10.12. Experience
Pursuant to R80, officers will assess and award up to 21 units of assessment for paid work
experience, as follows:
Number of
years
Less than 1 At least 1 At least 2 At least 3 4 or more
Points 0 15 17 19 21
To be eligible for points, the applicant’s work experience must:
have occurred during the 10 years immediately preceding the date of application submission;
be in occupations listed in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) under Skill Type 0
or Skill Level A and B;
not be in an occupation that has been designated by the Minister as a restricted occupation.
At the time of printing, there were no occupations designated as restricted. However, for the
most up-to-date listing, officers should refer to the Department’s Web site at
ww.cic.gc.ca/skilled.
A) One-year continuous full-time experience: this means one year in one skilled occupation to
demonstrate an ability to establish oneself economically;
or
(B) The equivalent in continuous part-time employment in one or more occupations
In (B), this continuous part-time employment could be made up of two part-time jobs held
simultaneously or of one part-time job held over the equivalent of one year of full-time
employment.
Once the qualifying year has been established, further experience in one or more occupations
can be calculated by adding up the number of months spent in full-time and/or part-time work in
one or more of the NOC categories.
Officers must:
take into account both paid full-time work and paid part-time work (equalizing part-time work
to full-time years) (R80(1));
consider only those occupations which the applicant has specified and for which the applicant
has provided the four-digit NOC code on their application form (R80(6));
Note: While the Regulations clearly place responsibility on applicants to undertake research of the NOC
and provide the NOC coding for the occupations in which they claim qualifying experience, officers
are expected to exercise discretion where applicants may have made minor errors or omissions in
correlating work experience and NOC coding.
not take into account whether the applicant meets the “Employment requirements”
description set forth in the NOC for the occupation(s) listed;
award points only if the applicant has performed the actions described in the lead statement
of the particular NOC description and has performed at least a substantial number of the
duties described in the “Main Duties” summary including all the essential duties (R80(3));
Note: Neither the NOC nor the Regulations distinguish between “essential” and “non-essential” duties or
provide guidance as to what constitutes a “substantial number”. This is left as a matter for
assessment on a case-by-case basis. If officers have concerns about whether or not the applicant has
carried out “a substantial number of the main duties…including all of the essential duties,” they should
give the applicant an opportunity to respond to these concerns.
take into account any years of experience that occur between application and assessment,
and for which the applicant has submitted the necessary documentation (R77).