Work experience

[Nesa09]

Hello everyone,
In your opinion what is the earliest day that I can submit my CEC application? In a regular situation I would wait until mid December, but considering that 8000 application cap will be reached probably in November I will need to do that as early as possible.

Start working in Canada: 7th November 2013 (on 3 year TWP - intra-company transfer)
Number of working hours per week: 40
Entitled for 15 days of paid vacation in calendar year
NOC: 0213 Software Engineering Manager

In February 2014 I was 11 days out of Canada and in April 2014 I was 5 days out of Canada. Both trips were for business purposes (internal meetings in my company's offices abroad) and during that time I got regular salary and per diems from my Canadian company.

Thanks

 

[cee12345]

Hello everyone,
In your opinion what is the earliest day that I can submit my CEC application? In a regular situation I would wait until mid December, but considering that 8000 application cap will be reached probably in November I will need to do that as early as possible.

Start working in Canada: 7th November 2013 (on 3 year TWP - intra-company transfer)
Number of working hours per week: 40
Entitled for 15 days of paid vacation in calendar year
NOC: 0213 Software Engineering Manager

In February 2014 I was 11 days out of Canada and in April 2014 I was 5 days out of Canada. Both trips were for business purposes (internal meetings in my company's offices abroad) and during that time I got regular salary and per diems from my Canadian company.

Thanks

As long as you are eligible - so it would be November 6, 2014. But you might want give some buffer like 1-2 weeks so End of November 2014 would be safe.

 

[jes_ON]

In February 2014 I was 11 days out of Canada and in April 2014 I was 5 days out of Canada. Both trips were for business purposes (internal meetings in my company's offices abroad) and during that time I got regular salary and per diems from my Canadian company.

There is the potential for the work time outside of Canada to be excluded, so I would worry less about the cap and more about qualifying - add at least 3 weeks before applying -

 

[Nesa09]

Thank you both for your answers.

jes_ON you have pointed me OP 25-A document 3 months ago and the following part related to vacation and work experience obtained outside Canada:

"An allowance for a reasonable period of vacation time will generally be made in calculating the period of qualifying work experience (e.g., a two-week period of paid vacation leave within a given 52-week period in which the applicant was engaged in qualifying work experience). An allowance for normal vacation time during a period of qualifying work experience cannot be used as a substitute or proxy for meeting the in-Canada element of the work experience requirement (i.e., work experience obtained outside Canada will not be considered as though the applicant had been on a period of vacation in order to be counted as part of the period of in-Canada work experience). While officers will account for a reasonable period of vacation time in calculating the period of qualifying work experience in Canada, each application is considered on its own merits with a final decision based on a review of all the information available to the officer at the time of decision."

I am not sure how to interpret it. Does it only mean that you cannot claim that you are on vacation while you are working for another company outside of Canada, or it also refers to any business trip outside of Canada (there are many job positions that require extensive travailing for business purposes and it would not be fair that all those days are not counted).

Anyhow, I will follow situation related to cap and at the beginning of November I will decide when to submit the application. I might have to take a risk.

 

[jes_ON]

I am not sure how to interpret it. Does it only mean that you cannot claim that you are on vacation while you are working for another company outside of Canada, or it also refers to any business trip outside of Canada (there are many job positions that require extensive travailing for business purposes and it would not be fair that all those days are not counted).

Anyhow, I will follow situation related to cap and at the beginning of November I will decide when to submit the application. I might have to take a risk.

I agree it would be nice if CIC could be explicitly clear about the business travel issue. On the other hand, the requirement is to "have acquired, in Canada, at least 12 months of full-time work experience..." And that is clear enough to be taken literally, which it seems CIC is now doing. That parallels the way that CIC counts your residency requirement for citizenship (currently 3 years), which excludes ALL days outside of Canada (even though you are still a legal resident).

You may think it is not fair to exclude business trips, but if you're working in Spain or Dubai or Beijing, how is it fair to call that in-Canada experience?

Anyway, the decision is yours. Good luck!