the CanadaVisa Team - 05 December, 2011
As of December 5th, new candidates to the Quebec Skilled Worker program who want to receive points for language for French and/or English, will have to submit test results along with their application.
For French, only the following tests are valid:
For English, only the following test is valid:
Only in the case of French can a spouse be awarded points, and in this case he/she must also take a French test from the establishments mentioned above, and submit results along with the principal applicant's results.
This change is not retroactive, so applications received at Quebec Immigration visa offices before December 5th (or postmarked before December 5th) do not need to submit language test scores.
However, the Quebec Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities suggests that all candidates whose applications were received before December 5th also submit test scores to confirm their language skills in French and English; this can help the candidate and accelerate the processing of their application.
Those whose applications were in the mail on December 5th will be invited to submit language test results in the coming months.
These changes are universal, applying to all applicants, no matter whether they come from a French or English speaking country or not.
The government states that its aim is to standardize testing to make it more fair for all applicants - whereas previously tests were not required and it was left up to individual visa officers to evaluate each candidate at an interview.
The Quebec Skilled Worker program works on a points system, allocated according to training, age, language proficiency, work experience, family characteristics, and other criteria.
Canadavisa.com will continue to keep you up to date on changes to the Quebec Immigration program, and Cohen Immigration Law clients will similarly be personally notified of any changes that affect them on this matter, and advised accordingly.
