Declaring Jobs in Your Personal History vs. Claiming Points for Experience in Canada PR
This is a clarification about declaring jobs in your personal history while submitting your Canada PR application versus claiming points for a particular experience.
The important distinction is between hiding an experience, declaring an experience in your personal history, and claiming points for that experience. These are different things.
1. Job Proofs and the Question About Cash Salary
In the previous discussion about job proofs for a Canada PR application, the documents discussed included a job reference letter, salary account statement, salary slips, job offer letter, job eligibility proofs and tax returns.
The main question that came after that discussion was whether experience should be attached and points should be claimed when the salary was not received in a bank account.
The clarification is that experience taken in cash should not be used for claiming points because it is highly risky. Visa officers are really tough on these types of experiences, and you can get a refusal if you are claiming experience for which you received the salary in cash.
2. Not Claiming Points Does Not Mean Hiding the Experience
Not claiming points for an experience does not mean that you should hide the experience.
You have to declare all of your experiences. You cannot hide anything.
The point is simply that you should not claim points for an experience where you do not have the proper documents.
Hiding is different. Personal history is different. Claiming points is different. These are different things.
3. What You Need to Declare in Your Personal History
In your Canada PR application, you are required to submit your personal history.
In the personal history, you can declare everything, whatever experience is there, whether it is business experience, job experience or whatever activities you have done.
Everything is declared in the personal history.
If you have worked somewhere, served somewhere or carried out another activity, you can mention it in your personal history even if you are not claiming points for that experience.
4. You Cannot Hide Experience Shown in Earlier Applications
If you have displayed any experience in your study visa application, spouse visa application or any other application, you cannot hide it in your future applications.
For example, if you showed yourself as a businessman working from January 2011 to January 2022 and you later applied for a spouse visa application, that experience has already been shown.
After reaching Canada, if you got another experience and are now submitting your Canada PR application, you are required to submit your personal history and declare everything.
5. Business Experience, Job Experience and Other Activities
Personal history is where you can mention everything that you have done.
It can include business experience, job experience or whatever other activities you have undertaken.
The fact that you are mentioning an experience in your personal history does not mean that you are claiming points for it.
You can declare that you worked somewhere or served somewhere without claiming points for that experience.
6. Why Cash Experience Can Become Risky
there are no significant proofs available with you, especially when the salary was not received in your account, you should not claim that experience for the PR application.
Whenever a visa officer asks for those proofs, you may not have the documents required to support the experience.
If the bank account statement is not available and the visa officer is highly skeptical about the existence of the company and your actual job, you can receive a PFL and you can get a ban as well.
7. The Risk of Refusal and Losing Time
If you claim cash experience without having the proper documents, the application can become a problem.
In the worst-case scenario, if you get a ban, everything is gone.
In a slightly better scenario, if you get a refusal, your application may have already been in processing for six to eight months.
You have therefore lost six to eight months of time during the processing of your application.
Even if you only receive a refusal for claiming cash experience, that is also a loss of approximately one year of time for you.
8. When Cash Experience Should Be Avoided
The recommendation is to try to avoid cash experience unless you do not have any other option left to get your PR.
If there is a possibility to get your PR without claiming cash experience, you should go with that option.
That is going to be better for you.
If it is a dead end and without claiming that experience you cannot apply for PR, then you can proceed because you have no other option.
9. Choosing Another Available Experience
Suppose you have three jobs and you can claim points for all three jobs.
One experience is in company ABC, the second is in company XYZ and the third is in another company.
You may have an issue with one of these experiences.
For example, there may be a gap of two months in the experience, and you may need to provide justification for that gap.
The company may be stating something else, while something different was stated in the previous application.
In that situation, you may need to provide a lot of justification or manipulate something.
10. Claiming Points From the Best Available Experience
If you have another option, you can claim experience from ABC company instead.
You can also claim experience from the third company.
You therefore have three options.
If one option has a problem and another option is smooth and straightforward, you can choose the best option available to you.
In the example discussed, the best option was selected because everything was smooth and straightforward.
11. One Experience in Work History and Others in Personal History
In the example, one year of foreign experience points are being claimed from the company where all the documents are available.
The other two companies are not being used to claim points.
Job reference letters are not being attached for those two companies, and proofs are not being submitted for them.
Instead, both experiences are simply mentioned in the personal history.
Nothing is being hidden.
12. Work History and Personal History Are Different
There are two sections.
One is your work history and the second is your personal history.
The experience for which you are claiming points can be included in your work history along with the required documents.
The other experiences can be mentioned in your personal history.
The experience that is being used for points can therefore appear in the work history as well as being part of the overall history, while the other experiences are declared through personal history.
13. Claim Points Where You Have the Proofs
The main point is to claim points for experiences where you have all the proofs available.
If you have all the required documents for one company and there is a problem with another company, you can use the experience for which everything is available.
You are not hiding the other companies.
You are mentioning all three companies, but you are claiming points for the company where the documents are available and everything is smooth and straightforward.
14. What Happens If You Have No Other Option?
If you have no other option and without claiming the cash experience outside Canada you cannot get PR, then you can proceed with that experience.
If it is a dead end and there is no other way to apply for PR, you have no other option left.
In that situation, you can proceed with the experience, but the documents need to be considered carefully.
15. What If Another PR Option Is Available?
If there is even a slight possibility of another option, you should proceed with that second option rather than claiming an experience for which you do not have the proper documents.
For example, another possibility may be PNP or going back and getting another experience.
If any such possibility is available, that option should be considered rather than claiming the cash experience.
Otherwise, at least your time can be wasted, and in the worst-case scenario, you can get a ban if the visa officer believes that the company does not even exist and that you have claimed fake experience because you do not have any proofs available.
16. Documents for Cash Experience
The previous discussion also covered what kind of documents should be attached if you have to claim that experience.
That list of documents is available in the previous discussion.
Therefore, in the worst-case scenario, if you have to proceed with the experience, you can proceed with the documents required to support it.
But if there is any other option available, always proceed with that other option.
17. The Main Clarification
The main clarification is that you should never hide your experience.
Declare everything in your personal history.
If you have worked somewhere, served somewhere or carried out an activity, mention it.
But do not claim points for an experience where you do not have the right documents to support it.
Claim points for the experiences where you have all the proofs available.
That is the distinction between declaring an experience and claiming points for that experience.
Conclusion
If you want to discuss your case for Canada PR, you can share your queries and discuss your case.
You can share your questions, and clarity can be provided on such topics.
If you want to discuss your case, you can ping on WhatsApp. Your case can be discussed and you can be guided towards PR.
Even if you are at the initial stage of your study or you have just completed your study, you can discuss your case.
