WORK EXPERIENCE GAP - FREELANCE WORK

[colcol]

Hi! I have these questions relating the work experience requirement for FSW.

I got my ITA in May, where I got 460 points in CRS, thanks to an 8.5 IELTS, a "two or more certificates" ECA result and 3+ years foreign work experience.

A. As an illustrator I have had periods of freelancing with various clients, followed by periods of full time employment. Since the periods of freelancing would be all to cumbersome to certify, I am temporarily listing them in the personal history under the UNEMPLOYMENT category, with the description "various freelance work for short projects". Is this appropriate? do you have any better suggestions?

B. I'll list here my history summary and I would like to know from the experts of this site if this is appropriate for claiming 3 years of experience.

1. 6 months full time job in 2010 NOC 5241- two consecutive employers (no gap between them, I left the first job in the morning and was already at the other place by the afternoon)
2. 11 months of freelancing in 2011 NOC 5241
3. 13 months full time job in 2011-2012 NOC 5241
4. 16 months of freelancing in 2013-2014 NOC 5241
5. 24 months - 12hours/week job in 2014-2016 NOC 4021 (I was a teacher in college, while freelancing more in my free time. the hours are only for the college job)
6. 3 months full time job in 2016 NOC 5241
7. 3 months of freelancing in 2016 NOC 5241
8. 6 months full time job in 2017 NOC 5241
9. 16 months of freelancing in 2017-2018 NOC 5241
10. 10 months full time job from mid 2018 to date NOC 5241

Thank you in advance for all your valuable input

 

[21Goose]

Yes, this is fine. You have 1+ year of continuous work ex. and 3+ years of overall work ex. in the same NOC in the past 10 years.

You can put all your freelancing gigs in your personal history.

 

[colcol]

thank you for your lightning fast answer

so... personal history would look like this

2010-06 - 2010-08 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2010-08 - 2010-12 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2010-12 - 2011-11 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2011-11 - 2012-12 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2012-12 - 2014-07 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2014-07 - 2016-06 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 4021 College teacher
2016-06 - 2016-09 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2016-09 - 2017-01 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2017-01 - 2017-06 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2017-06 - 2018-08 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2018-08 - - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator

Looking good? any red flags?

I put in the UNEMPLOYMENT entries the description "various freelance work for short projects"... the online form doesn't allow much more characters.

Also. I'm only providing payment proof for the last six months. All the other fields are supported by scanned job references.

 

[21Goose]

thank you for your lightning fast answer

so... personal history would look like this

2010-06 - 2010-08 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2010-08 - 2010-12 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2010-12 - 2011-11 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2011-11 - 2012-12 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2012-12 - 2014-07 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2014-07 - 2016-06 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 4021 College teacher
2016-06 - 2016-09 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2016-09 - 2017-01 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2017-01 - 2017-06 - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator
2017-06 - 2018-08 - UNEMPLOYMENT
2018-08 - - EMPLOYMENT - NOC 5241 Illustrator

Looking good? any red flags?

I put in the UNEMPLOYMENT entries the description "various freelance work for short projects"... the online form doesn't allow much more characters.

Also. I'm only providing payment proof for the last six months. All the other fields are supported by scanned job references.

You can just say "Unemployed" in the description field. It really doesn't matter, they just want to know generally what you were doing and where you lived.

Six months of payment proof - you mean you're showing six months of pay stubs, right? And also six months financial history (bank statements) that show you have the minimum settlement funds? That is fine.

 

[colcol]

You can just say "Unemployed" in the description field. It really doesn't matter, they just want to know generally what you were doing and where you lived.

Six months of payment proof - you mean you're showing six months of pay stubs, right? And also six months financial history (bank statements) that show you have the minimum settlement funds? That is fine.

Cool, thank you, unemployment it is .

I'm using the bank statements both for proof of funds and also as proof of payments, since they show the monthly deposits the company does in my account. I'm trying to cut down on the translations needed... translating both the statements and the pay stubs seems redundant. what do you think?

 

[21Goose]

Cool, thank you, unemployment it is .

I'm using the bank statements both for proof of funds and also as proof of payments, since they show the monthly deposits the company does in my account. I'm trying to cut down on the translations needed... translating both the statements and the pay stubs seems redundant. what do you think?

Nope, you need to get the pay stubs translated. That's a crucial part of proving that you actually did the job and got paid appropriately. The bank statements won't be enough.

Also, any document you submit must be translated if it's not in English/French. You can't submit a document in another language - it will get your application rejected.

 

[colcol]

Nope, you need to get the pay stubs translated. That's a crucial part of proving that you actually did the job and got paid appropriately. The bank statements won't be enough.

Also, any document you submit must be translated if it's not in English/French. You can't submit a document in another language - it will get your application rejected.

Guess I should not try to cut translation costs then yeah my bank statements are fully translated by immigration guidelines (certified copies, affidavit, the whole package) and so is everything else that came originally in Spanish. That's good advise for anyone else reading this, so thanks for pointing out anyway.

 

[colcol]

Yes, this is fine. You have 1+ year of continuous work ex. and 3+ years of overall work ex. in the same NOC in the past 10 years.

You can put all your freelancing gigs in your personal history.

After doing some research, I see know now that my recent employment periods actually fit more in the self-employed cathegory. I'd like to know your take on this:

I'm not sure how I should list my self employed experience in the work history area of the application.
From May 2016 to Sep 2017 I worked mostly for one client at a time as independent contractor, with some degree of overlapping:

06/2016 - 09/2016 ILLUSTRATOR - CLIENT 1 40hours/week
09/2016 - 01/2017 ILLUSTRATOR - CLIENT 2 24hours/week
01/2017 - 06/2017 ILLUSTRATOR - CLIENT 3 30hours/week
05/2017 - 09/2017 ILLUSTRATOR - CLIENT 4 30hours/week

Question 1: Could this count as Continuous experience? As I said, all these jobs overlapped (client 1 ended on september 24, while I client 2 started on september 10, and so on)

Question 2. There seem to be two options for uploading this experience:

option 1 Put each period as separate "employers" in the work experience, the employer being the client, and ticking the "self employed" box. As supporting documents I have reference letter, invoices, wire transfer receipts (some clients were from abroad) and bank statements.

option 2 Make one big period form 06/2016 to 09/2017 in the work experience, put FREELANCE ILLUSTRATION in the employer field, ticking the self-employed box and in the supporting document make a big document with chronologically organized documents showing: reference letter client 1 -> proofs of payment client 1 -> reference letter client 2 -> proofs of payment client 2 ... and so on. at the end I would include my chamber of commerce registration (which covers the whole period) and the affidavit of translation.

I had 13 months of experience in 2010 but I'm having trouble getting those supports, so if this freelance period counts as continuous experience, I could simply not claim experience for those 13 months, moving them to personal history.

Thanks in advance for any input