While we are not immigration consultants or officers, we are sharing information from our research since this question has been asked by many folks!
1. CIC can contact your employer or reference, that you might have stated in your letter. That is why try your best to get the letter on the letterhead.
2. CIC also asks the salary i.e. income you have received. Based on this information you provide they can compare it with the average salary for that location for that position. (If you are getting way too much or less for that position in that location they would conduct more inquiries.)
3. CIC would be reviewing multiple applications with the same NOC (a lot of times for the same company). They can draw similarities. Of course there will be differences but the core will be as per what they need in the NOC.
4. If you already have a social media profile keep it clean. If you don't have one, no need to worry. While social media is not a requirement, CIC can locate you easily since they have your detailed information. Do not have something conflicting in there.
You may also be interested -
1. Want to work on proof of work? Here you go.
2. Want to work on other parts of your application?
3. Ready to submit your application? Here are some things you should know.
This is a template you can use for securing employment letter from your employer.
<Company letter head containing name, telephone #, website of your employer> <Date>
TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN
This letter is to verify Ms./Mr. <your name> full-time (40 hours per week) employment with <your company> from <date> onwards until now. Please refer to the subsequent annexure for the employment details and responsibilities held by her.
Responsibilities handled for <Job Title 1>
1. Led a team of 5 members.
2. Prepared program plans.
3.....
Certifications acquired - CSM Duration - Jan 2009 - March 2015 Salary (per annum) - XXXXX USD Location - Smithfield, RI, USA
Responsibilities handled for <Job Title 2>
1. Business analysis of requirements
2. Interaction with stakeholders for eliciting requirements.
3.....
Certifications acquired - CSPO Duration - March 2015 - current Salary (per annum) - XXXXX USD Location - North Haven, CT, USA
I recommend <your name> to you without reservation. If you have any further questions about her work experience, background or qualifications, please do not hesitate to call me on <number> or email me at <email>.
Sincerely <Signature>
<Manager’s name> <Manager’s designation>
__________________________________________
Next steps -
1. Want tips for proof of work?
2. Want to work on other parts of your application?
3. Ready to submit your application? Here are some things you should know.
If you have skilled experience in the past 10 years and have had more than one employer, you could possibly run into the issues below -
1. Your company could have merged or acquired by another company.
2. Your company could have shutdown.
Merged/Acquired company-
Shutdown company-
For both cases you can get personal reference letters from colleagues. Refer my other blog for details on the same.
If your company was publicly traded, try to get official public letters that announced the acquisition. Use the letter of explanation to correlate your dates. For instance you worked for company A which merged into company B. All your supporting documents would be from company A. Explain that in the letter of explanation.
If your company wasn't publicly traded and you don't have any reports on company merger or shutdown, add more reference letters from different colleagues. Attach every letter i.e. joining, promotion, tax forms or salary slips (this is important because this could establish that you were employed with that company). If you didn't have significant experience in that company consider moving it to the personal information section and explain the same in your LOE. It would only minimize the hassle. Hope this helps my friends in odd situations like these!
When applying for express entry, you have to specify your NOC code for every position in your work experience. You also have to decide the primary NOC code for your application.
What is NOC and what is its significance?
NOC stands for National Occupation Code. Each of the various occupations and jobs that are applicable have been assigned a NOC code. Since you are applying as a skilled immigrant, each of the positions in your career for which you are claiming points, has to be associated with a NOC. This is the basis on which you would get an invite i.e. ITA. Remember that once you get an invite, you have to get job duties listed by your employer. So please invest time to find the correct NOC.
Primary NOC is the NOC that you would like to apply for. You should have a good deal of experience in that NOC. Since you would be working in that role, CIC would like to ensure that you are indeed going to do a skilled job and you have the experience for it.
If you have a job offer from a Canadian employer and you are claiming points for that in your express entry application, you would also need to specify the NOC for that job offer as well.
How should I find my NOC?
1. Skill level 0, A or B are considered for Express entry.
For NOC 0 check this video.
For NOC code A, check the video below. This is one of the biggest categories for which invites were sent! Codes 217, 2173, 2174 and 1112 received the highest invites.
2. Here is the list of NOC codes. You may not find the exact title that you may hold now. That's where you have to do a little bit of work.
3. Each of the NOC codes have responsibilities listed clearly. You need to compare the responsibilities of the NOC with the letter your employer might give you.
4. For every position you have take the time to research and compare the NOC.
5. Select your primary NOC carefully. You should have at least one year of skilled experience in that NOC. It is perfectly fine if you have other NOCs in your experience.
6. Your job duties may vary and may not match 100% and that is expected because every employer may have different expectations for a given title. While there is no % match mentioned on the site, it might be good to get a close match to the description of the main duties. Companies might have job positions that might have mixed duties. In my case I was a scrum master and analyst but I had more duties as an analyst but completely stated both my job duties in the letter and chose the NOC of an analyst.
7. Another thing to note is that the typical job titles are also mentioned in the NOC. Your employer may have different titles. For example, scrum master isn't a title but based on your responsibilities, you could choose a NOC of IT manager or analyst.
8. The minimum education is also stated for the NOC. Please consider that too while selecting a NOC. If that NOC needs a minimum masters and you only have higher secondary education then it might not be a good fit.
Recommendations from our research
The search functionality on the CIC site could definitely use a lot of improvements. One of our pain points was finding the correct NOC. Note that you know your job role well and so go thru the responsibilities mentioned in the NOC before using it. This is just for you to get started.
IT / Computer software job roles
IT System Analyst / Business analyst / Product owner / Security analyst / performance analyst - 2171
Scrum master / project manager / program manager- 0213
Front end developers/ UX developers - 2175
DBA / database analysts - 2172
UX designers who wireframe and create prototypes - 5241
Developers working on maintenance projects or gaming / animation works - 2174
Software architects and senior developers - 2173
Quality assurance - 2283
Operations / support technicians / LAN managers - 2281
Directors, Vice president and above - 0013
Frequently asked questions-
1. Where else do you need NOC?
NOC is required when you submit your profile i.e. you specify primary NOC and NOC for every position in your experience. If you have a job offer and using it towards getting points then your offer letter will need the NOC.
2. If you have not used any job offer towards points, do you need NOC to search jobs?
No, you don't need NOC. You search jobs normally. Here are some tips.
DISCLAIMER - This is a very subjective topic and I am stating this based on our personal experience. If you need any further assistance, please contact an immigration attorney.
Next steps - 1. Get ready to submit your express entry profile.
In order to prove that you are a skilled worker, you need provide letters from your current and previous employers in the last 10 years. This is for you to be able to provide the evidence for your proof of work. There are a couple of nuances here. If you miss those then additional questions might be raised. Not all employers will provide the experience letters as expected by Canadian authorities. Here are some handy tips.
What is the official requirement?
Please note that if you held multiple positions in a company then you are supposed to provide the responsibilities of ALL the positions in the company. For instance if you worked 10 years in a company and had 3 positions say software engineer, senior software engineer and manager, they would want all the 3 mentioned in the letter.
The letter should be on the company's letter head, with the following information -
Company address, phone number & email
Your name
Name, title and signature of immediate supervisor or official person like HR
Number of hours worked per week/month i.e. full-time or part-time
Annual salary
Dates worked for the company i.e. actively working for the company or in the past.
If you are self-employed then -
Evidence of business ownership
Documentation of service provided to clients from third-party individuals with payment details (you cannot just provide an affidavit. It has to be from someone else who received your service)
What happens if your employer doesn't give you the perfect letter?
Many times, former employer(s) have policy issues due to which they can't give you a detailed letter. In our case, our former employer had a policy to provide only the last position held in the company on the letter. So, this is what we ultimately submitted.
The letter we got from the employer that had only the latest position
We got reference letters from our colleagues and old supervisor listing our job duties for the other positions.
Added the joining and promotion letters for those positions - Since these are issued by the company, it would ensure that you actually held that job title.
Added the proof of income for those years - This will give a better confidence to the Canadian authorities on your case because you earned the legitimate pay for that position.
The number of hours per week - This is important for the IRCC to understand your number of years of skilled experience. 30 hrs per week for 12 months is considered 1 year of skilled experience. If you worked 15 hours per week for 24 months then that is considered as part-time. Refer the CIC link.
What if I don't want to include some of my experience as proof of work?
Do not omit or skip your experience in the last 10 years because your application is reviewed as a whole (Your address history, travel history, activity information along with your work experience will reveal the void if you intentionally omit it).
If you have experience that isn't skilled and you aren't claiming points for it, then you can add it as personal history.
Remember, for a given employer you have to state ALL positions (skilled and unskilled as well) in the lettee. You cannot omit any position in the letter. You may claim points only for the skilled positions.
If submitting as a family and either one in the couple isn't currently working but has experience in the last 10 years, please include it. Applications are reviewed as a whole. Couples where both are skilled have better advantage.
What additional documents can you upload?
If the company doesn't give the experience letter at all, then in addition to the above, also add the relieving letter.
In both the cases where the company doesn't give you the perfect letter or no letter at all, please attach the email that has the correspondence between you and the employer. This will show the Canadian authorities that you tried your best to procure the letter but the company didn't give it.
You have the ability to upload a letter of explanation when uploading your documents. Explain all these points in the letter so that there is no confusion. You can also add contacts of your managers or colleagues in case they would like to inquire about your employment.
Next Steps -
Ready to approach your employer? Here's a sample employment letter template.
How does CIC verify my work experience? Read along.
Worked for a company that was merged or acquired or shutdown? - Here are some tips.
DISCLAIMER - This post is based completely on my research and experience. If you have a more complex case, please reach out to sn immigration attorney.
All the best and wish you luck with dealing with your employers!
