lots of love

For immigration purposes, the temporary time you are laid off does not count towards work experience. This has been confirmed by others through questions posted to the IRCC twitter account. So once you are back at work, you will need to work another 3-4 months beyond August to gain the 1 year of Canadian work experience and qualify for CEC.

 

[leowings]

For immigration purposes, the temporary time you are laid off does not count towards work experience. This has been confirmed by others through questions posted to the IRCC twitter account. So once you are back at work, you will need to work another 3-4 months beyond August to gain the 1 year of Canadian work experience and qualify for CEC.

Thanks for the clarification!! It sucks but there's no other way at this point. Hope this won't last too long.

 

[itsmesurya]

Mine is the same situation.
Am on WP, valid till next 1.5 years. I came for vacation to India for 3 weeks and struck here due to travel impacts. Until lockdown is lifted I can't travel back to Canada.
But currently am doing WFH suggested by my company. Can I count these WFH from India days towards my CEC experience when applying PR? Like providing some additional documents that am struck in India due to Covid 19. Am submitting timesheet as if am in Canada.

Your thoughts on this..

 

[scylla]

Mine is the same situation.
Am on WP, valid till next 1.5 years. I came for vacation to India for 3 weeks and struck here due to travel impacts. Until lockdown is lifted I can't travel back to Canada.
But currently am doing WFH suggested by my company. Can I count these WFH from India days towards my CEC experience when applying PR? Like providing some additional documents that am struck in India due to Covid 19. Am submitting timesheet as if am in Canada.

Your thoughts on this..

The short answer is that no one knows. You normally have to be in Canada to count work experience as Canadian. It's unknown if IRCC will make exceptions due to COVID-19. So far they haven't announced any exceptions. But possible they might in the future.

 

[J13]

Hi @scylla!
can anyone please tell me if
1. the experience for CEC has to be continuous for 12 months?
2. can I combine 6 months of full time and then 6 months of part time work of 30 hours at two jobs to make it 1560 hours in 12 months?
3. Does EI benefits effect experience i.e. no experience will be counted of previous months after applying EI in COVID if the CEC experience has to be continuous?

 

[J13]

1) No
2) Yes
3) Experience doesn't have to be continuous. Time will not count if you are not working.

Thank you so much! Such a relief!