Canadian Experience Class

Overview

Canadian Experience Class

The Canadian Experience Class is for people with at least one year of eligible skilled Canadian work experience gained during the three years before applying. The work must have been authorized, paid and performed while physically in Canada.

Which Canadian work experience counts

The work must fall within NOC TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3. You may combine eligible work in more than one NOC, but the records must show that you performed the lead statement and most main duties for each occupation claimed.

IRCC counts up to 30 hours per week toward the minimum. One year can be 1,560 hours over at least 12 months, or an equivalent amount of part-time work. Hours worked above 30 in one week do not shorten the required period.

• Paid employment or commission income
• Authorized work under temporary resident status
• Work performed while physically in Canada for a Canadian employer
• At least 1,560 eligible hours acquired within three years

Student work and self-employment usually do not qualify

Self-employment and work gained while you were a full-time student do not ordinarily satisfy the Canadian Experience Class minimum. A co-op term is student work for this purpose. IRCC has a temporary policy for certain physicians providing publicly funded medical services, so physicians should check the current instructions rather than assume their billing arrangement is excluded.

Remote work can qualify only when you were physically in Canada and working for a Canadian employer. Work performed from another country is not Canadian experience simply because the employer is Canadian.

Language depends on the TEER category

For work in TEER 0 or 1, the minimum is CLB or NCLC 7 in speaking, listening, reading and writing. For TEER 2 or 3, the minimum is CLB or NCLC 5 in all four abilities. An approved test must be valid when the permanent residence application is submitted.

There is no education requirement. Canadian education and assessed foreign education may nevertheless increase a CRS score.

The date window keeps moving

The qualifying work must remain within the three years before the application. A profile can become ineligible while sitting in the pool if older experience falls outside that window. Update the profile when employment, marital status or language results change.

CEC applicants must intend to live outside Quebec. Work acquired in Quebec can count if the applicant can establish a genuine plan to settle elsewhere in Canada.