Can Your Own Company Work Experience Count for Canada Express Entry (CEC)? IRCC Scrutiny Explained
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If you wish to use your work experience gained within Canada for Express Entry, especially for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the key is not whose name the company is registered under, but rather:
Are you truly a formally hired "employee" of the company, or are you essentially working for yourself?
Why Canadian Self-Employment Experience Doesn't Count for CEC
IRCC explicitly states that self-employed work experience gained within Canada generally cannot be counted towards the work experience required for CEC. Even if a company is registered as a Corporation, it does not automatically mean that shareholders or owners qualify as "employees."
How Immigration Officers Assess Genuine Employment: Four Key Factors
Immigration officers may scrutinize the following points to confirm the authenticity of the employment relationship:
1. Is the company genuinely operational?
Does it have clients, contracts, projects, revenue, and ongoing business activities? If the company was recently established and lacks business records, it can easily be questioned as to whether it was set up merely to accumulate immigration work experience.
2. Is there a true employer-employee relationship?
Are there formal employment contracts, regular salaries, pay stubs, bank deposits, T4 slips, and tax records? Is the position genuinely required for the company's operations, rather than being temporarily created for the application?
3. Who manages and supervises your work?
Who determines your salary, working hours, and responsibilities? To whom do you report? If the applicant fully controls the company and there are no other directors or managers, it may be perceived as lacking an independent employment relationship.
4. Is the work content reasonable and verifiable?
Actual duties must align with the declared NOC job description, and the company's size and business operations must reasonably support the position.
The Key to Success: Proving You Are an "Employee"
Therefore, working for your own or a relative's company does not automatically invalidate that experience; however, simply registering a company and paying yourself does not guarantee it will count as EE work experience.
What truly needs to be proven is: You are not "self-employed," but rather an employee in a genuinely operating company, subject to independent management, and performing real, reasonable, and verifiable work.
Proactive Planning to Avoid Immigration Pitfalls
These types of applications usually face stricter scrutiny. It is advisable to plan the company structure, employment relationship, and a complete evidence chain before accumulating work experience, rather than trying to remedy issues after receiving an invitation.
*The above primarily addresses in-Canada work experience and CEC; different EE programs may have varying interpretations for out-of-country work experience and require case-by-case assessment.
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