Canada FSW Eligibility — Work Experience
The first step in getting started with the mighty process of applying for the Canadian PR is figuring out your eligibility for the program. When we were going through the same process, one major hiccup we had was our eligibility for the Express Entry FSW program in terms of skilled work experience.
In the Canada Government webpage, they claim the minimum requirement for skilled work experience is;
At least 1 year of
Continuous
Paid work
Within the last 10 years
In the same job (NOC)as your primary occupation
A confusion that I have seen most people have is with the last point above.
Most are under the impression that for you to claim points for the number of years of experience, you must have worked with the same organization, under the same NOC. For example, I’ll take a few scenarios
Profile 1 — different NOCs, different companies.:
3 years of total experience. 2.5 years at Company A as a Software Engineer, 0.5 years at Company B as a Database Administrator
Profile 2 — same NOC, different companies:
3 years of total experience as a Software Engineer. 1.5 years at Company A, 1.5 years at Company B.
Profile 3 — different NOCs, different companies:
3 years of total experience. 8 months at Company A, 7 months as Company B, 10 months at Company C, 11 months as Company D.
The first 2 profiles will be eligible for the FSW and be able to claim points for 3 years of work experience. In Profile 1, the applicant will have to select Software Engineer as the primary occupation, as that is the only job where he/she has more than 1 year of work experience. On the other hand, Profile 2 can mention either role as the primary occupation, as both roles have more than one year of experience.
The last profile will not be eligible for Express Entry FSW program, he/she doesn’t have 1 year of continuous work experience under 1 NOC, even though the total work experience adds up to 3 years.
In our case, I fell into the first category, and was able to claim points for 3 years, and mentioned the occupation with longer tenure as my primary occupation.
When we inquired from a few of the consultants in our country, they said that I cannot claim points for 3 years as I had only 2.5 years at the first company, under one NOC, and the remaining was from another company, under a different NOC. They stated that I will only get to claim 2 years of experience. This exactly is the misconception that I needed to clear up with regard to skilled work experience. With my case as in Profile 1, I was eligible to claim for 3 years of experience.
So simply put, if you have at least 12 months of continuous work experience under one NOC (must be of type 0, A or B) you are eligible to apply. Any additional experience, under different NOCs, at different organizations, can be combined to add up your work experience years and you will be able to claim points accordingly.
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