Section 102.3 — Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations: Official languages

A foreign national must specify in their application for a permanent resident visa which language — English or French —

is to be considered their first official language in Canada.They must have their proficiency in that language evaluated by an organization or institution designated under subsection ( 4 ). If the foreign national wishes to claim points for proficiency in their second official language they must, with the application for a permanent resident visa, submit the results of an evaluation — which must be less than two years old on the date on which their application is made —

of their proficiency by an organization or institution designated under subsection (4). Points for proficiency in the official languages of Canada shall be awarded up to a maximum of 24 points based on the benchmarks referred to in the Canadian Language Benchmarks and the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens , as follows: for high proficiency in the first official language, 4 points for each language skill area if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 8 or higher, and in the second official language, 2 points for each language skill area if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 8 or higher; for moderate proficiency in the first official language, 2 points for each language skill area if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 6 or 7, and in the second official language, 2 points for each language skill area if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 6 or 7; for basic proficiency in either official language, 1 point for each language skill area, up to a maximum of 2 points, if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 4 or 5; and for no proficiency in either official language, 0 points if the foreign national’s proficiency corresponds to a benchmark of 3 or lower. The Minister may designate, for any period he or she specifies, any organization or institution to be responsible for evaluating language proficiency and approve the language test to be used to evaluate that proficiency if the organization or institution has expertise in evaluating language proficiency; and has provided the Minister with an equivalency between its language test results and the benchmarks set out in the Canadian Language Benchmarks or the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens , as the case may be. The Minister must make available to the public the names of the designated organizations or institutions and the approved language tests. For the purposes of subsection ( 7 ), service agreement means an agreement concluded between the Government of Canada and an organization or institution for the purpose of having the organization or institution supply the service of evaluating the language proficiency of foreign nationals. The Minister may revoke a designation of an organization or institution or the approval of a language test if the organization or institution no longer meets the criteria set out in subsection (4); the organization or institution submitted false, misleading or inaccurate information or has contravened any provision of a federal or provincial law or regulation that is relevant to the service provided by the organization or institution; or either the Government of Canada or the organization or institution has terminated the service agreement. The results of an evaluation of language proficiency by a designated organization or institution using an approved language test are conclusive evidence of an applicant’s language proficiency for the purposes of subsection (1) and of paragraph 98.01 (2)(b).