How to Count Your Work Hours for Express Entry

IRCC does not count years on a calendar. It counts hours. One year of full-time work is 1,560 hours, which comes from 30 hours a week over 12 months. Everything else about work experience in Express Entry is built on that number.

So a person who worked 40 hours a week for 12 months has one year, not one and a third. And a person who worked 15 hours a week for 24 months also has one year. The total is what counts.

Full time at one job. 30 hours a week for 12 months. This is the simple case.

Part time at one or more jobs. 15 hours a week for 24 months gets you there. You can hold as many part-time jobs as you need to reach the total.

Full time across more than one job at once. If two jobs add up to 30 hours a week, 12 months of that is one year. The hours are pooled.

The one rule people miss: IRCC does not count any hours above 30 in a week. Two jobs adding up to 50 hours a week still count as 30. Overtime does not speed anything up.

The work has to be paid. You must have earned wages or commission. Volunteer work and unpaid internships are out, no matter how skilled the work was.

For the Canadian Experience Class, work you did while you were a full-time student does not count, even a paid co-op term. Self-employment does not count either. For the Federal Skilled Trades Program, student work is also out.

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is the exception. Work you did while studying can count there, as long as it was paid, continuous and meets the other rules. For the selection factor points, IRCC also counts work you did while self-employed.

Canadian Experience Class: one year, or 1,560 hours, of skilled work in Canada in the three years before you apply. It can be spread across more than one job and more than one NOC, full time or part time.

Federal Skilled Worker Program: one continuous year in one occupation, in Canada or abroad, within the last ten years. Continuous means no gap. The occupation you count is your primary occupation, and it does not have to be your most recent job.

Federal Skilled Trades Program: two years, or 3,120 hours, in one skilled trade within the last five years, in a place where you were qualified to practise that trade.

Your word is not enough. IRCC lists proof of work experience, such as a reference or experience letter from each employer, among the documents an Express Entry application needs. The letter is what the officer reads, so it has to show the same things the rule is about: your dates, your hours per week and what you actually did.

If a letter says nothing about hours, the officer cannot confirm 1,560. If it lists duties that do not match the NOC you chose, the experience may not count as skilled. Sort the letters out before you build a profile, not after an invitation arrives with a 60-day clock on it.

We add up the hours job by job, check which program's window each job falls into, and read the reference letters against the NOC before you claim anything in a profile. A claim that cannot be proven is worse than a claim never made.