I don't think it counts for business travel. It would count if your company temporary reassign you to work over seas (like a 3 month placement).
Traveling for business meeting do not count towards RO as far as I understand. BUT I am not an immigration lawyer.
It is important to recognize that "
business trips" in and of themselves do not dictate whether or not the days abroad are entitled to the
working-abroad-for-Canadian-business-credit toward PR RO. Some business trips will qualify for the credit. Some will not. It is
not true that business trips categorically do not count.
I am not a Canadian lawyer or immigration lawyer either. But in researching this issue (which I have done at length), I have yet to find any reliable source (no case law, no IAD decisions, no IRCC information) that says being assigned to attend business meetings outside Canada on behalf of one's Canadian business employer is not entitled to the
working-abroad-for-Canadian-business-credit toward PR RO. When others in this forum have stated that "
business trips" do not count, I have asked if they would provide a source for this. Over the years, many years now, and many requests, NO ONE has offered any source.
Same question to you: do you know of any source that supports the view that business trips are not allowed this credit?
There are cases similar to one which I cited and linked in the other topic, in which a particular PR was not allowed credit for time abroad for business meetings, but it was NOT because being abroad for business meetings does not count, but because he did not otherwise meet the requirements for getting the credit (for multiple reasons -- among other factors, this PR's real "
job" was working abroad with no real position in Canada).
The key is whether the travel abroad to work (including attending business meetings) is pursuant to a temporary assignment by the PR's full-time employer, an employer meeting the definition of "Canadian business," the PR-employment relationship being full time, the work outside Canada being pursuant to a temporary assignment. Labels like "business trip" or "business meetings" are not dispositive and, actually, do not illuminate much.
So, similarly, attending business meetings outside Canada will not, not in itself, mean the days abroad for business trips will count . . . what matters is whether the PR's work abroad meets all the elements of being in a full-time employment relationship with a qualifying Canadian employer and being temporarily assigned to do that work abroad.
In particular, there is nothing about an assignment to attend business meetings outside Canada that will preclude that temporary assignment from getting the
working-abroad-for-Canadian-business-credit toward PR RO. There is no real, substantive difference between being assigned to attend sales or marketing or project development meetings, than there is in being assigned to assist installing or performing maintenance on sophisticated equipment the Canadian business has sold to a client abroad (typical assignment for some technicians), or to provide consulting services (typical assignment for some engineers).
There is no relevant difference, in terms of whether the credit is allowed, between a three-day temporary assignment versus a three-month temporary assignment. (Noting that actually the longer the assignment, such as for years, the more it might look like being
reassigned, as in not a temporary assignment but being given a more or less permanent position abroad, which will not qualify for the credit.)
None of which means that qualifying for this credit is easy for a PR who actually needs the credit. After all, qualifying for the credit depends in significant part on the PR being established in a job located in Canada, which would usually mean easily being in Canada long enough to meet the RO without counting days working abroad.
Many of those PRs who believe they will get this credit, but don't, are self-employed or working for a close family business, or for a business that is only ostensibly a Canadian business but in substance its operations are mostly outside Canada (it is not enough that the business is incorporated or licensed in Canada; maintaining an office in Canada does not make it a qualifying "
Canadian business"). Others who fail to qualify for the credit, just as another example, are those whose position abroad is not a temporary assignment but rather more or less a type of local employment.
