Federal employment is easy to underwrite — until the appointment type isn't permanent
Ottawa's large federal workforce gives lenders exactly what they like: stable, documentable, verifiable income. For an indeterminate (permanent) public servant, a letter of employment, recent pay stubs and the last two notices of assessment usually settle the income question outright. The Ottawa-specific complications sit at the edges of that, and they are common enough to be worth naming. A term appointment with a fixed end date is not automatically a problem, but lenders differ on whether they treat it as continuing income or as contract income requiring a two-year history — and that difference can decide the file. Acting pay and temporary assignment allowances are generally excluded from qualifying income unless there is a documented history of them, because they are by definition temporary. Casual and student-bridging appointments are treated more conservatively still. And overtime, shift premiums and performance pay are usually averaged over two years rather than annualised from a recent run. None of this makes an Ottawa file hard; it makes the letter of employment the single most important document in the package, and it makes wording matter. We tell you what the letter needs to say before you request it, which is considerably easier than explaining afterwards why the one you were given creates a question.