Date: 19981020
Docket: IMM-5152-97
BETWEEN:
HAYAMA JINJI
Applicant
- and -
MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
LUTFY J.:
[1] The applicant challenges by way of judicial review the decision of the visa officer to refuse his application for permanent residence as an independent immigrant with the intended occupation of Executive Secretary (clerical) (CCDO 4111-111).
[2] The parties have agreed that this application for judicial review be determined on the basis of the record and without an oral hearing.
[3] The visa officer"s letter of decision describes, in unusual detail, his view that the applicant had not performed a substantive number of the duties of Executive Secretary or Secretary:
| During the interview you attended in this office on 22 October 1997, you stated that you had no formal secretarial training except for a 7-8 months long course at the "Complete Medical Institute" which is now closed. You had no transcript or similar which described the programme but you stated it comprised: word processor training, hospital accounting, filing and some medical instruction on, for example, human anatomy. You stated further that you had no training in such skills as shorthand or audio typing. |
| You stated that you were employed at Showa Corporation in Japan from July 1991 until May 1995. You further stated that the Showa Corp. office in Okinawa was a sales office for the parent company on the Japanese main islands which manufactured insulation material for the construction industry. You stated that the office in which you worked had 4 employees. You gave as your duties: arranging your boss" schedule, filing, some bookkeeping which involved paying the office bills, and checking the invoices of incoming shipments of insulation material which were to be warehoused in a facility next door to the office. When I asked you to provide a sample of your ability to write in English by describing your work experience at Showa, you listed the same duties. Your other employment experience in Japan was working for your father"s furniture company; however, as written support from your father or a representative of his company is self-serving and, therefore, lacking in credibility, I have not taken it into account for the purposes of this assessment. |
| Also during the course of the interview, I asked you to use my personal computer to type an excerpt from the Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations (CCDO). The purpose was not to test for speed or accuracy else but merely to assess how at ease you were in the use of a keyboard. I allowed you a brief period to play around with the keyboard before asking you to type the job description of an Executive Secretary. You completed a little over 4 lines of type in about 7 minutes. You did not appear to be at all comfortable at the keyboard and your typing technique suggested to me that you have never received any training in the use of a typewriter or computer/word processor or had significant experience using either machine. |
While your job at the Showa Corp. does not appear to be clerical in nature, you have not demonstrated that you have performed, either qualitatively or quantatively, a substantive number of the duties of a secretary/executive secretary. In addition, you have not demonstrated that you possess the sort of typing skills that are central to the duties of someone in a secretarial occupation. While you appear to have experience in one or more of the clerical occupations listed above, you obtain insufficient units of assessment to qualify for immigration to Canada in any of these occupations when assessed either under the NOC or the CCDO.
1. The applicant submits that the visa officer used his own criteria, and not those of the Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations, in noting the absence of "... the sort of typing skills that are central to the duties of someone in a secretarial occupation". The affidavit of the visa officer clearly refutes, if there could be any doubt on the issue, the applicant"s argument:
| The CCDO states that an Executive Secretary (CCDO 4111-111) performs secretarial and administrative duties for an office executive and performs duties similar to those of a Secretary (CCDO 4111-110), utilizing secretarial experience and knowledge. The CCDO states that a Secretary: "... Takes dictation in shorthand or on stenotype machine, and transcribes on typewriter from notes or voice recordings. Composes and types correspondence ...". I asked the Applicant whether he knew shorthand. He stated that he did not and, indeed, he appeared to be unfamiliar with the term. The Applicant also confirmed that he had never been trained to do nor had he done any audio typing (e.g. dictation). |
2. For the reasons set out in the respondent"s memorandum of law, I do not accept any of the applicant"s other written representations.
3. This application for judicial review is devoid of any merit and will be dismissed.
Judge
Ottawa, Ontario
October 20, 19984.