If you are applying for Canadian permanent residence through the Express Entry immigration system (FSW, CEC, or FST programs), the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program, or one of the Provincial Nominee Programs, you will most probably need to provide proof of your previous and/or current work experience.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) requires that candidates provide a letter from their company, with specific information. This what is called an Employment Reference Letter, and you will find in this article what information IRCC is looking for, what to do in case your company does not want to provide you with this letter, and finally a sample letter for your own use.
IRCC requires that the Employment Reference Letter has:
There is no need, according to IRCC’s guidelines, to have the company stamp on the letter.
The most important part to keep in mind is to have the duties and responsibilities list included in the Reference Letter.
The are multiple scenarios possible. You have to know that IRCC is open-minded and that failure to provide the letter in the exact required format does not mean your application will be rejected. As long as you provide other supporting documents, and a Letter of Explanation (LoE) detailing why you could not provide the document per IRCC requirements, your application could be accepted.
You first need to establish confidence with your manager, and not come out of the blue asking for this detailed letter. You could begin talking with your manager about his thoughts on moving abroad, what they think about it, if they have experience and/or advise on the matter.
You could, a few weeks or months after this, tell them that you are considering it more seriously and that you might need their recommendation, and see if this is something they are open to.
You can then go to your HR department and see if they are willing to provide you with the letter with the required information. If they refuse, you can ask your manager to talk with HR about the situation, and reassure them that the process will take at least a year. You should contact them by e-mail and request a response, so that you can add the e-mail in your supporting documents as proof your company refused to provide you with the required letter.
If all of this does not work, which can happen, your last option is to ask your manager to sign a letter on his behalf, even without the company letter, that will include most if not all of the information required. You will have to also add a copy of their business and/or company card, and have their signature notarized.
In addition to the Employment Letter signed by the manager, you should add copies of any document you have that relates to your employment: contract, pay stubs, certificate of employment and/or salary, promotion letters, etc.
You need to first find your NOC (National Occupational Classification) code. Indeed, each NOC code has a list of duties and responsibilities and you must find the one NOC code that corresponds the most to your job. You must perform approximately 80% of the duties set out in the NOC code page.
It is very important that you do not copy the duties in the NOC code page and put them in the Reference Letter. Indeed, IRCC will know that and will doubt that the letter is genuine, which will most probably result in further investigations that might extend processing times and/or end in a refusal.
We strongly advise you to write your own duties (if you do not have an official company job description), and take inspiration from those on the NOC code page. Do not use the same order as the one on the NOC code page, and do not use the same number of duties. And finally, add two or three duties (or more) that are not on the NOC code page.