Self Employment Issue

[chrisvaldez]

Hi guys, I'm hoping someone can help. My wife and I are in the throes of trying to immigrate to Canada. However, the main stumbling block is that I have been self employed for seven years. I have run two businesses simultaneously, as I didn't want to go down the company formation route. Now I am seeing that the requirement to have 1500+ hours of experience could be an issue. I am quite happy to form my own Ltd company in the UK and turn myself into an employee, but could I then only count hours of experience from that point on or could I then tot up all my hours of paid work and satisfy the requirement? Thanks in advance.

 

[primaprime]

Articles of incorporation/formal business ownership are important. You may be able to go based off tax documents that prove self-employment income and documents from clients attesting to the services provided, such as contracts or invoices, but it will be more difficult.

 

[BC4life]

You may be able to get clients sign off on work that you have done. But ideally you should have incorporated and paid yourself a salary if your plan was to immigrate.

I was in the same shoes prior to moving to Canada as I was running my own businesses. But I have been incorporated for close to 10 years at the time, paid myself a salary each month as other employees from one of these businesses, and have up to date tax fillings. I had zero issue when applying for PR.