CEC Work Hours Calculator

Express Entry does not count the hours you worked. It counts the hours it is willing to count. The gap between those two numbers is where most Canadian Experience Class applicants get a surprise, and it is almost always a bad one.

The Canadian Experience Class asks for one year of full-time skilled work in Canada, which IRCC puts at 1,560 hours, gained inside the 36 months before your application is received. That requirement sits in IRPR 87.1(2)(a). Full-time means 30 hours a week. Here is the part that catches people: IRCC does not count any hours you work above 30 in a week. Work 45 hours one week and 15 the next and your pay stubs show 60 hours, but only 45 of them count.

Enter your pay periods below. The calculator caps every period at 30 hours for each week inside it, drops anything that falls outside your 36 month window, and tells you how many countable hours you actually hold. Add as many employers as you need, and pick the pay cycle each one used. Nothing is stored until you ask for your report.

This calculator, its wording and its output are the property of SAAB Immigration Services Inc. and may not be copied or republished without written permission. It produces an estimate from the figures you enter. General information, not legal advice, and not an assessment of your application.

How the hours are counted

The rule is applied one week at a time, not one year at a time. That is why the pay cycle matters:

• Weekly pay. Each period can contribute at most 30 hours.
• Every two weeks. Each period can contribute at most 60 hours.
• Twice a month. A period of roughly 15 days can contribute about 65 hours.
• Monthly. A calendar month can contribute about 130 hours.

Anything under the cap counts in full. Work 22 hours in a week and 22 hours count, not 30. Part-time work is not wasted either. IRCC accepts the equivalent in part-time hours and gives 15 hours a week for 24 months as a worked example that reaches the same 1,560, and you can combine more than one part-time job. What you cannot do is bank overtime.

Two jobs at once do not double up. If you worked 30 hours a week for one employer and 30 for another in the same week, 30 count, not 60. The calculator lays every employer’s weeks over each other and caps the combined week at 30, so adding a second job never inflates the total.

The 36 month window moves. It runs backwards from the date your application is received, so a job that counted last year can fall out of range this year. That is why the calculator asks when you expect to submit, rather than assuming today.

If you have more than a year

The Canadian Experience Class stops at one year. It asks for 1,560 hours, which is twelve months of full-time work at 30 hours a week, and it only looks at the 36 months before your application is received. Clearing that bar makes you eligible. It does not make you competitive.

Your CRS score is where the extra years show up. Express Entry awards points for up to five years of skilled Canadian work experience, and for that it looks back ten years, not three. A job that is now too old to count toward CEC eligibility can still be carrying points for you.

So the calculator reports both. The headline figure is your CEC number against 1,560 hours, given in hours and in months of full-time work. Underneath it sits your CRS total: countable hours inside the last ten years, the same figure in months, and how many full years that comes to. If you are short of the next band it tells you how many hours away that is. Both figures come off the same pay periods and the same rules, so nothing is counted twice.

If you left Canada while you were working

This is the one that quietly costs people months. The Canadian Experience Class counts Canadian experience, which means the days you were physically in Canada. Time spent outside the country does not count, and it does not matter that you kept working remotely, kept your title, or kept getting paid on the same schedule.

So break the job up. End the first entry on the day you left Canada, then add the same job again as the next employer starting on the day you came back. Use the same employer name both times. It is one job on your resume, but only the Canadian stretches of it count here.

If you travelled several times, add an entry for each stretch you were in the country. The calculator has no limit on how many you add.

What does not count at all

IRPR 87.1(3) removes four things from the calculation, no matter how many hours are on the pay stubs:

• Any period of full-time study. This is the one that quietly erases co-op terms and work done while enrolled in a full-time program, even a short certificate. Part-time study does not trigger it. It applies even if you were on a post-graduation work permit at the time: a six month diploma taken alongside the job still takes that whole stretch out of your CEC hours.
• Self-employment. Contract work through your own corporation is the usual trap here.
• Unauthorized work. Work done outside what your permit allowed.
• Any period without temporary resident status. You must have held status throughout the experience you are counting.

The work also has to be skilled. Only occupations in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 count toward the Canadian Experience Class.

Two worked examples

The first applicant worked far harder and arrived at exactly the same place. That is not unfair, it is just how the rule is written, and it is worth knowing before you count on overtime to get you there.

Frequently asked questions

Have this checked before you file

If the number came out close, or if any part of it sits on a co-op term, a period of study, contract work, time spent outside Canada, or a gap in status, that is worth half an hour with a licensed consultant rather than a guess. Bring the PDF the calculator emails you and we will work through it with you.