Prior to June 2002, a Canadian immigration applicant’s language ability was assessed at an interview with a visa officer. Now under the current Regulations, an applicant for immigration to Canada can submit evidence of English language ability with results from the IELTS examination; and evidence of French language ability with results from the TEF examination. Often, clients choose to submit alternate evidence of their language ability, which our firm strongly discourages. If a visa officer at the Canadian Consulate cannot assign full marks for English or French based on the alternate evidence submitted, a request for IELTS or TEF will be made to give the Canadian immigration applicant the opportunity to submit the test results. However, other visa offices may render a decision based on the alternate evidence provided, without giving the opportunity to provide IELTS or TEF results, which could result in the refusal of the application. For this reason, Abrams & Krochak strongly advises its Canada immigration clients to submit IELTS or TEF results when required to do so and not to submit alternate evidence of language proficiency.
Immigrating to Canada? Visit www.akcanada.com for more information or a free assessment.