Reference letter

[Siva8319]

I have been working with my current employer from last 7 years. This experience covers both my Canadian as well as foreign work experience .I received an ITA recently but I am stuck with reference letter. My company doesn’t have a policy of providing reference letters and they won’t even confirm it through an email. I am having all required documentation like offer letter,payslips(having hours specified),hike letters, income tax forms and also having a document having roles and responsibilities on company letter head. Are these enough to proceed along with LOE explaining the situation? Any other things I need to attach? Can someone help with this?

 

[Ilya127]

I have been working with my current employer from last 7 years. This experience covers both my Canadian as well as foreign work experience .I received an ITA recently but I am stuck with reference letter. My company doesn’t have a policy of providing reference letters and they won’t even confirm it through an email. I am having all required documentation like offer letter,payslips(having hours specified),hike letters, income tax forms and also having a document having roles and responsibilities on company letter head. Are these enough to proceed along with LOE explaining the situation? Any other things I need to attach? Can someone help with this?

If you are applying under Canadian Experience Class, the reference letter from work is mandatory. And there are specific requirements for this letter. it should contain your detailed job duties that match your NOC code. There is no way to get CEC application approved without good letter from work. Please negotiate it with your employer. I had my CEC application refused in the past only because of bad letter from my employer. Please check the detailed requirements here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/express-entry/applications-received-on-after-january-1-2016-completeness-check.html

 

[Siva8319]

Thanks for your response.There is no way my company is going to provide reference letter. But with all supporting documents like offer letter, payslips,IT forms,Hike letters, can’t I prove my experience? There are other companies as well who doesn’t provide reference letter.I am wondering how they are dealing this situation?

 

[Ilya127]

Thanks for your response.There is no way my company is going to provide reference letter. But with all supporting documents like offer letter, payslips,IT forms,Hike letters, can’t I prove my experience? There are other companies as well who doesn’t provide reference letter.I am wondering how they are dealing this situation?

I do not know. Maybe you should look for another immigration stream, not CEC. I just wanted to say that a current letter of employment and reference letters from previous jobs are extremely important for CEC. Is your employer not interested to help you become PR? How you managed to extend your work permits without letters from work?

 

[Siva8319]

I think I might have confused you. I was mentioning that I have all other letters except reference letter where company going to give consolidated experience letter for 7 years with my role in onsite and offshore. I m having Indian offer letter, Indian IT forms,Canadian work permit, payslips and T4 forms. Like you mentioned earlier, my company won’t emcourage employees to go for PR.

 

[x001358]

I think I might have confused you. I was mentioning that I have all other letters except reference letter where company going to give consolidated experience letter for 7 years with my role in onsite and offshore. I m having Indian offer letter, Indian IT forms,Canadian work permit, payslips and T4 forms. Like you mentioned earlier, my company won’t emcourage employees to go for PR.

I am in the same situation . My company is not interested to do my PR. But I heard, a co-worker can sign and confirm !

 

[Ilya127]

I think I might have confused you. I was mentioning that I have all other letters except reference letter where company going to give consolidated experience letter for 7 years with my role in onsite and offshore. I m having Indian offer letter, Indian IT forms,Canadian work permit, payslips and T4 forms. Like you mentioned earlier, my company won’t emcourage employees to go for PR.

The problem is that pay stubs and T4 forms prove that you worked in Canada officially and paid taxes. They do not prove skilled work experience that is required under CEC stream. CEC requires that your job position lays under NOC 0, A or B codes. And the only place where immigration officer can see the proof of your skilled work experience is a letter of employment from your employer. Here are official requirements for CEC, please read this page: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/eligibility/canadian-experience-class.html

I am not pretending to be an expert, but I would advise you to look for another immigration stream. Maybe family class or something like this where proof of skilled work experience is not required.

 

[Ilya127]

I am in the same situation . My company is not interested to do my PR. But I heard, a co-worker can sign and confirm !

The official requirements say that letter should include the name, title and signature of the immediate supervisor or personnel officer at the company. So if your co-worker is your immediate supervisor and if a letter was printed on company bank, it will work for you.

 

[Siva8319]

My skill set fall in NOC category. And yes, my offer letter having NOC code details along with my salary details. And my paystubs having hours I worked. And the documents I used for work permit extension having roles and responsibilities.But I don’t have a consolidated document which is having all these details.

 

[Siva8319]

What documents you are planning to submit if Company don’t provide reference letter?

 

[Siva8319]

I will request my employer if they can help. Does the letter provided by your employer doesn’t have all details listed needed by IRCC? Please let me know if any specific details I have to request for. I can check with my employer

 

[Ilya127]

What documents you are planning to submit if Company don’t provide reference letter?

I sent you a link to canada.ca website in my first reply to you. Everything is there. Here is a quote from website. Your letter must contain all of required info:

a reference or experience letter from the employer, which

• should be an official document printed on company letterhead (must include the applicant’s name, the company’s contact information [address, telephone number and email address], and the name, title and signature of the immediate supervisor or personnel officer at the company),
• should indicate all positions held while employed at the company and must include the following details: job title, duties and responsibilities, job status (if current job), dates worked for the company, number of work hours per week and annual salary plus benefits;

If the work experience is in Canada, proof may include copies of T4 tax information slips and notices of assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (the time period for these documents should reflect the work experience timeframe [e.g., work experience from 2006 to 2008 requires only documents from those calendar years]).

It is important that job duties should match your NOC code. Please go here and find job duties like they shown under NOC code: https://noc.esdc.gc.ca/
Job duties in letter can be slightly different from NOC code description, but you should have some key duties that are the same.
If job letter does not contain job duties or contain job duties that does not match your NOC code, the most likely your CEC application will be refused. This is VERY common reason for refusal.

 

[Siva8319]

Thanks for detailed explanation. I have a company letter given for my work permit extension which includes NOC Code,Salary details,company joining dates,Roles and Responsibilities and payslips having hours mentioned and these all parameters will satisfy the criteria which you provided. But the thing worrying me is I am not able to get roles and responsibilities for my India designation. I am having all details for Canadian experience but not for foreign experience(Indian experience). But the thing is ,I have been employed in the same company from last 7 years. I think I need write an LOE detailing my experience. Did you get refusal for such type of reasons?Any suggestion on this?

 

[Ilya127]

Thanks for detailed explanation. I have a company letter given for my work permit extension which includes NOC Code,Salary details,company joining dates,Roles and Responsibilities and payslips having hours mentioned and these all parameters will satisfy the criteria which you provided. But the thing worrying me is I am not able to get roles and responsibilities for my India designation. I am having all details for Canadian experience but not for foreign experience(Indian experience). But the thing is ,I have been employed in the same company from last 7 years. I think I need write an LOE detailing my experience. Did you get refusal for such type of reasons?Any suggestion on this?

If you apply under Canadian Experience Class you must prove your Canadian experience. As per Canada website the minimum requirements are:

• have at least 1 year of skilled work experience in Canada, in the last 3 years before you apply—you can meet this in a few different ways:
  • full-time at 1 job: 30 hours/week for 12 months = 1 year full-time (1,560 hours)
  • equal amount in part-time work:for example 15 hours/week for 24 months = 1 year full time (1,560 hours)
    • You can work as many part-time jobs as you need to meet this requirement.
  • full-time work at more than 1 job: 30 hours/week for 12 months at more than 1 job = 1 year full time (1,560 hours)

So you must have at least one year of experience working in Canada in skilled job position like described above. Your previous letters from your previous jobs are not such important. Immigration officers will be focusing on your Canadian letter. I think if your previous letters (from India) are not so good and do not contain all details, this should not be a problem. However I heard about cases when IRCC officer can become doubtful that you are capable of doing job that you stated in Canadian letter. So my advice would be to demonstrate as strongly as you can your previous work experience (in India) and your education level (with ECA report). Again, letters from previous jobs are not so important, but I recommend you to collect as much proof as you can and maybe compose a good LOE about your previous experience. You need to satisfy them that you can do the work you claimed you are doing. This sounds stupid but this is reality. Not your employer, but IRCC officer decides are you capable to do your Canadian job or not

 

[Siva8319]

Thanks for your suggestion bro. I am having 3 years of Canadian Experience and fourth year in progress Like I said, I have been in the same organization from last 7 years. For my Indian experience, I have all documents like Offer Letter, Income tax forms, Hike Letters, Pay slips but the only one which I am not having is roles and responsibilities. Cant we use Canada roles and responsibilities for Indian experience too?

• should indicate all positions held while employed at the company and must include the following details: job title, duties and responsibilities, job status (if current job), dates worked for the company, number of work hours per week and annual salary plus benefits;

For the different positions I hold in the same organization, I have offer letters to prove the same Only thing is roles and responsibilities for Indian experience Does your refusal happen for similar reason? Please share if you can Thanks.