Proof of Work Experience Advice

[Rojito]

Hello.

I'm a civil engineer from the UK with just over 3 years experience. I'm very keen to apply for express entry but i have a bit of a dilemma and was hoping someone might be able to help.

I have 2 years experience from previous employment, therefore getting the reference letter for these shouldn't be too difficult (i hope). I'm worried about getting the reference for my current employment. I work for a very small consultancy where my boss is the owner. Letting him know that i am applying for this will be a shock and probably very awkward thereafter, especially as there is no guarantee of getting accepted for permanent residence. My question is:

Is it possible / advisable to apply being fully compliant with my 2 years previous employment, and then get as much evidence as possible for my current employment (without the employment reference letter)? Has anyone had a similar experience and been through the process?

Apologies if other threads answer this question. Thank you.

 

[crescent_jam]

Hello.

I'm a civil engineer from the UK with just over 3 years experience. I'm very keen to apply for express entry but i have a bit of a dilemma and was hoping someone might be able to help.

I have 2 years experience from previous employment, therefore getting the reference letter for these shouldn't be too difficult (i hope). I'm worried about getting the reference for my current employment. I work for a very small consultancy where my boss is the owner. Letting him know that i am applying for this will be a shock and probably very awkward thereafter, especially as there is no guarantee of getting accepted for permanent residence. My question is:

Is it possible / advisable to apply being fully compliant with my 2 years previous employment, and then get as much evidence as possible for my current employment (without the employment reference letter)? Has anyone had a similar experience and been through the process?

Apologies if other threads answer this question. Thank you.

This is a very common problem on the forum
A reference letter is still the best idea, but one way you can try to go about it is by telling your boss that you need the letter to apply for a temporary resident (visitor's) visa because you want to visit Canada on vacation.

If it's a small consultancy, he probably won't know the major differences between a reference letter for a visitor's visa and the letter that's usually requested for a permanent residency application (the permanent residency application reference letter has to have a list of job duties and responsibilities - it's the most important of the requirements). But if you are worried he will pick up on this, when you ask him to include the job duties and responsibilities, you can get the visitor's visa reference letter, and then try to satisfy the job duties and responsibilities requirement in other ways.

Other ways include:

• providing your official job description (if your Company provides these for employees)
• providing a copy of your original contract of employment (or a recent promotion letter or an annual salary letter, or something like that) if it outlines your job duties and responsibilities
• getting a colleague to write an affidavit declaring your job duties and responsibilities (and then including evidence that your colleague is an employee of the Company - e.g. business card or company ID)

You should NOT provide a self-declaration of job duties and responsibilities though. This is unlikely to be accepted.

At the end of the day, the complete reference letter written to IRCC's specifications, including the job duties and responsibilities, is always the best way to go, but, in situations where this isn't possible, there are always ways to work around it

 

[Rojito]

This is a very common problem on the forum
A reference letter is still the best idea, but one way you can try to go about it is by telling your boss that you need the letter to apply for a temporary resident (visitor's) visa because you want to visit Canada on vacation.

If it's a small consultancy, he probably won't know the major differences between a reference letter for a visitor's visa and the letter that's usually requested for a permanent residency application (the permanent residency application reference letter has to have a list of job duties and responsibilities - it's the most important of the requirements). But if you are worried he will pick up on this, when you ask him to include the job duties and responsibilities, you can get the visitor's visa reference letter, and then try to satisfy the job duties and responsibilities requirement in other ways.

Other ways include:

• providing your official job description (if your Company provides these for employees)
• providing a copy of your original contract of employment (or a recent promotion letter or an annual salary letter, or something like that) if it outlines your job duties and responsibilities
• getting a colleague to write an affidavit declaring your job duties and responsibilities (and then including evidence that your colleague is an employee of the Company - e.g. business card or company ID)

You should NOT provide a self-declaration of job duties and responsibilities though. This is unlikely to be accepted.

At the end of the day, the complete reference letter written to IRCC's specifications, including the job duties and responsibilities, is always the best way to go, but, in situations where this isn't possible, there are always ways to work around it

Thank you. My boss is very smart and it would probably be difficult to not let it be obvious that there was something suspicious. I don't particularly want to burn my bridges so maybe i will just have to bite the bullet and be honest about the whole thing. The other options you mentioned are annoyingly not that easy for me to get hold of.

If i decide to pursue the PR through EE, would you advise to request this letter after receiving ITA? Or would it be better to do that beforehand? I need to get my education assessed first which takes a while. Just trying to figure out when i would have to go through with this lol

 

[Ayeshaazhar]

you can provide a notarized self declaration of job duties and responsibilities. this will be accepted if it is notarized. the only case where self declaration does not work is where if it is not notarized or where the applicant is self employed

read the discussion here regarding notarized self declaration. bear in mind that this will only work if you have a valid reason

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/is-ther-any-alternatives-for-reference-letter.307203/

 

[moose17]

I don't know how it is in the UK but in the US it's common to get this type of letter for loan applications. When we went through this I asked a friend in HR and she said no one in HR would bat an eye at a general request for this letter with no reason or a vague reason given - and we had no trouble doing so ourselves. A boss will be more awkward but assuming proof of employment letters for financial matters are common in the UK too you should be fine.

 

[fordori]

Be careful about tricking your boss into signing something without him being fully aware of its purpose.

CIC is likely to call him for verification specially if it's a small company. If he doesn't confirm everything you claim you may end up with a mispresesentation charge in the worst case scenario. Or best case scenario in this turn of events is that your boss does confirm everything to CIC but realizes you lied to him, which can make for a very awkward dynamic until you leave.

If I were you, I would just wait until the very end after you do get an ITA and tell him the truth. Not easy but it's the safest route in my opinion.

 

[mira_johnson]

Similar issue. So awkward. However, you do not, in my opinion, need to tell your employer exactly why you need a reference letter from them. You may want to tell them something general like "you would like proofs of your employment" without going into more detail because it could be about anything; bank purposes, tax purposes, rental purposes, visa purposes... whatever you do, just do not LIE and make up stuff that isn't true. If anything, just don't tell the ENTIRE truth. Also, look up employment laws in your country, to make yourself aware of your employment rights or lack of. You might have nothing to worry about, even if you decided to give your employer the entire truth.