What should be included in an employment reference letter for immigration to Canada?

Many Canadian Immigration applications request employment reference letters as part of their document checklist to prove your work experience. It might be an Express Entry application, family sponsorship, a work permit or other application.

In this article, we are dealing only with the employment reference letters used to prove past employment, and not the job offer letters used to support future employment that are needed in some categories of Express Entry or work permits - the job offer letter has different criteria.

What is required in the employment reference letter for Permanent Residence?

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has standard requirements when it comes to reference letters for Canada PR. They are not looking for a good conduct reference letter as some people assume. Rather, IRCC is looking for the employer to confirm various specific details of the past work to allow an officer to assess the work experience under relevant immigration policies such as the CRS points under Express Entry. 

Usually a separate letter is required from each employer. Multiple positions with the same employer can be covered in the same letter.

The employment reference letter is one of the essential supporting documents for any PR application based on work history, such as under the Express Entry programs. It is an official document printed on company letterhead and signed by a company official. It does not need to be signed by your direct manager, but anyone with the necessary authority to sign such letters, such as HR personnel at the company is acceptable.

The letter must include:

• Your full name
• Company contact information (address, telephone number, email address)
• Name, title and signature of immediate supervisor
• All positions held while employed at the company
• Job title(s)
• Main duties/responsibilities (for each position held)
• Dates worked for the company in each position
• # of hours per week
• Annual salary plus benefits

Problems getting an Employment Reference Letter for Canada PR

We see many people struggle to get a letter from past employers that will meet the Canadian immigration specifications above. Many countries do not issue letters of employment that include all the above details. Sometimes you may have left your previous employment on bad terms and cannot expect your past employer to provide you with a proper letter. Or, you are still working in your job, and do not want to signal your future plans to your current employer. Sometimes the company that you worked for has closed and there is no employer left to issue the employment verification letter. 

These barriers can cause problems with proving your employment history for a Canadian immigration application. The employment reference letter is the normal way to prove employment history, but where you simply cannot get it, it is still up to you, the applicant, to prove your past work experience by other means. You can provide alternate evidence to confirm your past employment to allow IRCC to verify that it meets the standards necessary to approve your application. 

If you cannot obtain an employment reference letter

If for any reason you cannot obtain an employment letter that meets all of the above criteria, there are other options to provide alternate documentation to prove your employment history. It is possible to collect other relevant documents such as salary information, pay stubs, company details, contracts, etc. as alternative documentation to confirm your job status with a past employer. Exactly what to produce - the combination of documents and information to establish the details - will be different for each individual situation. 

If you find yourself unable to obtain a proper letter of employment for your Canadian Immigration application, contact our office for assistance. If you were an employee who did indeed work in the role, we can usually brainstorm together to create a custom evidence package that will satisfy the officer reviewing the file that your past work experience qualifies. 

I have the letter but it's missing some information!

One common mistake that we see in our office is a letter of employment that is deficient in some way. The reference letter may not list the main duties of the position, or include job duties sufficient to satisfy an officer that the applicant meets the requirements of the NOC code or TEER category which is the basis of their application. Or the letter of employment may not confirm the exact date of employment for each position, the hours the employee worked (full time or part time), exact salary, or other details. 

A template or sample employment reference letter from someone else is not likely to be enough. Each employment experience, and thus every letter of employment, will be different.

If you have a cooperative employer, you might provide a link or printout of what the letter needs to contain when you make the request. Or, you can retain an immigration professional to assist you to draft the letter that contains all the necessary information to make it as easy as possible for the employer. You can explain to the employer that this is a very different type of letter than HR normally provides given the extra details needed, so you haven take the liberty of preparing it. Ask the employer to review it and, assuming they concur it is accurate, put it on letterhead and sign it. For an employer willing to assist you, this saves them time and work and you can have confidence the letter will meet IRCC program requirements.

Employment verification letter when you were self-employed….

It is important to note that a reference letter on its own will not be sufficient to prove any self-employment that you are claiming as relevant to your Canadian immigration application. If you were your own boss, IRCC is not going to accept a letter of employment that you have written for yourself as the only evidence of what took place during that period of time. You will need additional supporting documentation in order to meet IRCC's guidelines.

The evidence an officer will expect to see as sufficient proof of self-employment will be different for every situation. We advise you to get professional help whenever self-employment is a material factor in a Canadian immigration application. You will need professional assistance in order to gather sufficient evidence of your self employment, and to ensure that the documents you provide demonstrate the material factors the officer will need in order to approve your application. 

At The Way Immigration, we work regularly with employment reference letters, plus preparing and reviewing other evidence to prove past employment for Canadian immigration applications. Providing sufficient evidence of past employment is critical to the success of your permanent residence application. Contact Calgary's Best Immigration Consultants to arrange a consultation today, so that you can be assured of success with your immigration application.