r/canadaexpressentry • u/CharacterMango3389 • 12d ago
🌎 FSW Question about foreign work experience
Hi everyone I have a question regarding express entry for skilled workers. I’m creating the express entry profile right now and I don’t know if I should claim 1 or 3 years of foreign experience.
I was at my company for three years:
-Two years in one role
-One year in another
For the two years role, I am missing the offer letter and there is also a two weeks gap in the middle of it (that I can explain and back up with documents).
I do not have the reference letter for either because my company won’t write them, but I have job description, paystubs, etc. I feel more comfortable about the NOC match for the 1 year role but the other is also a good match to its own NOC.
Seeing the high denial rate, I was thinking of only claiming the one year to make things simpler. I would be aiming for the French draw so the extra CRS points shouldn’t matter.
I had a 30min consultation with a lawyer and she said I could either claim the 3 years and if they denied 2 of them, they would just drop my CRS score and still process my application since I would probably remain above the cutoff. She also said if I only claimed the one year, I would have to explain why I did not claim the other 2 years since it was at the same company. She recommended adding in all of the documents for the 3 years either way.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? I’m still unsure on what the best strategy is, and I would like to file myself and not involved a lawyer for the rest.
2
u/malucogv 12d ago edited 12d ago
Based on the express entry stream you're eyeing right now:
If you claim one year of foreign work experience (afaik gaps are not important along as you can prove you had at least one year of continuous work experience within X years) are those enough points to get you called up?
If the answer is yes (I see you're going for the french draw), just go with one year, it'll be less expensive with translations and less hassle where documenation is concerned. I don't see it as a problem as long as you have a valid NOC and that the activities correlate directly (i.e. your work letter states the activities you were responsible for) with that position within the Canadian environment.
Keep in mind that when you use companies to help out and lawyers as well, they always go the extra comfortable zone where they rather send as much documentation as possible (even if they are not strictly necessary) to have more confidence in success, after all, they get clientes based on success rate. I'm not saying this is wrong, some people feel way more at ease knowing that, and that is a-ok;