Consider a hypothetical. A graduate of a Brampton college spends two years on a post-graduation work permit. For the first eight months she stacks shelves at a warehouse off Airport Road. Then she is promoted to shift supervisor, and she has now held that job for ten months. She has eighteen months of Canadian work behind her and assumes she is ready for permanent residence through the Canadian Experience Class. She may not be. Only the supervisor months may count, and she could be two months short.
That gap between “I have worked in Canada for a while” and “I have qualifying Canadian experience” is where many applications in this program run into trouble. The Canadian Experience Class has a short list of requirements compared with other immigration programs. There is no education requirement and no settlement funds requirement. Because the list is short, each item on it carries a lot of weight, and the work experience item is where most of the difficulty lies.
This article is general information and is not legal advice. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) changes its programs and instructions regularly, so confirm every requirement on IRCC’s website before relying on it. We have left out invitation scores and processing times because they change too often to be useful in an article.
The Requirements in One Place
The Canadian Experience Class is one of the three federal programs managed through Express Entry. To be eligible, you need:
- At least one year of skilled work in Canada, or 1,560 hours in total, gained in the three years before you apply
- Work in an occupation classified as TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 under the National Occupational Classification (NOC)
- Authorization to work in Canada under temporary resident status while you did it
- An approved language test showing the minimum level for your occupation
- Admissibility to Canada
- A plan to live outside Quebec
Meeting these requirements gets you into the Express Entry pool. It does not get you an invitation. Candidates are ranked, and IRCC decides which rounds to hold and whom to invite. Eligibility and competitiveness are two separate questions, and this article deals with the first.
How the 1,560 Hours Actually Work
The hours requirement sounds like simple arithmetic, but people often misread it in both directions.
IRCC treats 1,560 hours as about 30 hours a week for a year. The hours do not need to come from one job or from full-time work. Fifteen hours a week for 24 months reaches the same total, and you can combine several part-time jobs or several employers. Someone working two part-time roles at a logistics firm in Bramalea and a retail head office in Mississauga could reach the total sooner than either job would allow alone, so long as both are skilled and authorized.
The misreading that causes the most disappointment runs the other way. People who work 55 or 60 hours a week sometimes assume they can reach the threshold in six months. Do not plan around that. IRCC’s benchmark of about 30 hours a week is a good reason to treat overtime as unlikely to shorten the one-year period, and you should check IRCC’s current instructions and get advice before submitting a profile that depends on it.
The three-year window also moves. It looks back from the date you apply, so old experience drops off as time passes. A person who stopped skilled work to care for a family member, or who moved into a lower-level job, can lose qualifying months without doing anything wrong. If you are close to the line, keep a running tally of your hours by employer and month, using pay stubs rather than memory.
Is Your Job Really TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3?
The NOC sorts occupations into TEER categories, and only 0 through 3 count for this program. Your job title has little to do with the result. What matters is whether your actual duties match the NOC description.
IRCC’s test is specific. You must show that you performed the actions in the lead statement of the NOC description, and most of the main duties listed for it. This is why a job title can mislead. “Warehouse manager” on a business card does not help if most of your day is loading trailers. “Assistant” might sound junior, yet the duties may fit a supervisory TEER 2 occupation.
Brampton’s economy produces this problem constantly because so much local work is in logistics, transport, food processing and manufacturing, where similar titles can sit at different levels. Before relying on a code, read the NOC profile for it on the federal NOC website and compare it line by line with what you do. If you have to stretch the description to make it fit, an officer reading your reference letter may reach the same conclusion. Choosing a code because it qualifies, when your duties belong elsewhere, can lead to a refusal and possibly to a misrepresentation finding, with serious consequences.
Time in a TEER 4 or 5 job does not count for this program, however long you held it. Returning to the example at the top: if her first eight months were in a TEER 4 or 5 role, only the later period helps her.
Work That Does Not Count
Several kinds of work are excluded, however real and however hard the work was.
Work done while studying full-time. This is the exclusion that catches most former international students. Work during a full-time program, including co-op terms, does not count. Your off-campus shifts during a Sheridan or Algoma program may have paid the rent, but they will not build your Canadian Experience Class total. The clock usually begins in earnest after your studies end and you hold a work permit.
Self-employment. Self-employed work does not qualify, apart from a narrow temporary public policy for certain physicians providing publicly funded medical services. This matters in Brampton because of the trucking industry. A driver who runs as an owner-operator or through a personal corporation may have long hours and steady income, yet may be self-employed in substance. The same goes for anyone paid as a contractor in any industry, who should ask for an assessment before counting those hours. Pay must also take the form of wages or commission.
Volunteer work and unpaid internships. Neither counts.
Unauthorized work. Hours worked without permission to work do not count. That includes shifts worked beyond what a study permit allowed, working for an employer outside a closed work permit’s terms, and work after status has ended. An applicant who claims this time also draws attention to a possible breach of conditions.
Remote work for a foreign employer. Work counts only if you were physically in Canada and working for a Canadian employer. A person in a Brampton basement apartment working for a company in another country is outside the requirement.
Status and Authorization
Every hour you claim must have been authorized at the time. Before you enter the pool, line up your work history against your permits. A simple table works: employer, job, start date, end date, weekly hours, and the permit that covered the period.
Look closely at the seams between permits. If you applied to extend a work permit before it expired, you may have been able to keep working under the same conditions while waiting, a situation known as maintained status. If you missed the date, there may be a period when you were not authorized, and any work during it creates a problem larger than the lost hours. Closed work permits raise a similar question: was the employer named on the permit the one actually paying you? An unlawful gap should be reviewed before you file, because the application will ask about your history and the answers must be accurate.
Your temporary status also has to keep running while you wait. Having a profile, or even an application in process, does not extend a permit. A bridging open work permit may be available for some applicants at a later stage, subject to conditions that should be checked on IRCC’s website. A plan for your permit expiry date should be made early.
Language Results
The minimum depends on your occupation, and it applies to each of the four abilities:
- TEER 0 or 1: Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 7 in English, or Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) 7 in French
- TEER 2 or 3: CLB 5 or NCLC 5
A strong overall score cannot cover for one weak ability, so a CLB 4 in writing fails the minimum for all occupations even if speaking is high. Approved tests are CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training and PTE Core for English, and TEF Canada and TCF Canada for French. A language class certificate is not a substitute.
Results must be less than two years old both when you complete your profile and when you submit your application for permanent residence. If your results will expire during that time, you can retake the test, apply before they expire, or decline an invitation and return to the pool. Do not leave this to chance: a test that was fine in your profile can age out by the time you are invited.
Proving the Work
An invitation gives you 60 days to submit a complete application, which is not much time if an old employer has closed down or stopped answering email. Start collecting proof before you are invited.
The core document is a reference letter on company letterhead, signed by someone with authority, setting out your job title, your duties, your dates of employment, your weekly hours, and your pay. Vague letters are a known source of problems. “Sam has been a valued employee” says nothing an officer can match to a NOC description. The duties in the letter should be truthful and specific, and should describe your work rather than copying the NOC wording line for line.
Supporting records help confirm the letter:
- T4 slips and Notices of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency
- Pay stubs showing hours and the employer’s name
- Employment contracts and promotion letters
- Copies of each work permit that covered the period
If an employer will not provide a letter, or has gone out of business, do not invent a substitute. You can explain the situation and offer alternative evidence, such as a sworn statement from a former supervisor and your tax and pay records. Whether that is enough will depend on the case, so this is a good point at which to ask for help.
Check that everything agrees. If your letter says 40 hours a week while your pay stubs show 22, an officer will notice. So will the income on your tax return. Paying cash under the table causes a double problem, since it leaves no record of the work and may suggest an issue with compliance.
Before You Create the Profile
A short review now can save you from a refusal later.
- Count only hours that were skilled, paid, authorized, and worked while you were not a full-time student
- Confirm that each period falls inside the three-year window on the date you plan to apply
- Read the NOC lead statement and main duties for each job
- Test language results against the minimum for your lowest-TEER job, and note the expiry date
- List every permit and any gap between permits
- Check for anything that may affect admissibility, including charges, convictions, prior refusals and past overstays
- Give accurate information in the profile, because the application must support what the profile claims
If you have a spouse or partner or children, their details must be declared as well, including those not coming with you. An undeclared family member can create long-term problems, so this should not be treated as a minor detail.
When a Second Opinion Is Worth It
Many applicants with simple histories can complete this process on their own. A review by a lawyer may be worthwhile if your work history includes self-employment or incorporation, a closed work permit with a change of employer, gaps in status, a job that could sit in more than one NOC code, a former employer who cannot be reached, or any previous refusal. If you received a refusal or a procedural fairness letter, the response period may be short, so get advice quickly.
Our immigration law team can review your history against the program requirements, and more information on permanent residence applications is available on our site. No one can promise that you will be invited or approved, but you can make sure the time you are counting is time that actually counts.