Review Required for foreign self employed work

[donkykong]

Hi all, I just received my GCMS notes and found out that my application is in review required because I claimed points for full time self employment in my previous role in my home country. The agent wrote that self employment isn’t valid for CEC and removed my points for that role, which dropped my verified points under the cutoff. I do have more than 12 months canadian work experience and this has been verified in my GCMS notes. I thought that the “no self employment” rule for CEC only applied to getting the 12 months Canadian work experience, and once you achieve that then the rest of your points are calculated normally. Does anyone have any advice or am I best just to wait for my application to be reviewed by a senior agent?

 

[jes_ON]

Hi all, I just received my GCMS notes and found out that my application is in review required because I claimed points for full time self employment in my previous role in my home country. The agent wrote that self employment isn’t valid for CEC and removed my points for that role, which dropped my verified points under the cutoff. I do have more than 12 months canadian work experience and this has been verified in my GCMS notes. I thought that the “no self employment” rule for CEC only applied to getting the 12 months Canadian work experience, and once you achieve that then the rest of your points are calculated normally. Does anyone have any advice or am I best just to wait for my application to be reviewed by a senior agent?

The agent was wrong to remove points for foreign self-employment experience, based on your CEC application. The rule about no self-employment only applies to Canadian experience. I would suggest calling IRCC - sometimes the call centre agents can make a note about possible errors... You could also submit a webform query, but I would worry that it just gets added to the file (better than nothing) and the file remains in the qeue for review... Of course you could just wait and expect (hope?) that the reviewing agent will correct the error.

 

[donkykong]

The agent was wrong to remove points for foreign self-employment experience, based on your CEC application. The rule about no self-employment only applies to Canadian experience. I would suggest calling IRCC - sometimes the call centre agents can make a note about possible errors... You could also submit a webform query, but I would worry that it just gets added to the file (better than nothing) and the file remains in the qeue for review... Of course you could just wait and expect (hope?) that the reviewing agent will correct the error.

Thanks Jes. Do you happen to know anywhere where this is written down? I’ve found a couple of other threads on this forum where people had a similar history and did get a positive result on their CEC application, but I can’t find any definitive answer either way on the IRCC site.

 

[jes_ON]

Thanks Jes. Do you happen to know anywhere where this is written down? Where is WHAT written down? That the agent/VO should not mix up the program instruction and the CRS instructions? LOL, no, I don't think anyone thought to write that down...

When a person applies under express entry, it is 2 stage application system. There are eligibility criteria for a program, and the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

First, you have to meet the requirements of one of the programs (FSW, CEC, FST). Each program has its own set of criteria to meet. Under CEC eligibility criteria, it specifies that self-employment does not count for Canadian work experience. That is on the CIC website under CEC eligibility. The CEC criteria does not address eligibility of foreign work experience, because ... it is not one of the criteria for CEC.

Second, you have to be assessed under the CRS for your score, to earn an ITA. The CRS is distinct from the program eligibility requirements. Regardless of which program(s) you are eligible, you will have the same CRS score based on the qualifications you enter.

The rules for the CRS scoring system are described in the Ministerial Instructions -
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/ministerial-instructions/express-entry-application-management-system.html
Under the CRS scoring system, Canadian experience still excludes self-employment. For foreign work experience, it is not excluded.

So you have to point out that the agent incorrectly applied the criteria for Canadian work experience to your foreign work experience, and/or incorrectly applied program requirements to your CRS score.

As I said, this will likely be corrected in review, but since your file is in review because of a clear error (assuming you have correctly described the situation), perhaps you can get it reviewed sooner. This doesn't mean that there might not be other problems, of course, but this should not be one of them.

 

[donkykong]

Thanks jes_ON, this was hugely helpful and comforting. I've sent a CSE to IRCC and I'll keep this thread up to date once I have any news. Fingers crossed they approve my EE as soon as they read my message (here's hoping)..

 

[donkykong]

In case anyone else is reading this in the future, it was all fine. I got PR after 9 months of waiting.

Thanks again Jes you are a legend and you were totally right about everything!

 

[Slyar]

In case anyone else is reading this in the future, it was all fine. I got PR after 9 months of waiting.

Thanks again Jes you are a legend and you were totally right about everything!

Hey; I am applying for CEC too and I have self employeed experience from home country. It works right? Can I DM you?