Student Work Experience Question

[Curious_Man]

Hi everyone,

I have the following question:

During my Masters degree as part of my thesis at a UK university I was asked to work on a consultancy project with my professor and a couple of other students. I have a reference letter from my professor stating the working hours (35 per week), the roughly 3 month timeframe and all my duties set out. I wasn't paid a lot for the project, but I was compensated for it (just over £1000), I have bank receipts showing this and it's also set out in my reference.

The resulting circa 100 page study is also published online and has my name as co-author on the cover page.

My questions are:
- If the reference meets every criteria set out by the IRCC, could it be rejected just because it wasn't paid at corresponding full-time market rates?
- Could it be rejected because it was only a couple of months of experience?
- As my university is quite large, I'm not sure if the company letter headed paper's generic number would have my details, but my department and professor would... Would the IRCC take the trouble to get connected? (might be a stupid question but I'm not leaving anything to chance! )

Many thanks for your answers in advance,
Curious man

 

[scylla]

Hi everyone,

I have the following question:

During my Masters degree as part of my thesis at a UK university I was asked to work on a consultancy project with my professor and a couple of other students. I have a reference letter from my professor stating the working hours (35 per week), the roughly 3 month timeframe and all my duties set out. I wasn't paid a lot for the project, but I was compensated for it (just over £1000), I have bank receipts showing this and it's also set out in my reference.

The resulting circa 100 page study is also published online and has my name as co-author on the cover page.

My questions are:
- If the reference meets every criteria set out by the IRCC, could it be rejected just because it wasn't paid at corresponding full-time market rates?
- Could it be rejected because it was only a couple of months of experience?
- As my university is quite large, I'm not sure if the company letter headed paper's generic number would have my details, but my department and professor would... Would the IRCC take the trouble to get connected? (might be a stupid question but I'm not leaving anything to chance! )

Many thanks for your answers in advance,
Curious man

You need to have been paid a regular salary to count the work experience. Yes, your work experience can certainly be rejected if you weren't paid full-time market rates. IRCC will require your salary details to be included in the job experience letter and you may also need to provide pay stubs. So they will know how much you were paid. You can't really "hide" how much you were paid and you certainly don't want to lie about this (that would put you at risk for a 5 year misrepresentation ban).

 

[Curious_Man]

You need to have been paid a regular salary to count the work experience. Yes, your work experience can certainly be rejected if you weren't paid full-time market rates. IRCC will require your salary details to be included in the job experience letter and you may also need to provide pay stubs. So they will know how much you were paid. You can't really "hide" how much you were paid and you certainly don't want to lie about this (that would put you at risk for a 5 year misrepresentation ban).

Hi, thanks for your answer. I have no intention of lying whatsoever, there’s nothing to lie about.
So if I was compensated for the project in one payment that wouldn’t count as work experience?

In terms of the rate I was paid, it was great considering I had no plans on making any money, the experience was excellent and it helped me land my first job. Does it say somewhere that the rate you get paid can lead to a rejection?