Okay so here is the letter I wrote!
My first PR application was refused because I missed some info relating to compensation. So I applied again and wrote this letter. You will have to adjust the letter and write as in preventing it to get rejected, rather than it was rejected. Basically, argue why it shouldn't be rejected and justify your thoughts. I hope this helps and improve your letter as best as you can! Just to remind everyone, I applied in 2019 and things are different now in 2026. However, I hope you are successful and best of luck
LOE_and_Attachments
Date:
To Whom It May Concern,
Subject: Letter of Explanation – Canadian Work Experience
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Express Entry Profile:
UCI:
Dear Officer,
I am writing this Letter of Explanation to clarify some of the issues that were raised on my previous application for Permanent Residency that was rejected due to missing information on the work experience letter. I received your rejection letter for my previous application for a permanent resident visa on YYYY/MM/DD, on the basis of not qualifying for the Canadian Experience Class. I would like to illustrate in this letter how I can prove how I qualify for the criteria for the Canadian Experience Class by including all the necessary information with supporting documents.
First, you stated in your rejection letter that one of the criteria for the CEC stream is having ‘temporary resident status during the qualifying period of work experience in Canada’. I have attached my work permit (page X) that shows that I have been issued a work permit on YYYY/MM/DD:
The employer: University of XX
Employment location: XX
The work period from YYYY/MM/DD onwards in Canada was legally possible since I applied for an open work permit, and therefore, I was on implied status. Unfortunately, I do not have the required documents to prove this because I used an immigration lawyer to help me with the visa applications, and all communication to IRCC went through him. I only have a receipt from this transaction that the lawyer sent to me (page X).
This leads to the second criteria on the refusal letter, whether the permanent residency applicant has ‘qualifying Canadian skilled work experience’. The assigned officer was not satisfied whether I met the skilled work experience requirement(s) because the letters of employment provided ‘do not indicate the work experience was remunerated by the payment of wages or commission a requirement remunerated under the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry System, Item 15(3)(d)’.
First, I acknowledge that previously I did not provide enough information related to my work experience letter from the Canadian employer, but I have since asked my previous employer to update the work experience letter. I would also like to point out that I originally included the working hours of the Canadian work experience to my work experience letter from University of XX, because I was compensated from COUNTRY, and therefore, I included the hours and salary on my COUNTRY employer letter. Additionally, in the original work experience letter from University of XX, these things were not included in the letter, but since the first application for Permanent Residency was rejected because the remuneration information was missing from the University of XX work experience letter, I kindly asked my previous employer to add the needed information to the updated letter. The updated employment reference states that I was reimbursed for my research work in Canada. With this clarification, I do meet requirements under the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry System, Item 15(3)(d).
Second, you state on your website (
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees- citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/ministerial- instructions/express-entry-application-management-system.html) the eligibility requirements to apply for the Canadian Experience Class:
(3) For the purposes of this section, Canadian work experience is work experience that
(a) is acquired by a foreign national in Canada in one or more occupations listed in Skill Type 0 Management Occupations or Skill Level A or B of the National Occupational Classification matrix;
(b) consists of full-time work experience, or the full-time equivalent for part-time work experience, with one or more employers;
(c) is acquired within the 10-year period preceding the day on which points are assigned to the foreign national under subsection (1); and
(d) is remunerated by the payment of wages or a commission.
I meet all the above requirements that can be proved by looking at the updated document from my previous employment. I have more than 1 year of skilled work experience (NOC: 4012 – University Research Assistant at University of XX – Skill Level A), and the work experience was full-time (at least 30 hours of week) with one employer, and I was compensated during this work experience (of which I have already clarified in the previous paragraphs). I did not receive any study credits during my time at University of XX because I did not undertake any classes as the work permit says: “
prohibited from... taking any academic, professional or vocational training course.” My time at University of XX was fully research-based job experience.
Third, you stated on your website what you consider to be work, and that pay includes money or commission (
https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1288&top=17). You also state that non-paid employment does not qualify for CEC stream, and the applicant must have been paid a wage (or earned a commission) (
https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=665&top=29). It now states on my updated employment reference letter that I was compensated for my work experience at the University of XX by two different foundations from COUNTRY who focus on compensating Doctoral Students in COUNTRY. I have also provided the documents from these foundations who provided my compensation for this work (page X and page X). I cannot find anywhere from your website that the wages (or earned commission) must have been remunerated from the employer in Canada, and therefore, I can argue that my case is still eligible under Canadian Experience Class because of the above statements I have made with supporting documents.
I do understand that a proper procedure needs to be done to check my eligibility for the Canadian work experience. If the officer in charge do not consider my work experience at University of XX to be part of the Canadian Experience Class, in that case, I am assuming the years of that work experience is counted towards my Foreign Skilled Worker experience, which would raise the amount of years of my foreign skilled work experience from X years to X years.
Finally, I would like to add that I updated my language requirements with improved English language test results. I have done the CELPIP test on DATE, but I wanted to improve my writing results, and therefore, I did the IELTS English language test on DATE. I received an Invitation to Apply before I received the IELTS results. Since I improved my results, I wanted to use these better results for my Permanent Residency program, as I believe I can do so as stated on your website: “
Where there is a change in circumstance and the candidate goes forward with submitting an APR, the candidate must ensure that the change in circumstance is properly reflected in their APR” (
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications- manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/express-entry/invitation-apply.html).
I hope these points clarify my case, and please do not hesitate to ask me for more additional documents needed for my application if needed.
Thank you for your time.
Yours sincerely,
NAME
Email address:
DOB of applicant:
Country of birth:
Client ID number:
File number:
UCI:
Telephone number:
Mobile number:
Type of application: Permanent Residence (applied online) - Express Entry
