Misrepresentation

Student Lounge International Students
1

I really dont know how should I proceed on this one. I was accepted at a canadian university for a masters degree, but I’m worried that I could be found liable of misrepresentation/false information on my application. I put on my CV 4 months of experience that I worked with my family company, but I really have no way to prove that experience. It’s common in my country to bypass the formal procedures of hiring (specially in family companies) due to the legal implications involved, so I have no formal job contract, pay-slips (paid in cash), tax returns, etc. I am worried about two outcomes:

  1. If I remove that experience from my CV or decide to not count it anymore, the school could think I just made it up to get an offer of admission, and I could be revoked of it.
  2. I plan to apply for a work visa in the future, and I need to declare every piece of work experience in the last 10 years. If I decide to count that experience, I'm pretty sure that it could be found as misrepresentation, as I would not be able to submit additional proof of employment if requested.

I’m thinking of not counting it as experience in visa applications, because even if it’s a common practice here, it doesn’t make it a valid experience in Canada or other countries. But I’m worried that I could generate discrepancies in other aspects, and I want to be sure that I wont have problems in the future, or in the worst case, have my degree revoked or stuff like that.

2

“I worked with my family company”

I think that it is common everywhere for kids to help out with family businesses. I would be surprised if anyone were to ask you to prove that your worked at a family business.

University admissions staff are not interested in looking for income tax violations in foreign countries. They want to find students who are going to do well academically at their university.