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Internship Experience during university counts towards Express Entry

djluvrocks

Star Member
May 14, 2018
114
61
Hello,

I am creating this post to spread awareness regarding limited understanding of internship experience being counted to Express Entry.

When I applied for EE back in Nov, 2018, I had about 2.5 years of regular full time experience with a corporate and 6 months of internship experience with a company in New York. If those 6 months are counted my experience jumps to 3 years in Express Entry category.

So, I included my experience from internship in my EE application and have been successful. I do want to mention here that the internship experience MUST be full time (Full Time for Canadians is anything above 30 hours), MUST be paid and MUST be provable through offer letter, experience letter, paystubs etc. It can be in any NOC and does not have to necessarily relate with your primary NOC if you've worked a regular, full time job before.

Now, another point here is, internship situation is generally encountered by student who are in their final year or working towards the degree and may also be taking some form of classes with school alongside with their internship. This is completely fine as long as you're satisfying the internship criteria in above paragraph.

My message applies to a lot of F-1 Visa students who are in their internships/have completed internships. I highly recommend you count your experience if you can prove it. It it's unpaid or less than full time, do not count it.

I hope this post helps someone someday.

I'm not very active on the forums here, but do check once in a while, if you have a very specific message, you may want to PM me or else just reply in thread to contribute your thoughts for public.
 
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Reactions: zmehta and jaffaral

jaffaral

Champion Member
Jun 29, 2014
1,356
215
37
Category........
Other
Hello,

I am creating this post to spread awareness regarding limited understanding of internship experience being counted to Express Entry.

When I applied for EE back in Nov, 2018, I had about 2.5 years of regular full time experience with a corporate and 6 months of internship experience with a company in New York. If those 6 months are counted my experience jumps to 3 years in Express Entry category.

So, I included my experience from internship in my EE application and have been successful. I do want to mention here that the internship experience MUST be full time (Full Time for Canadians is anything above 30 hours), MUST be paid and MUST be provable through offer letter, experience letter, paystubs etc. It can be in any NOC and does not have to necessarily relate with your primary NOC if you've worked a regular, full time job before.

Now, another point here is, internship situation is generally encountered by student who are in their final year or working towards the degree and may also be taking some form of classes with school alongside with their internship. This is completely fine as long as you're satisfying the internship criteria in above paragraph.

My message applies to a lot of F-1 Visa students who are in their internships/have completed internships. I highly recommend you count your experience if you can prove it. It it's unpaid or less than full time, do not count it.

I hope this post helps someone someday.

I'm not very active on the forums here, but do check once in a while, if you have a very specific message, you may want to PM me or else just reply in thread to contribute your thoughts for public.
Appreciate your efforts. Hope this post will help those who are in similar situation as u were
 

carpediem123

Member
May 18, 2019
15
0
my AOR is 12th February , 2019.....I have a question...... For the job that I claimed points, I had one week of unpaid orientation week.....which i mentioned in the application in activity history but in the reference letter, my manager didnt mention it as it does not count as part of employment....I received a schedule A on 1st April.....and Im worried that this might be the reason.....any thoughts?
 

jaffaral

Champion Member
Jun 29, 2014
1,356
215
37
Category........
Other
my AOR is 12th February , 2019.....I have a question...... For the job that I claimed points, I had one week of unpaid orientation week.....which i mentioned in the application in activity history but in the reference letter, my manager didnt mention it as it does not count as part of employment....I received a schedule A on 1st April.....and Im worried that this might be the reason.....any thoughts?
How many years of experience u claimed!
Sch A request is quite normal and it’s usually requested as a confirmation that what u have testified in your forms is something u r still sticked with. Sch A is usually a part of background verification whereas your concerns pertain to a step before background verification i.e. eligibility. I guess u have been requested sch A is a likely indication that ircc is pretty much ok with your eligibility. Just make sure u being truthful and don’t say no where u r actually supposed to say yes
 

carpediem123

Member
May 18, 2019
15
0
I have claimed 3 years of experience , whereas I have been associated with my company from over 4 years.... But as per policy, when I joined, I was on a week's orientation which was unpaid..... In my reference letter, my manager has mentioned two designations, with explanation on the designation for which I claimed points....My question is, should I submit an explanation for that week or not? As it is mentioned in my application ut not in reference letter......
 

JamesCarr

Newbie
May 1, 2020
1
0
I couldn’t agree more with you. My opinion is that every internship should be taken by students in their final years and not when they are only at the beginning. At that time, they are still new to the world, in a way. I remember myself when I got accepted for an internship from https://city-internships.com. I was frightened of what should I expect from it and what will happen to me if I fail. Of course, it’s not like that. The young always have a rich imagination and use it where they shouldn’t. Anyway, in the end everything went just perfect and I was pleased with my results.
 
Jun 3, 2021
6
0
Hello,

I am creating this post to spread awareness regarding limited understanding of internship experience being counted to Express Entry.

When I applied for EE back in Nov, 2018, I had about 2.5 years of regular full time experience with a corporate and 6 months of internship experience with a company in New York. If those 6 months are counted my experience jumps to 3 years in Express Entry category.

So, I included my experience from internship in my EE application and have been successful. I do want to mention here that the internship experience MUST be full time (Full Time for Canadians is anything above 30 hours), MUST be paid and MUST be provable through offer letter, experience letter, paystubs etc. It can be in any NOC and does not have to necessarily relate with your primary NOC if you've worked a regular, full time job before.

Now, another point here is, internship situation is generally encountered by student who are in their final year or working towards the degree and may also be taking some form of classes with school alongside with their internship. This is completely fine as long as you're satisfying the internship criteria in above paragraph.

My message applies to a lot of F-1 Visa students who are in their internships/have completed internships. I highly recommend you count your experience if you can prove it. It it's unpaid or less than full time, do not count it.

I hope this post helps someone someday.

I'm not very active on the forums here, but do check once in a while, if you have a very specific message, you may want to PM me or else just reply in thread to contribute your thoughts for public.
Hi,

My internship experiences were full time, paid and provable and done in France. However, all my 3 internships were part of my education (although I had a student status without any work permit during internships but I worked full time, 35+ hours).
Its a huge confusion, if I should consider my internships as they are part of my education.
Can you help. Is there anyone who cleared PR in similar situation?
 

billy_c

Newbie
Feb 18, 2024
2
0
hello, I also have similar doubts. I had done my internship (outside Canada, 4months, 8hrs/day, fully paid) which was a part of my education. Can I add this internship to count my total work experience?