Date: 20010130
Docket: IMM-5525-99
BETWEEN:
MONICA GIACCA
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
SIMPSON J.
[1] This is an appeal from a decision of a visa officer (the "Officer") dated October 14, 1999, wherein the Officer refused the Applicant's application for an employment authorization on the grounds tht she did not speak, read, or understand the English language at a level sufficient to communicate in an unsupervised setting, as required by s. 20(1.1) of the Immigration Regulations, 1978 (the "Regulations").
Facts
[2] The Applicant, age 44, is a citizen of Spain and Spanish is her first language. She has a brother who lives in Uxbridge, Ontario. He is married, with four children aged 11, 7, 5 and 2. The Applicant arrived in Canada in July 1998 on a visitor's visa and stayed with her brother's family. He subsequently offered her employment as a nanny. Accordingly, on October 14, 1999, the Applicant and her sister-in-law drove from Uxbridge to Buffalo for an interview with the Officer so that she could determine whether the Applicant's English met the requirements for a live-in caregiver.
The Issue
[3] The narrow issue on which this decision will be based concerns the quality of the speakers in the cubicle in which the Applicant was tested. The speakers were important because the Applicant and the Officer were separated by glass and only communicated using microphones and speakers.
Discussion
[4] The Applicant's evidence was that the speakers cut on and off if she and the Officer spoke at the same time, and that she often did not hear the questions the Officer asked. The Applicant's sister-in-law spoke to the Officer in the cubicle after the Applicant's test and experienced similar problems. Finally, the Officer acknowledged that there had been some sporadic technical difficulties with the speakers in that cubicle.
[5] In my view, language testing is always stressful for the person being examined, but it is particularly so when their immigration status and job prospects depend on the test's outcome. Accordingly, I have concluded that the Officer erred when she conducted the Applicant's test when she knew that the speakers in that cubicle were not functioning reliably. In view of this finding, there is no need to deal with the other issues raised by the Applicant.
Conclusion
[6] The application for judicial review will be allowed due to a failure of natural justice, and an order will be made directing that the Applicant's English ability as a live-in caregiver be tested in Buffalo by a different visa officer.
(Sgd.) "Sandra J. Simpson"
Judge
Vancouver, B.C.
January 30, 2001