What is the exact definition of "Vacation" - Senior members pls clarify

[Sunny_tor]

Hello Guys,

First of all congrats to all who have received their PR's and best of luck to all others who are in the pipe line.

My first concern is regarding  the form IMM 5669 "Schedule A - Background declaration" the form asks us to fill the below:

Provide your detailed personal history for the last 10 years ,..... Include all:
Jobs
periods of unemployment
study
vacations or
being a home maker

Can you please guide me in the case if a person does not have any gaps in his/her employment then does he have to mention the vacations that he/she took during that period of employment.
If yes, then should all vacations be included?? whether they were for a few days like 3-4 , or only major vacations like above 30 days should be listed.

If "no" , i.e. none of the vacations that are taken during the employment period are to be listed then i have two more concerns:
1) There is another form that we need to fill - IMM 5562 - Your Travels
So, if i list my travel that i did as part of a vacation that i took (during the time i was full time employed) and i dont put it in the personal history form there is a inconsistency!!

2) Since i will "have to " list all my travels , i will also have to specify the duration of my travel as well which happened during the full time employment there is chance that my total number of hours worked might fall less than 3900.
So my concern over here is the vacations taken while i am fully employed (working lets say 40 hr a week) should be subtracted from the total number of hours i worked over the 2 year period to check if i meet the 3900 or not?
Or these vacations should be considered as part of my employment only??

Thanks all for reading and answering, i hope all the best to all.

[jes_ON]

Provide your detailed personal history for the last 10 years ,..... Include all:
Jobs
periods of unemployment
study
vacations or
being a home maker

First, read the instructions and the form again, because that is not what is asked on the Background Declaration -

Question 8

    Provide the details of your personal history since the age of 18, or the past 10 years, whichever comes first.

    Start with the most recent information. Under “Activity”, write your occupation or job title if you were working. If you were not working, provide information on what you were doing (for example: unemployed, studying, travelling, retired, in detention, etc.).

So, you see the word "vacation" does not appear in there...  If you are working and you take a vacation but remain employed, you do not have to list that here.  However, if you did travel, you have to list that on your travel history.

[Sunny_tor]

Thanks Jes_on for you reply.

I am very well aware of what is written in the guide and it does not quote the word vacations while its asking this ->

If you were not working, provide information on what you were doing (for example: unemployed, studying, travelling, retired, in detention, etc.).

But please refer to what is written in the document "check list" IMM 5610 where they were very clear to mention the word "Vacation".
the exact language is as below:

Include all:
Jobs
periods of unemployment
study
vacations or
being a home maker

If a person is employed or studying during the previous 10 years without ANY "gaps" whatsoever let say , so does that mean the word Vacation as stated above in the checklist is meaningless.

Also please answer my second concern as well:

Since i will "have to " list all my travels , i will also have to specify the duration of my travel as well which happened during the full time employment there is chance that my total number of hours worked might fall less than 3900.
So my concern over here is the vacations taken while i am fully employed (working lets say 40 hr a week) should be subtracted from the total number of hours i worked over the 2 year period to check if i meet the 3900 or not?

Thanks for your support!!

[SenoritaBella]

I had the same concerns as you when I applied, but an immigration lawyer said 37.5 hrs per week is considered full-time and it's fine. So you are fine as long as you were still employed full-time over the 2 year period during which time you also took vacations.

[jes_ON]

But please refer to what is written in the document "check list" IMM 5610 where they were very clear to mention the word "Vacation".


Oh gawd... you are right and they are INSANE.  First off, it's bad enough to write two different versions of instructions, but to include something like "vacations" without defining it...  The level of thoughtlessness is mindboggling. 

I honestly don't know what to tell you, can only suggest calling the Centre (not once but 2 or more times to see if you get a consistent answer), and letting us know what you find out...


Also please answer my second concern as well:

Since i will "have to " list all my travels , i will also have to specify the duration of my travel as well which happened during the full time employment there is chance that my total number of hours worked might fall less than 3900.
So my concern over here is the vacations taken while i am fully employed (working lets say 40 hr a week) should be subtracted from the total number of hours i worked over the 2 year period to check if i meet the 3900 or not?

No, I do not think you need to subtract your vacation time from your employment time - only if it was an unpaid leave of absence. 

But seriously, if you are cutting your time so close, you might want to give yourself a little extra time, just to have a cushion...

[Sunny_tor]

Hello Guys,

Just to let you know i had a couple of talks with the call center guys at CIC and unfortunately i did not get any consistent answers.

One lady told me to attach a separate sheet of paper and declare all the vacations that i can remember or that i know of and also state "that there may be some vacations that i dont remember and i am providing the information to the best of my knowledge".

One other guy who made more sense to me told me that vacations should be defined as a long term break from your regular study/work and should be listed only if you had such a vacation (for instance to Travel around the world or something).

So, i guess for now since they have not documented anything as to specify what a vacation is, we would need to rely on our own logical understanding and fill the forms accordingly.

Good Luck!

[jes_ON]

One other guy who made more sense to me told me that vacations should be defined as a long term break from your regular study/work and should be listed only if you had such a vacation (for instance to Travel around the world or something).

This is how it has been - in which case travel is not a "vacation" from your main activity, it IS your main activity.  

This does make more sense, but if this is what they still want, the language in the document checklist is just wrong.

Good luck with that, let us know if you learn something more.