Digests

Moksud v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration)

IMM-525-00

Rouleau J.

24/1/01

9 pp.

Judicial review of refusal of application for permanent residence--Application listing intended occupation as software engineer--Applicant having Bachelor's degree in commerce, two Master's degrees in business administration--Visa officer finding applicant not having minimum qualifications in NOC under title of software engineer, as one of requirements for this occupation Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, electrical or electronics engineering, engineering physics, computer science, physics, mathematics--Also assessed applicant as new worker, but occupational factor for this occupation currently zero--Awarded applicant zero units of assessment under occupational factor, did not conduct interview--Applicant submitting visa officer should have assessed him according to alternate occupations inherent to work experience i.e. computer programmer, computer systems analyst, for which alleging qualifications compatible--Application allowed--Applicant relied on Li v. Canada (Minister of Employment & Immigration) (1990), 9 Imm. L.R. (2d) 263 (F.C.T.D.)--Li standing for proposition visa officer having duty to assess alternate occupations inherent in applicant's work experience when applicant so requesting in application--Li distinguished--Court has long held visa officers having no duty to assess applicant in alternate occupations unless applicant putting them forward--Applicant not requesting assessment under occupations similar to that of software engineer--But visa officer not stopping at assessing applicant under requested occupation--Particular circumstances required visa officer to at least consider similar occupations--Under NOC, software engineers part of broader unit group of computer engineers--According to NOC, "computer engineers work closely with computer programmers, systems analysts, electrical and electronics engineers and other scientists and engineers and mobility is possible between these fields of specialization" --Every occupation description containing "classified elsewhere" section, clarifying boundaries of unit group by identifying other unit groups classified elsewhere--Unit groups cited in "classified elsewhere" section when bear functional similarity to unit group--Computer programmers, computer systems analysts found in "classified elsewhere" section of software engineer section--Considering applicant's level of education, previous work experience, only fair to assess applicant in one of similar occupations, especially where decision reached without hearing applicant during interview--Visa officer's choice of occupation of new worker so unreasonable cannot be validated.