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6 Weeks Vacation Outside Canada - Can I Count It In Experience For Canadian Experience Class ?

joelthakkar

Star Member
Sep 29, 2014
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Hello Everyone,

My company has unlimited vacation policy. I recently took 6 weeks paid vacation and went to my home country. Obviously I was paid full salary during that time and I have all the required paystubs for the period.

Can i count those 6 weeks towards my 1 year experience or not ?

Thanks for any help!
 

rezafc

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Jun 19, 2013
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Ohhh Kk, first things first! Unlimited Vacation policy?!! That is some sweet sweet deal man! What company is that? I'd kill to get employed by them even as a janitor! Hehe kidding!

As long as you were paid and you can prove it, then you can most definitely count that towards your experience.

Best of luck mate!
 

tushya

Hero Member
Oct 27, 2016
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Ohhh Kk, first things first! Unlimited Vacation policy?!! That is some sweet sweet deal man! What company is that? I'd kill to get employed by them even as a janitor! Hehe kidding!

As long as you were paid and you can prove it, then you can most definitely count that towards your experience.

Best of luck mate!
I wonder the same. That is awesome.
 
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jes_ON

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Ohhh Kk, first things first! Unlimited Vacation policy?!! That is some sweet sweet deal man! What company is that? I'd kill to get employed by them even as a janitor! Hehe kidding!

I totally agree with this!!!

As long as you were paid and you can prove it, then you can most definitely count that towards your experience.

Alas, I do not entirely agree with this. Here is what IRCC says about vacation for CEC class:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/perm/econ/cec/work.asp

"An allowance for a reasonable period of vacation time will generally be made in calculating the period of qualifying work experience (e.g., a two-week period of paid vacation leave within a given 52-week period in which the applicant was engaged in qualifying work experience). An allowance for normal vacation time during a period of qualifying work experience cannot be used as a substitute or proxy for meeting the in-Canada element of the work experience requirement (i.e., work experience obtained outside Canada will not be considered as though the applicant had been on a period of vacation in order to be counted as part of the period of in-Canada work experience). While officers will account for a reasonable period of vacation time in calculating the period of qualifying work experience in Canada, each application is considered on its own merits with a final decision based on a review of all the information available to the officer at the time of decision."

"unlimited vacation" is outside of the realm of experience described by IRCC's guidelines - as you can see, "reasonable" starts at 2 weeks : ) If you claimed to have 6 weeks of vacation in the past year, IRCC would assume that means you're claiming you have 6 weeks of vacation every year (as opposed to an arrangement where you took 6 weeks in one year, having accrued vacation time by not using it the previous year, which would be the equivalent of 3 weeks). Six weeks might be credible if your NOC starts with 00, but otherwise...

So - here's my suggestion. Of course you have to document it, that means that it is part of your letter of reference from your employer.

But even with the letter, the VO may not consider that to be "reasonable" or credible. So I would advise adding 4 weeks of extra experience before claiming the 1 year. That way, if they discounted 3 of the 6 weeks of vacation time, you would still have the one year of experience.
 
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vreddy

Full Member
Jul 4, 2017
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Hello Everyone,

My company has unlimited vacation policy. I recently took 6 weeks paid vacation and went to my home country. Obviously I was paid full salary during that time and I have all the required paystubs for the period.

Can i count those 6 weeks towards my 1 year experience or not ?

Thanks for any help!
yes, you can ..as long as you get paid.

I took 4 months vacation and I got PR
 

jes_ON

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yes, you can ..as long as you get paid.

I took 4 months vacation and I got PR
Mistakes are made, not just against applicants, but sometimes in their favour as well. Just because a VO missed this on your application, does not mean it will also happen for others.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with 4 months of vacation. But there IS something wrong with counting it as work experience.
 
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mirahe94

Star Member
Jan 2, 2019
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Why is it wrong to count the remote work experience as work experience towards CEC? @jes_ON

I'm in a tough situation because I submitted my CEC application with about 12 months and 3 weeks of work experience (on my PGWP). I took a paid vacation from December 3 - December 24 2018 (this was in the reference letter). I believe the vacation will count towards the CEC work experience - no problem.
At the end of my vacation I didn't have the TRV to go back to Canada on December 24 so I had to apply for a TRV and stay abroad until January 25. My personal history states that I was abroad for tourism reasons from December 3 - January 25 but I still did work for my company when I was waiting for the TRV to arrive (from December 24 to January 25). It's about a month of remote work experience ... :/ The company allowed me to work remotely from abroad until I came back to Canada on January 25th. Do you think the work experience from December 24 - January 25 won't count because it was conducted outside Canada? I have the pay stubs and communication to prove that I indeed worked for the company in this period. I also explained the situation in my TRV application and my employer provided a letter saying that I need to go back to Canada to resume my employment onsite. Do you think I should send a CSE explain the situation or resign to the fact that my remote experience won't be counted and my application is going to be refused?
 
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mirahe94

Star Member
Jan 2, 2019
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I have seen this statement "An allowance for normal vacation time during a period of qualifying work experience cannot be used as a substitute or proxy for meeting the in-Canada element of the work experience requirement (i.e., work experience obtained outside Canada will not be considered as though the applicant had been on a period of vacation in order to be counted as part of the period of in-Canada work experience)" so I am quite worried that my remote work experience won't count now.

I didn't count the remote work experience as vacation.
 
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21Goose

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Your period of remote work won't be counted as Canadian experience. Nothing you can do about it now. If you're lucky the officer may apply his discretion - but you should be prepared to have your application rejected.
 
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mirahe94

Star Member
Jan 2, 2019
54
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I included another work experience (most current work experience) in my Express Entry application (e-APR) so with that experience I definitely meet the 1 year threshold. However, I didn't include this work experience in my Express profile ... The remote work experience will bring my Canadian work experience under 12 months but do you think they will count my current experience now?
 

21Goose

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I included another work experience (most current work experience) in my Express Entry application (e-APR) so with that experience I definitely meet the 1 year threshold. However, I didn't include this work experience in my Express profile ... The remote work experience will bring my Canadian work experience under 12 months but do you think they will count my current experience now?
You needed to have one year of Canadian experience on the day you received the ITA. Experience gained since then won't help - if you didn't qualify to get the ITA, your application will be rejected.
 

mirahe94

Star Member
Jan 2, 2019
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I had over one year of work experience at the time of the ITA but I didn't include the current work experience (which brings the work experience to more than 12 months) in the Express Entry profile. Is my application still going to be rejected? However, I DID include this work experience in my permanent residency application
 

21Goose

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I had over one year of work experience at the time of the ITA but I didn't include the current work experience (which brings the work experience to more than 12 months) in the Express Entry profile. Is my application still going to be rejected? However, I DID include this work experience in my permanent residency application

It’s quite simple. Either you had the qualifying Canadian work experience at the time of receiving the ITA, or you didn’t.

If you had it, then your application will be accepted. If you didn’t have it, it will be rejected.

anything you add post ITA will not matter.
 

mirahe94

Star Member
Jan 2, 2019
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"anything you add post ITA will not matter." Do you mean the work experience gained after getting the ITA?