A spouse on a SOWP (husband on a study permit) believed that being a "dependent" permit-holder meant she could never be the principal applicant for CEC, even with a year of Canadian work experience. The thread pushed back:
- SOWP experience counts toward CEC. The clearest answer: work experience gained on a valid work permit counts toward CEC requirements. The permit being dependent on a spouse's status doesn't taint the experience.
- You can be the principal applicant. The same member stated it directly: even with a temporary permit tied to your spouse, you can be the primary applicant in a PR application. A second member confirmed the common understanding — partners routinely plan for the SOWP-holder to lead an EE-CEC application after gaining Canadian experience.
- Couples have "reversed" the applicant before. A member recalled friends switching which spouse led the application to get PR faster (in 2019), and had heard of no rule change since — choosing the strongest profile as principal is a legitimate strategy.
- Source of confusion: the poster had read something into work-permit category codes (C41/C42) about dependency; the thread treated this as a misreading — those codes describe why the permit was issued, not who may apply for PR.
No member cited an official source in the thread, so verify the CEC eligibility page before filing — but the collective experience was unanimous that the SOWP route to CEC principal applicant works.