Letter from CIC question about company using residential address

[Mumianhe]

Just received letter from CIC asking for additional documents before they make final decision. My application used title as office administrative assistant.

"I have grounds to belive you have not acquired, in Canada, within the 36 months before the date on which your application was received, at least 12 months of full-time work experience, or the equivalent in part-time work experience, in one or more occupations listed in Skill Tye 0 or Skill Type A or B of the National Occupational Classification(NOC). The letter of employment you provided from"COMPANY", dated "xxxx/xx/xx", does not provide any information regarding the nature of this company. Despite an internet and database search of COMPANY, I was unable to find information regarding nature and size of your employer. Finally, An internet serach shows the address of COMPANY, ADDRESS, to be a residential address.

Before I make my final decisions, you may submit additional information of documents to the above matter. You have until xxxx/xx/xx to submit. We will then forward the information to the appropriate medical officers who will review the material and advise us of their conclusions.

You must provide any additional information within sixty days of this letter. If you choose not to respond with additional information, a decision will be rendered based on the information available in your application. "

Our company initially uses a residential address as office. Because most of the work we do is electrical service and construction, our technicians are always driving around Toronto area. Thus we do not need to be in a commercial building. We are a small company and don't have much advertising. The officer could not find much info about our company, but we do have total around 10 employees including office staff and electricians.

We just recently moved to industrial area in Toronto, I'm thinking of provide lease documents. Could any one give me some advise about what other documents I need to provide to the officers?

Thanks.

 

[sophie_fr]

Business registration maybe?

 

[vcbc]

Do you have GST / PST registration, and does it reflect your residential address? may be that could help.

 

[Mumianhe]

Business registration maybe?

I did with initial application package, that address is also residential. Our owner started as master electrician himself years ago.

 

[Mumianhe]

Do you have GST / PST registration, and does it reflect your residential address? may be that could help.

We've been using the residential address with all business related correspondence until last year Oct when moved to industrial area.

 

[sophie_fr]

I just don't really understand why it matters that the office address is a residential address if that's where the business is officially registered. One would assume that the work experience gained is the same whether the office is in a residential or commercial building. I'm not sure what CIC wants to be honest!

 

[Mumianhe]

I just don't really understand why it matters that the office address is a residential address if that's where the business is officially registered. One would assume that the work experience gained is the same whether the office is in a residential or commercial building. I'm not sure what CIC wants to be honest!

Not sure. Perhaps they were concerned about size of company, and then when they see residential address, they started to question if the work experience is true.

 

[sophie_fr]

This is though. Hopefully someone on this forum has received the same request from CIC and might be able to help you!
You must have sent your T4 along with your application so that must be proof enough that you were at least employed by this company. Maybe they have doubts about your position?

 

[Goku]

I just don't really understand why it matters that the office address is a residential address if that's where the business is officially registered. One would assume that the work experience gained is the same whether the office is in a residential or commercial building. I'm not sure what CIC wants to be honest!

You company will get NOA for every HST/GST filed for every quarter. Just send photocopy of NOA for latest quarter from that address + WSIB registration + photocopy of Business registration document if business was registered to that address + NOA of companies return from last year or last to last year (which should probably have that address) + a letter from your boss + cover letter (mentioning your UCI, File #, etc). Hope this helps.

 

[Mumianhe]

You company will get NOA for every HST/GST filed for every quarter. Just send photocopy of NOA for latest quarter from that address + WSIB registration + photocopy of Business registration document if business was registered to that address + NOA of companies return from last year or last to last year (which should probably have that address) + a letter from your boss + cover letter (mentioning your UCI, File #, etc). Hope this helps.

Thanks for your information. I guess the WSIB registration and NOA would really be helpful. Hope they will eventually be convinced.

 

[Mumianhe]

This is though. Hopefully someone on this forum has received the same request from CIC and might be able to help you!
You must have sent your T4 along with your application so that must be proof enough that you were at least employed by this company. Maybe they have doubts about your position?

Thank you. I guess their concern is we are a small company and why would they need an office admin, they could not find our company info. We got most of job from reference and returning customers, thus no website or other advertising.

 

[jes_ON]

I just don't really understand why it matters that the office address is a residential address if that's where the business is officially registered. One would assume that the work experience gained is the same whether the office is in a residential or commercial building. I'm not sure what CIC wants to be honest!

Well, I don't know about you, but I have no place for office staff in my home. Not to mention, it would be a violation of city zoning laws to run a home-based business (with employees) out of a residence, in most places. So it's a major red flag of for a "fake" job. People register fake businesses all the time.

If you did your work offsite (or from your own home), that should have been part of the letter of employment. If you did your work in your employer's home, then I'm not surprised that CIC is questioning the legitimacy.

Of course it's not CIC's job to enforce zoning laws, so if this is legit, then Goku's suggestions may help.

 

[$albert$]

Just received letter from CIC asking for additional documents before they make final decision. My application used title as office administrative assistant.

Our company initially uses a residential address as office. Because most of the work we do is electrical service and construction, our technicians are always driving around Toronto area. Thus we do not need to be in a commercial building. We are a small company and don't have much advertising. The officer could not find much info about our company, but we do have total around 10 employees including office staff and electricians.

We just recently moved to industrial area in Toronto, I'm thinking of provide lease documents. Could any one give me some advise about what other documents I need to provide to the officers?

Thanks.

I am an april applicant and received the same letter on Jan 22 and submitted new documents on February 7th and haven't heard anything since.


VO had concerns because My direct manager/supervisor used resedential address and cell phone number on the employment letter.

I work for US based company with a great website covering more than 40+ countries.
this company hired my manager to be their contact in Canada to take care of their business here as we have a lot of clients all over canada and we get paid via email money transfers and all hiring/firing/dispatching is done over the phone and email, even our clients we contact them via email ....etc.

I sent them a detailed letter explaing how the business model is setup in canada signed by my manager explaining why he is using resedential address and cell phone, I also sent them all email money transfers throught the work period from the BANK and on top of that I sent them more than 100 pages of emails exchanged between me,my manager in canada and the company in the states with different time stamps to prove the period of work.
we also send a letter from my manager shows the wire transaction sent to his business account by the US company showing the name clearly and also sent few snapshots of the companies website as the VO didn't find the company website.

 

[Mumianhe]

Well, I don't know about you, but I have no place for office staff in my home. Not to mention, it would be a violation of city zoning laws to run a home-based business (with employees) out of a residence, in most places. So it's a major red flag of for a "fake" job. People register fake businesses all the time.

If you did your work offsite (or from your own home), that should have been part of the letter of employment. If you did your work in your employer's home, then I'm not surprised that CIC is questioning the legitimacy.

Of course it's not CIC's job to enforce zoning laws, so if this is legit, then Goku's suggestions may help.

You are right, our neighbour did call the local govenment staff indicating we violated the zoning law and that's why we were forced to move to industrial area. We initially rented the residential suite as office just for mainting office file and coordinate service.

 

[Mumianhe]

I am an april applicant and received the same letter on Jan 22 and submitted new documents on February 7th and haven't heard anything since.


VO had concerns because My direct manager/supervisor used resedential address and cell phone number on the employment letter.

I work for US based company with a great website covering more than 40+ countries.
this company hired my manager to be their contact in Canada to take care of their business here as we have a lot of clients all over canada and we get paid via email money transfers and all hiring/firing/dispatching is done over the phone and email, even our clients we contact them via email ....etc.

I sent them a detailed letter explaing how the business model is setup in canada signed by my manager explaining why he is using resedential address and cell phone, I also sent them all email money transfers throught the work period from the BANK and on top of that I sent them more than 100 pages of emails exchanged between me,my manager in canada and the company in the states with different time stamps to prove the period of work.
we also send a letter from my manager shows the wire transaction sent to his business account by the US company showing the name clearly and also sent few snapshots of the companies website as the VO didn't find the company website.

100 pages of emails. I'm also thinking of including some sample service request or project purchase orders to indicate the type of business we have. Because our service performed mostly by technicians, they are driving around Southern Ontario everyday, we only need a small office for regular coordination and office filing. Most of our clients are from reference and return customer, we are busy without doing any advertising or marketing. That's why Officers could not find details about our company online or in yellow pages. But we are really doing good business, serving many restaurants, banks, Tim Hortons etc.