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Hello fellow practitioners! This week’s question deals with arranged employment and Express Entry.
Question
The IRCC website indicates:
if you have a valid work permit for a NOC 0, A or B job that is exempt from needing an LMIA, and you:
- are currently working for an employer specified on the work permit
- have one year of full-time work experience (or an equal amount of part-time work) for that employer
- have a valid job offer from that employer for at least one year after we issue your permanent resident visa
The Ministerial Instructions say in 29(2)(a)(iii):
(iii) the foreign national holds a valid work permit issued under the circumstances described in paragraph 204(a) or (c) or section 205 of the Regulations, the offer is made by an employer who is specified on the work permit and the foreign national works for that employer and has accumulated at least one year of full-time work experience, or the equivalent in part-time work, over a continuous period of work in Canada for that employer;
The instructions say candidates must have one year of full-time work experience for that employer.
A hypothetical situation:
- Candidate on an open work permit for a Canadian employer in a NOC 0, A or B position worked one continuous year for the employer. After the one-year continuous work experience was established and before he switched over to the LMIA exempt closed work permit in the same position and same employer, he went back to his home country for a few months, while the closed work permit application was getting processed. Is the candidate eligible for the 50-200 points immediately upon switching to the closed work permit on his return to Canada? Or because he went back to his home country for a few months, must he wait for 1 year of work on the closed work permit before being eligible for the 50 points?
Answer
The crux of this question is asking about arranged employment for the purpose of EE within the context of someone who does not have an LMIA but rather qualifies by virtue of having a closed work permit and having worked for the employer making the offer, continuously, full-time and for at least 1 year.
As mentioned above Section 29 provides as follows:
(iii) the foreign national holds a valid work permit issued under the circumstances described in paragraph 204(a) or (c) or section 205 of the Regulations, the offer is made by an employer who is specified on the work permit and the foreign national works for that employer and has accumulated at least one year of full-time work experience, or the equivalent in part-time work, over a continuous period of work in Canada for that employer;
The wording suggests that the person needs to be currently employed by the employer making the offer and have continuously worked for at last 1 year full-time. However, it doesn’t seem to specify that there cannot be a break in employment at the time of application or what is the timeframe to have completed that year of full-time work experience.
This will seem to indicate that the situation described in the question is allowed.
It is important to ensure that the job offer is a valid job offer as well.
Generally, a valid offer is for a job that is:
- full-time and non-seasonal,
- for at least one year,
- in a skilled job listed as Skill Type 0, or Skill Level A or B in the 2016 National Occupational Classification.
A job offer must be in writing, and must set out details of the job they are offering you, such as:
- your pay and deductions
- your job duties
- conditions of employment, like your hours of work.
Also, take a look at the questions that the EE system asks, and I think that the person can answer yes to all of those:
Is Applicant currently working in Canada? (required)
Yes
Does Applicant have a valid work permit for the current job in Canada? (required)
Yes
Is Applicant’s job offer from the employer named on the current work permit? (required)
Yes
Has Applicant been working full-time for the employer on their current work permit for at least one year? (Or for an equal amount of part time work?) (required)
Yes
I think that our interpretation is also consistent with the PDIs for Offer of employment – Skilled immigrants (Express Entry) whereby the requirements are:
if you have a valid work permit for a NOC 0, A or B job that is exempt from needing an LMIA, and you:
- are currently working for an employer specified on the work permit
- have one year of full-time work experience (or an equal amount of part-time work) for that employer
- have a valid job offer from that employer for at least one year after we issue your permanent resident visa
Under the Ministerial instructions mentioned above:
29 (1) If a foreign national has a qualifying offer of arranged employment, they may be assigned points as follows:
- (a) 200 points, if the offer is for employment in an occupation contained in Major Group 00 of the National Occupation Classification matrix; or
- (b) 50 points, if the offer is any other qualifying offer of arranged employment.
As the above shows the applicant will not need to regain the 1 year of work experience as long as they were legally allowed to work, when they gained the previous work experience and if at the time of applying and they are authorized to work and have a valid work permit at the time the application is made for permanent residence. This will allow the Applicant to be eligible for the 50-200 point you need as a matter of having worked continuously for that employer for 1 year prior to submitting the PR application, and currently working for that same employer at the time of applying for PR.
For further information please refer to the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry system at the following link: