Proving Canadian work experience on Express Entry application

[Bloodrose]

Hi everyone,

5 years ago I worked in Canada for approximately 13 months as an IT professional for 2 separate employers.

Job 1: 2 months were on a short-term contract through a sub-contracting agency and based at a client site. I was an employee of the sub-contracting agency.

Job 2: 11 months of those were with a large international company as a direct employee on a temporary contract. I was an employee of the company where I worked.

Both jobs fit comfortably within a B-level NOC code.

I am looking to gather evidence of this so that I can claim points for Canadian work experience on CRS. The problem is that the agency who hired me for Job 1 have since gone out of business. I have tried to contact the guy who hired me through email and Linked In but have not received a reply on either (his email address no longer works at all).

Paperwork that I currently have for Job 1:

Copy of initial work schedule employment contract for period of 1 month (this was extended but I never signed a second employment contract). Contract includes job title and hourly rate paid.
Emails from the sub-contracting agency and their client outlining basics of duties at the client site.
1 pay stub and emails detailing number of hours worked per week.
Recent emails and LinkedIn messages sent to sub-contracting agency recruiter and local manager at the client site. Emails sent to both received automatic undeliverable replies.
Recent emails from the contractor who paid the sub-contractor who hired me stating that I was an employee of the sub-contractor and not them and therefore they do not hold any records of my employment.

Paperwork that I currently don't have for Job 1:

Record of Employment (RoE).
Formal job description.
Reference letter.
Tax forms (the 1 pay stub that I did receive via email suggested that tax deductions were being taken from my pay).

I understand that I can request copies of RoE and T4 tax forms from Service Canada although doing so could be difficult as I am now overseas and my SIN expired some time ago.

Can anybody offer any advice? I absolutely do not want to defraud or mislead anyone. I worked legally in Canada and as far as I know everything was totally legitimate. It is just proving difficult to obtain the usual documents without any responses coming from the sub-contractor who hired me. He is particularly active on social media so I know that he is still alive and working as a tech recruiter however for some reason he just doesn't want to respond to me. He has since re-established his own recruitment company only under a slightly different name and the company does not seem to have any formal web presence at all.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kryt0n]

All CIC want are reference letters. In theory that's the only thing you will need to submit.

If you have extra documents, great.

If you don't have a reference letter then you need to provide substantial evidence to back up your claim.

Oh and you can access your old T4's etc. Call CRA and get set up with online access.

 

[Bloodrose]

All CIC want are reference letters. In theory that's the only thing you will need to submit.

If you have extra documents, great.

If you don't have a reference letter then you need to provide substantial evidence to back up your claim.

Oh and you can access your old T4's etc. Call CRA and get set up with online access.

Thanks for the quick reply. I am planning to call the CRA and get the T4 and RoE forms because the online systems won't work for me (presumably because my SIN expired several years ago).

The key problem is getting the reference letter or a job description. The actual company that hired me doesn't exist anymore and the sub-contracting agent who hired me has gone dark. His employer (a contracted IT outsourcing company) don't have any documents on me because they didn't directly hire me and the only contact I had at the site I was working no longer has a working email address. Her LinkedIn account states that she still works there but her email address doesn't work. There was one other lady who I reported to when I first got there but she now works at a different company and in a different city.

There was talk when I worked there that the setup was somewhat complicated with the pay changing hands quite a few times before it trickled down to me at the end but I thought very little of it at the time, namely because it was my first job in Canada and I had other opportunities on the horizon at the time. I applied for the job based on a Craigslist ad and was interviewed over the phone so I never actually received a formal job description.

 

[DelPiero07]

Thanks for the quick reply. I am planning to call the CRA and get the T4 and RoE forms because the online systems won't work for me (presumably because my SIN expired several years ago).

The key problem is getting the reference letter or a job description. The actual company that hired me doesn't exist anymore and the sub-contracting agent who hired me has gone dark. His employer (a contracted IT outsourcing company) don't have any documents on me because they didn't directly hire me and the only contact I had at the site I was working no longer has a working email address. Her LinkedIn account states that she still works there but her email address doesn't work. There was one other lady who I reported to when I first got there but she now works at a different company and in a different city.

There was talk when I worked there that the setup was somewhat complicated with the pay changing hands quite a few times before it trickled down to me at the end but I thought very little of it at the time, namely because it was my first job in Canada and I had other opportunities on the horizon at the time. I applied for the job based on a Craigslist ad and was interviewed over the phone so I never actually received a formal job description.

If you're unable to get a reference letter or even a notarized self-declaration from a former colleague or manager stating your duties and responsibilities then I can only wish you good luck.

 

[Bloodrose]

If you're unable to get a reference letter or even a notarized self-declaration from a former colleague or manager stating your duties and responsibilities then I can only wish you good luck.

Really? It's such a shame because it is just to cover one month. I do have the contact details for a couple of people who worked there with me back in the day and I could ask them to draft something up if it helps but it is just really annoying because the guy who hired me doesn't want to know and all of my efforts to reach out to those involved have so far been for nothing. Based on my current location I can't exactly just wander up to the sub-contractor's registered office address and ask in person either.

 

[Bloodrose]

Incidentally, what kind of notarization is required on these documents?

 

[DelPiero07]

Really? It's such a shame because it is just to cover one month. I do have the contact details for a couple of people who worked there with me back in the day and I could ask them to draft something up if it helps but it is just really annoying because the guy who hired me doesn't want to know and all of my efforts to reach out to those involved have so far been for nothing. Based on my current location I can't exactly just wander up to the sub-contractor's registered office address and ask in person either.

The bolded part works as long as you notarize this document.

 

[Bloodrose]

How would I get it notarized considering they are in Toronto (still I presume) and I am in Europe. Could they email it to me and I can take care of notarization locally somehow?

 

[Bloodrose]

OK I have been in contact with a former colleague who is happy to provide a letter stating the dates that we worked there together, the duties we performed etc. I just have 2 questions if that's OK:

1. Does anybody have a template for that kind of peer-based reference letter?
2. How would I go about getting it notarised (if it needs to be) since a notary republic cannot really do that? To my knowledge, they usually just notarise copies of official documents (e.g. passports). They can't notarise a letter from someone because there is nothing to really notarise it against.

 

[jes_ON]

How would I get it notarized considering they are in Toronto (still I presume) and I am in Europe. Could they email it to me and I can take care of notarization locally somehow?

No, you do not need to get the letters notarized. As long as the individual provides valid contact information and IRCC can follow up if desired, then it is not a problem.

BTW - 'notarized' means the original document is signed in front of ("witnessed") by a notary public, so the letter-writer would have to go through that hassle (if you insisted); in Toronto, each page notarized costs about $40. So it's a good thing IRCC no longer requires this : )

 

[jes_ON]

OK I have been in contact with a former colleague who is happy to provide a letter stating the dates that we worked there together, the duties we performed etc. I just have 2 questions if that's OK:

That's all you need / would expect from a former colleague. Format doesn't really matter. Again, be sure to have your colleague provide current contact information.

 

[Bloodrose]

That's all you need / would expect from a former colleague. Format doesn't really matter. Again, be sure to have your colleague provide current contact information.

He can definitely do that. He is more than happy for them to contact him for verification if needed.

So if I included the following:

Letter from colleague outlining duties, reference etc.
Employment contract detailing job title and pay rate.
Explanation letter and accompanying email correspondence stating that the agency have since ceased trading and my attempts to contact them.

Would that be sufficient?

 

[jes_ON]

He can definitely do that. He is more than happy for them to contact him for verification if needed.

So if I included the following:

Letter from colleague outlining duties, reference etc.
Employment contract detailing job title and pay rate.
Explanation letter and accompanying email correspondence stating that the agency have since ceased trading and my attempts to contact them.

Would that be sufficient?

No, you still need to get the T4, NOA, record of employment if possible, because you need some kind of independent verification of the length of employment, wage/salary, etc.

But if you have those documents plus the above list, I'd say you have a good chance. Never any guarantees, tho.

 

[Bloodrose]

No, you do not need to get the letters notarized. As long as the individual provides valid contact information and IRCC can follow up if desired, then it is not a problem.

BTW - 'notarized' means the original document is signed in front of ("witnessed") by a notary public, so the letter-writer would have to go through that hassle (if you insisted); in Toronto, each page notarized costs about $40. So it's a good thing IRCC no longer requires this : )

Yeah I know. Some lawyers and others provide that here and it unfortunately costs more than $40 more often than not. I think we have only ever needed it though when my girlfriend needed a notarised copy of her passport for a bank application.

I was wondering how that process would work for a letter tbh. They would basically just be charging ypu $40 to say 'yeah, I've read this'.

 

[Bloodrose]

No, you still need to get the T4, NOA, record of employment if possible, because you need some kind of independent verification of the length of employment, wage/salary, etc.

But if you have those documents plus the above list, I'd say you have a good chance. Never any guarantees, tho.

Thanks. I will speak with the CRA about a copy of the T4. Presumably they can provide a copy of the NOA as well? The agency never sent anything like that to me when I left.

I've also been told that Service Canada can provide a copy of my ROE however the online portals aren't working for me. I assume that is because my SIN expired several years ago.