Will a full time Co-op term after graduation count towards CEC?

[munis]

Hello, I would really appreciate some feedback with regards to my situation.

In the last semester of my 4th year at university, I got a co-op offer. I just had an online course left, so I started the co-op term on Sep 2016 while completing my online course.. End of December 2016, I completed my online course and completed my requirements for graduation while on the co-op. So I applied for my PGWP and got it on March 2017 while I had an open work permit valid till May 2017. Since I was involved with some pretty big projects, the company extended my co-op term till Aug 2017 and I completed it using my PGWP.

My question is, will my Co-op work experience period from March 2017 (month on which PGWP was received) to Aug 2017, count towards the 12 months of minimum full time experience required for applying under CEC? Please note my co-op was a full time work consisting of 40hrs/wk.

Will really appreciate the help!

 

[munis]

Bump!

 

[msmahmood]

As far as I know, for you to be able to claim that experience, your employment letter cannot mention that you were a co-op for March to May.
Also, I am sure the way companies file taxes for Coop students vs regular employee is different, if your company claimed your salary as Coop then that would be a red flag too.
Basically, if its ONLY a title difference, that your title was COOP but everything else from the employment side was the same it would have been for any other regular employee, only then would you be able to claim your experience.
In my opinion, i wouldn't claim this, Coop by default is not counted as work experience in CIC's eyes.

 

[munis]

As far as I know, for you to be able to claim that experience, your employment letter cannot mention that you were a co-op for March to May.
Also, I am sure the way companies file taxes for Coop students vs regular employee is different, if your company claimed your salary as Coop then that would be a red flag too.
Basically, if its ONLY a title difference, that your title was COOP but everything else from the employment side was the same it would have been for any other regular employee, only then would you be able to claim your experience.
In my opinion, i wouldn't claim this, Coop by default is not counted as work experience in CIC's eyes.

Thanks for your feedback. I was just wondering if you can explain a little bit more why my tittle cannot be a coop from March to May? Does not PGWP override the open work permit I previously had? I do not know how my company claimed my coop, I will check, I think it was like a regular employee because they were well aware of my situation and they chose to continue my coop. Well I dunno, this would have just meant I can apply 5 months sooner.

May be not worth the risk like you said. But if I do apply by claiming this experience and they do not accept it, do I have anything to loose?

 

[msmahmood]

Thanks for your feedback. I was just wondering if you can explain a little bit more why my tittle cannot be a coop from March to May? Does not PGWP override the open work permit I previously had? I do not know how my company claimed my coop, I will check, I think it was like a regular employee because they were well aware of my situation and they chose to continue my coop. Well I dunno, this would have just meant I can apply 5 months sooner.

May be not worth the risk like you said. But if I do apply by claiming this experience and they do not accept it, do I have anything to loose?

COOP is considered part of studies, and not work, if you're working as a coop your technically studying. I am not sure the fact that your worked as COOP on PGWP changes anything, this is all a very Grey area. You may want to discuss this with a lawyer.
What do you have to lose? well, if they don't accept your work experience, they will Reject your PR application, and rejection is never good and I would definitely consider it a loss.

Again, I am not entirely sure of the specifics, but I do know the way COOP placement works and regular employment works is different, and I personally would exercise patience if I were in your place.

 

[Bs65]

A Coop is obviously an integral part of a study program and usually until the Coop period has completed a student would not graduate so that makes it somewhat confusing how the OP applied for and got a PGWP in March 2017 but was supposedly still on a Coop until August 2017 given a PGWP is obviously only granted post course completion/graduation.

Seems questionable whether the OP was still on a Coop and maybe (just speculating) the employer felt it more convenient from an employer viewpoint for whatever reason to keep the OP on the books appearing as though they were still a Coop employee when technically having already graduated they really were not but an actual employee on a PGWP.

Seems a better explanation required from the employer, for sure do not want to claim for time that is not as it seems given that could just lead to a rejection.

 

[msmahmood]

A Coop is obviously an integral part of a study program and usually until the Coop period has completed a student would not graduate so that makes it somewhat confusing how the OP applied for and got a PGWP in March 2017 but was supposedly still on a Coop until August 2017 given a PGWP is obviously only granted post course completion/graduation.

OP formally graduated in 2016 and got PGWP in March(all while working as a COOP), the PGWP part makes sense to me.
What is unclear is that did OP's employer simply extend OP's previous contract or changed it to a regular employee? an explanation is definitely required from the employer, me thinks a company wouldn't have gone through the hassle of changing OP's employment in their books.

 

[jes_ON]

Thanks for your feedback. I was just wondering if you can explain a little bit more why my tittle cannot be a coop from March to May? Does not PGWP override the open work permit I previously had? I do not know how my company claimed my coop, I will check, I think it was like a regular employee because they were well aware of my situation and they chose to continue my coop. Well I dunno, this would have just meant I can apply 5 months sooner.

May be not worth the risk like you said. But if I do apply by claiming this experience and they do not accept it, do I have anything to loose?

Co-op employment is specifically student employment that is supposed to be related to your study program - with tax incentives for the employer. If you are not a student, you cannot be co-op, and that is why IRCC specifically excludes co-op employment (because they exclude student work experience). If your employer is actually claiming you as a co-op placement even though you are no longer a student, then they may be cheating on taxes and your terms of employment.

It is possible that they are just using the term "co-op" when they mean "intern" - you can be an intern after graduation, and some people do not know the difference and mistakenly use the word co-op.

You might want to have a conversation with your employer, it may just be a simple misunderstanding.

Others have been in your shoes before, but I do not know the outcome. Likely if you call it "co-op" IRCC will exclude it, even if you had your PGWP, because co-op is like a trigger word : ) If you do not call it co-op, it will likely be OK.

 

[munis]

OP formally graduated in 2016 and got PGWP in March(all while working as a COOP), the PGWP part makes sense to me.
What is unclear is that did OP's employer simply extend OP's previous contract or changed it to a regular employee? an explanation is definitely required from the employer, me thinks a company wouldn't have gone through the hassle of changing OP's employment in their books.

At the beginning my coop was just supposed to last for 4 months (till December 2016) and that is when I technically completed all my requirements for graduation. I took a letter from my university stating I have completed all the requirements and applied for PGWP using that letter. Meanwhile around end of December, 2016, I was involved with two pretty big projects and my company wanted to extend my co-op term to Aug 2017. The HR told me, once I start a co-op work, I am allowed to finish it using my Open work permit. Having my PGWP was a plus point because PGWP basically lets me do any kind of work as far as I was aware at the time. The company was a big one, and I hoped that just doing their co-op would eventually result in a full time placement, so I continued my work.

At that time, I did not think about PR, so I just continued the coop. But now that I look back, if I could count those 5 months from March to August, well I can apply next month. The safer alternative like you guys are saying, is to just keep working for 5 more months, and apply with the full time experience I have that is not under any kind of dispute.

 

[flyingpbandj]

Co-op from September to December, and Intern from January until Aug? That's how I would consider it, but that's just me. It would really depend on your reference letter from your employer

 

[munis]

Co-op from September to December, and Intern from January until Aug? That's how I would consider it, but that's just me. It would really depend on your reference letter from your employer

I might be able to convince my employer to reword my employment letter. But the ROE that was issued to me already says University Co-op Student.

 

[flyingpbandj]

I might be able to convince my employer to reword my employment letter. But the ROE that was issued to me already says University Co-op Student.

Yeah... In that case is a little bit more complicated because as mentioned above you are not meant to be co-op if you are not a student

 

[munis]

Yeah... In that case is a little bit more complicated because as mentioned above you are not meant to be co-op if you are not a student

Yeah, it is not giving me a good feeling. Reading all the feedback you guys gave me, I think I am just going to wait it out and apply in October 2018 with proper full time work experience. My PGWP expires on March 2020. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the feedback once again! It really helped.

 

[jes_ON]

Yeah, it is not giving me a good feeling. Reading all the feedback you guys gave me, I think I am just going to wait it out and apply in October 2018 with proper full time work experience. My PGWP expires on March 2020. What do you guys think?

I think you have plenty of time, and your patience will be rewarded : )

 

[vmk14]

So what was the outcome of it? I have been offered a full time position in my last semester. I am thinking to consider it as co op after taking necessary permission from my program co ordinator. But once I graduate, I can't work on co op so my employer will have to issue a new letter on my pgwp? What is the solution