self employed business owner

[adtjindal]

I just spoke to an ICCRC registered lawyer last night and he really confused me. he told me that as a business owner, i can't use the self employed thing for my EE profile. I told him that i'm a bonafide business owner with an MBA degree, been working for the last 10+ years in the position and that i have taxation and bank statements that show my income from the businesses.

as a business owner i'm not entitled to a salary but a share in profits. He said this is a problem because FSW Is not for business owners/self employed people. Contrary to virtually every thing i've read on this forum.

later when i asked him if i needed to 'uncheck' the self employed box, he seemed confused and said maybe he needed to take another look...

any thoughts guys?

 

[adtjindal]

anybody?

 

[BC4life]

I am a business owner as well but the difference is I pay myself a salary each month as a normal employee. I did not have any real difficulty while applying for EE. As long as you are able to demonstrate your work experience you should be fine. You can read more on the EE website as they have provided guidelines for additional documents to provide for self-employed applicants

 

[adtjindal]

I am a business owner as well but the difference is I pay myself a salary each month as a normal employee. I did not have any real difficulty while applying for EE. As long as you are able to demonstrate your work experience you should be fine. You can read more on the EE website as they have provided guidelines for additional documents to provide for self-employed applicants

can you provide a link for the same?

also what documents did you furnish as proof of work experience?

i am self- employed/business owner (i have/had employees). however, i never paid myself a salary. i did have income from other sources of courses, so all the self employed stuff was a success based venture. do you have any thoughts on that?

 

[BC4life]

Check the proof of work experience section under http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/intake-complete.asp
===
if the applicant is self-employed, articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership, evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the service provided along with payment details (self-declared main duties or affidavits are not acceptable proof of self-employed work experience).
===
I also submitted a standard reference letter signed by a manager at my company, salary tax documents (personal and for the company), office rental documents, a few invoices with client information and a detailed letter of explanation

 

[adtjindal]

Check the proof of work experience section under http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/intake-complete.asp
===
if the applicant is self-employed, articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership, evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the service provided along with payment details (self-declared main duties or affidavits are not acceptable proof of self-employed work experience).
===
I also submitted a standard reference letter signed by a manager at my company, salary tax documents (personal and for the company), office rental documents, a few invoices with client information and a detailed letter of explanation

letter signed by manager- was this one of your own employees aka junior to you?? i can get a reference letter signed by an employee but she would be junior to me.

a 'few invoices'- that was one of my key questions- i'm assuming you didn't have to provide all the invoices/contracts over the last several years correct? did you also share bank statements? those would also number in the hundreds over 10 years

also, can you share what you wrote in the letter of explanation?

 

[adtjindal]

letter signed by manager- was this one of your own employees aka junior to you?? i can get a reference letter signed by an employee but she would be junior to me.

a 'few invoices'- that was one of my key questions- i'm assuming you didn't have to provide all the invoices/contracts over the last several years correct? did you also share bank statements? those would also number in the hundreds over 10 years

also, can you share what you wrote in the letter of explanation?

sorry for the multiple messages- but what did you choose for your NOC code? i thought i should choose 0015 but i'm having second thoughts

 

[rahulbajaj]

Check the proof of work experience section under http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/express/intake-complete.asp
===
if the applicant is self-employed, articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership, evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the service provided along with payment details (self-declared main duties or affidavits are not acceptable proof of self-employed work experience).
===
I also submitted a standard reference letter signed by a manager at my company, salary tax documents (personal and for the company), office rental documents, a few invoices with client information and a detailed letter of explanation

--
Hi BC4life, i am in similar situation...got ITA as self-employed. I am a Chartered Accountant

hope you received your PR. pl share your experience and detail what all docs you enclosed to prove self-employment experience.

My situation is -
1.I am self employed Chartered Accountant
2.got reference letters from 8 clients describing my services and fee paid. Fee mentioned is as per bank statements and i will enclose copies of same.
3.i do not bill based on number of hours, its all on assignment basis. so my client have mentioned just the period of my services and not the number of hours i worked. hope this will not be an issue
4.some of my clients pay me in my personal account and some in business account. My business is a private limited company and i will be able to enclose Articles, tax returns, bank statements, lease agreement of business premises and invoice i sent to my clients.

Do you or other experienced members have any suggestions pl? Thank you very much

 

[ramonvilla]

--
Hi BC4life, i am in similar situation...got ITA as self-employed. I am a Chartered Accountant

hope you received your PR. pl share your experience and detail what all docs you enclosed to prove self-employment experience.

My situation is -
1.I am self employed Chartered Accountant
2.got reference letters from 8 clients describing my services and fee paid. Fee mentioned is as per bank statements and i will enclose copies of same.
3.i do not bill based on number of hours, its all on assignment basis. so my client have mentioned just the period of my services and not the number of hours i worked. hope this will not be an issue
4.some of my clients pay me in my personal account and some in business account. My business is a private limited company and i will be able to enclose Articles, tax returns, bank statements, lease agreement of business premises and invoice i sent to my clients.

Do you or other experienced members have any suggestions pl? Thank you very much

Hi rahulbajaj, was your documentation approved? Were you granted permanent residency? Can you share the documents you ended up submitting with us?

Thanks!

 

[adtjindal]

mine was approved but i went through a consultant. very qualified one i must say.

 

[ramonvilla]

mine was approved but i went through a consultant. very qualified one i must say.

Thank you for replying! Can you share which documents you submitted as proof of work? And which consultant did you go to? I don't think I can afford one, but maybe...

 

[adtjindal]

i used Asquare immigration. expensive but worth it (my case was a bit skewed).

i submitted a lot of documentation based on the specific needs of my case, but the cover letter was critical (i can't share that as it's full of my private information). the following list is a bit stripped down and may be a little difficult to understand as it was tailored to my needs.

1. Articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership
   
2. Self Employment Reference Letter
   
3. Reference letters from Vendors/suppliers/customers
   
4. Reference letter from Accountant
   
5. Reference letter from Bank
   
6. Past three years of Tax Returns
   
7. Any additional banking proofs
   
8. Evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the Service provided along with payment details
   
9. Any business contracts signed by you

 

[ramonvilla]

i used Asquare immigration. expensive but worth it (my case was a bit skewed).

i submitted a lot of documentation based on the specific needs of my case, but the cover letter was critical (i can't share that as it's full of my private information). the following list is a bit stripped down and may be a little difficult to understand as it was tailored to my needs.

1. Articles of incorporation or other evidence of business ownership
   
2. Self Employment Reference Letter
   
3. Reference letters from Vendors/suppliers/customers
   
4. Reference letter from Accountant
   
5. Reference letter from Bank
   
6. Past three years of Tax Returns
   
7. Any additional banking proofs
   
8. Evidence of self-employment income and documentation from third-party individuals indicating the Service provided along with payment details
   
9. Any business contracts signed by you

Thank you so much! Couldn't you remove your personal information from the letters and share them? There are many self-employed people like me who are completely lost as to how to prove their work experience and can't afford paying for consultation...

If you'd prefer not to, wouldn't it be possible for you to give us a brief summary of the information you wrote on the Cover Letter and the Self Employment Reference Letter?

Plus, did you provide the immigration officer ALL the business contracts you had singed?

And last, how did you end up proving that you had worked at least 30 hours/week for all the years? Or didn't you have to prove this at all?

Again, thank you SO much!

 

[adtjindal]

unfortunately i cannot. believe me when i say it is not something you can gain anything from as it's highly customized. additionally, if you know how to write a cover letter, you can do much of the work yourself.

no not all business contracts- provide a sample of the most recent years per the years of experience you are claiming points for, as well as the NOC codes.

hours- the self-employed references from my other business partners included the hours worked. additionally, if you are a sole proprietorship, you can ask your CA or someone to include this in the letter.

 

[ramonvilla]

unfortunately i cannot. believe me when i say it is not something you can gain anything from as it's highly customized. additionally, if you know how to write a cover letter, you can do much of the work yourself.

no not all business contracts- provide a sample of the most recent years per the years of experience you are claiming points for, as well as the NOC codes.

hours- the self-employed references from my other business partners included the hours worked. additionally, if you are a sole proprietorship, you can ask your CA or someone to include this in the letter.

Thanks a lot! About the hours, my concern is that I do not set an amount of work hours per week with clients, but rather an amount of hours per project/contract. For example:
Contract 1: 120 hours from March to May
Contract 2: 60 hours from April to August
Contract 3: 45 hours from May to June

And so on. So, in theory, there might be weeks in which I "officially" don't work 30 hours/per week, and weeks in which I work much more than that. Plus, there is the issue that I have a business partner who complements my work (I'm a web developer, he's a graphic designer -- I create the websites, he creates the brands), and I'm afraid I'd also have to prove how many hours I myself have worked within projects (let's say we bill for 60 hours, but he has done 20 and I have done 40).

In summary, I'm just not sure if I should worry about proving I have worked at least 30/hours a week for every single week, or if just proving that I run a business and have a consistent amount of work is enough.