Remotely working in Canada on PGWP while travelling abroad - does that count towards 1560?

[Ahmisht]

I just realized that a significant portion of my 1560 hours of Canadian Work Experience for CEC (about 400 hours) was gained while I was travelling (I went back to my home country for 5 months). My work (Research Assistant at a Canadian University) was done remotely and my supervisors had no problem with me working from my home country. Is this going to be a problem? I was on PGWP and I started the job while present in Canda.

Will IRCC not count those hours towards my total? I feel like it shouldn't be an issue, since I had a valid PGWP and my supervisors were aware that I was travelling. Should I get them to mention it in my reference letter? Or should I just ignore it?

 

[Naturgrl]

I just realized that a significant portion of my 1560 hours of Canadian Work Experience for CEC (about 400 hours) was gained while I was travelling (I went back to my home country for 5 months). My work (Research Assistant at a Canadian University) was done remotely and my supervisors had no problem with me working from my home country. Is this going to be a problem? I was on PGWP and I started the job while present in Canda.

Will IRCC not count those hours towards my total? I feel like it shouldn't be an issue, since I had a valid PGWP and my supervisors were aware that I was travelling. Should I get them to mention it in my reference letter? Or should I just ignore it?

No your Canadian experience must be IN Canada (read CEC rules), so you don’t count the work while outside the country. Remote work doesn’t count. The only way it would count is if your employer had an office where you moved to and applied for a transfer to that foreign office.

 

[scylla]

I just realized that a significant portion of my 1560 hours of Canadian Work Experience for CEC (about 400 hours) was gained while I was travelling (I went back to my home country for 5 months). My work (Research Assistant at a Canadian University) was done remotely and my supervisors had no problem with me working from my home country. Is this going to be a problem? I was on PGWP and I started the job while present in Canda.

Will IRCC not count those hours towards my total? I feel like it shouldn't be an issue, since I had a valid PGWP and my supervisors were aware that I was travelling. Should I get them to mention it in my reference letter? Or should I just ignore it?

The 400 hours will count as foreign work experience. You unfortunately cannot count this towards the 1560 hours for Canadian work experience.

 

[Ahmisht]

The 400 hours will count as foreign work experience. You unfortunately cannot count this towards the 1560 hours for Canadian work experience.

Okay, without the 400 hours, I am barely hovering over the 1560 hours. Should I ask my employer to clarify in the ref. letter that those 400 hours were completed outside Canada? Or should I ask them to completely remove that from the letter? Without the 400 hours, I have 1590 hours, and that is me scaping my part time hours. I am wondering if I should decline my ITA and apply again - the advantage would be I'd then have a whole month of full time work ... not sure what to do really. My CRS is 496.

 

[scylla]

Okay, without the 400 hours, I am barely hovering over the 1560 hours. Should I ask my employer to clarify in the ref. letter that those 400 hours were completed outside Canada? Or should I ask them to completely remove that from the letter? Without the 400 hours, I have 1590 hours, and that is me scaping my part time hours. I am wondering if I should decline my ITA and apply again - the advantage would be I'd then have a whole month of full time work ... not sure what to do really. My CRS is 496.

Make sure you are doing the math on the hours right.

Remove the 400 hours from the calculation entirey (i.e. drop the hours that were completed outside of Canada)

For the hours you have left that were actually completed in Canada:
- for every week where you have 30+ hours of work experience = count this as 1 single week
- for all of your part time weeks, add up the total # of hours and divide by 30
- add #1 and #2 together and make sure they equal at least 52
- if they do not, then decline ITA

 

[Ahmisht]

Make sure you are doing the math on the hours right.

Remove the 400 hours from the calculation entirey (i.e. drop the hours that were completed outside of Canada)

For the hours you have left that were actually completed in Canada:
- for every week where you have 30+ hours of work experience = count this as 1 single week
- for all of your part time weeks, add up the total # of hours and divide by 30
- add #1 and #2 together and make sure they equal at least 52
- if they do not, then decline ITA

Hi scylla,

Thanks, yes, I have done the calculation exactly like you did. Can I ask, where do I show this calculation as it is not clear in my case. I had two jobs - one fulltime (continuing and it is the simpler one) and one previous part-time job (which is more complex as it had many gaps when there was no work). I can easily show the calculation of 1560 hours or 52 weeks in a letter of explanation. Also, my part-time job ref letter will mention total part-time hours. Will that do it?

 

[scylla]

Hi scylla,

Thanks, yes, I have done the calculation exactly like you did. Can I ask, where do I show this calculation as it is not clear in my case. I had two jobs - one fulltime (continuing and it is the simpler one) and one previous part-time job (which is more complex as it had many gaps when there was no work). I can easily show the calculation of 1560 hours or 52 weeks in a letter of explanation. Also, my part-time job ref letter will mention total part-time hours. Will that do it?

Your full time job should indicate you worked full time hours.

Total part time hours are fine for your part time job.

You should include an LOE to explain that 400 of the full time hours were outside of Canada and cannot be counted towards Canadian work experience.